With the releases going forward into next year, X1 needed to be hitting it's stride now. Second tier launches, some big third party releases, and some good exclusives. It will improve over the next few months of course, but the fact that the console is already under 100k again is not a positive sign.

The first half of next year is very one sided right now. Bloodborne looks great and will sell some systems, the fans of the Souls series are are very much 'hardcore' gamers. The Order has received some negative previews, and may turn out to be completely average. But, it is a very easy game to market, a shooter with werewolves and a cool steampunk London. There are a few smaller Sony exclusives like Tearaway Unfolded and Ratchet and Clank, but those will not move systems. Japan should also start to look a bit healthier next year, with Persona 5, DQ Heroes and MGSV pushing systems (the latter is essentially an exclusive there). Sony have third party marketing deals with Battlefield and Batman in the first half of next year as well which are comfortably bigger franchises than Evolve and The Witcher.

MS on the other hand have Screamride, Fable Legends, State of Decay 2 (?) and the two marketing deals for the first half of next year. Personally, I can't see the two exclusives moving consoles at all. I think the holiday line up for X1 will be great next year, with Quantum Break, Halo 5, Rise of the Tomb Raider and almost certainly Forza 6. But until September, I don't think X1 is looking strong on the exclusives front. Sales will still be up of course, they always are in a console's second year, but if anything I think the gap will be wider.

MS needed to start making ground some point this year if they were ever going to. MS have started the race while Sony are still on their warm up lap, but Playstation is winning by some distance in sales. MS can still make the X1 a successful console commercially, and I think they will, but it is pointless to specualte about how it could ever catch PS4, because it won't.

Why couldn't Microsoft -- a company flush with money -- increase the rate of Xbox One's success

i fucking hate this illogical argument. if microsoft wanted to spend its billions to win the console war they would have released the XB1 for 99$. ultimatily they have the XB1 to make money, not to spend billions on it to outsell the PS4 or come close to PS4 sales. 

The conundrum of the PS4. It outsells everything despite having no freakin' games like the predecessor before it.

That's how unappealing and bad the competition is.

This if MS wanted to win the so called, "console war" it would already be over. They dont because they reap the rewards from XBOX LIVE GOLD which generates alot of revenue for MS. As long as x1 sells a decent amount, enough to stay relevant (which is probably at least above the original xbox) they will stay in the console industry

Again. The one of the key factors in the PS3 comeback was the fact it was the most powerfull console. Late gen games like the last of us were incredible and just not possible on the 360. The XB1 is weaker than the PS4 so that type of thing wont happen.

Only way XB1 starts outselling PS4 is MS buys right to some pretty major 3rd party games. I am talking like MS pays off take 2 for GTA 6 to be XB1 exclusive type stuff.

Very true. I noticed another article where they finished with something along the lines of, "an analyst predicts that the Xbox One may overtake Sony's PS4 in 2015."

The level of bullshit is expontentially increasing by the day, I swear. 

I think you missed Uncharted 4 in your post :P

Hit the nail on the head. I sort of disagree with games like Tearaway and R&C not moving systems. I think with good advertising and appealing to the non-shooter audience, Sony can move PS4s to fans of other genres. And after seeing gameplay footage of The Tomorrow Children last night, I was really impressed with the countless amount of things you can do in that game and the game just screams "different". These games help differentiate the PS4 from its competition while also appealing to the mainstream audience. This is a problem X1 has on top of having its biggest exclusives consolidated to Holidays 2015. You need to have a consistent flow of unique exclusives and that's what the PS4 is doing.

I reckon they could be right. It's certainly got the games to do it. This whole 1080p vs 900p crap is ridiculous anyway. The PS3 caught up despite being sub HD in some multiplats with noticeably worse framerates.

Sure, Xbox One could hit its stride in 2015, because that's its last chance in the foreseeable future.

Simply put: If Halo can't get the Xbox One back on top, nothing will, and his gen will be all Sony's. Unless of course, some catastrophe befalls Sony and/or the PlayStation brand.

If Xbox One does catch up to PS4, it's not happening anytime soon.