Not to mention the countless deals MS made prior to holiday season: offering Titanfall for free, offering $75 of game credit to 360 users, offering Madden 15 for free, and advertising the X1 extensively as the "official console of the NFL". It took several tries for MS to finally find the golden deal.

Bundling a PS4 with every X1?

If ACU bundle stays at $329 I don't see how it is possible for PS4 to take December NPD. Even at $350 it would be hard for PS4 to compete, unless they had good supply of the GTA/TLOUR bundle for the whole month AND Destiny white bundle was officially cut at least for December to $399. These 2 things would make December competetive.

But with MS willing to take a substantial loss with the ACU bundle at $329 there is really nothing Sony can do to counter that sort of aggressive pricing. And maybe it shouldn't. MS keeps saying this is a marathon not a sprint. But what MS has done here is exactly the opposite of their PR, they've put on a huge burst of speed which has guaranteed a short term result, but what it appears to be showing is that Sony can still get strong sales even with a large price disadvantage, which means at price parity PS4 is likely to be the lead console. If Sony has a pricing plan which puts it on par with Xb one rational pricing next holidays we're likely to see PS4 winning the holidays next year. Of course if MS gets irrational and cuts the price significantly below $300 next holidays PS4 will be in a similar position to now. All will be revealed in January when we will know whether MS returns the xb one price to $399, which I think they won't, especially if ACU bundle stays at $329 for the month.

It will be close, and it depends from Sony: if they offer even more attractive Bundle and a bit cheaper price, they can win. But I got the impression that Sony do not want to win at any cost any NPD: it's MS in the position to play all their cards and make very aggressive deals to compete in their own territory; Sony is not in that critical situation: they are dominating in Europe, in the Global, and still ahead in NA in the user base. More important for Sony is profit this generation ;)

That would be a killer move. Fill your pockets with money during the year and play on the confortable lead. The a big price cut and final blow to end the game.

At this point Sony has been making non-stop home-runs.  At this point I am done underestimating them for the time being (Quite the opposite of last gen lol) 

Exactly. Keeping the price at $399 during the year will still allow PS4 to increase the global lead over XOne, easily, and with a price cut at the end of October, Sony would kill their competitors.  Sony do not need to rush things, they are watching down.

This is not a weekly race, it's an yearly race ;)

Exactly. All sony has to do is business as usual and they will at the very worst sell as well as they sold this year next year. Thats not bad. No one would or should have to do what MS is doing to win just a month or two in just one region. And theer is no way MS can keep up that kinda agressive marketing for the rest of this gen. 

All sony needs to do is relax, let their engineers take time to actually bring the cost of the machine down as much as possible, then by this time next year do a price drop that would mean they wouldn't be losing any money at their new price. If the PS4 is $300 by this time next year, I would like to see if MS would be able to go (or rather willing to go) as low as $200-$230 with two free games to compete then.

At $329 for an XB1 with two games vs $399 for a PS4, there is no chance for the PS4 to win December.

In January, if the Xbox returns to $399, then PS4 will win in spite of the two free games...

Why are we only talking about NPD all of a sudden? Do the other countries around the world don't go crazy with spending around this timeof year like we Americans do?