Going back to E3 2013, Microsoft released the Xbox One. It was horribly perceived due to containing numerous functions such as "Always online DRM" and "No used games support" which went against what most gamers believed a console should be like. 

It seems though, that while forums where ablaze with news about this, the general public or those people that do not watch E3 and do not keep up with all the major news, were more interested with the fact that the console would come with Kinetic 2.0 ( The general public in fact used this peripheral to justify the Xbox One's higher price ) and due to quick changes by Microsoft of the DRM policy, many are still unaware to this day that the Xbox One ever had such policies to this day.

Fast forward to launch day and as expected the PS4 edges out the Xbox One in terms of sales. This can be due to the main "Hardcore" audience ( Those that follow E3 and so on ) buying their consoles first which means an obvious bias towards the PS4 due to the Xbox One's previous DRM policy.

Fast Forward up to the present day and the Xbox One is now selling at an even cheaper price, than the PS4. Yet the PS4 is still constantly outperforming ( in terms of sales ) the Xbox One. The general public is now starting to buy these consoles in large amounts and we can finally see that the Xbox One is, at times, even  pulling ahead in America due to this fact. Yet the Xbox One overall worldwide is still selling about half as much as the PS4 every week, could this be not due to the fact that the Xbox One had a horrible launch ( and hence they do not have a negative stigma against Xbox ) but due to another reason?

That reveal did major damage. Long term possibly but it's not doing horrible.

Yet

Well, the differencie in sales comes mostly from Europe and Japan. In Japan the XBone is practically nonexistant, and Europe has always been a PS dominated market, when the XBox brand showed any sign of weakness, the ones that went to XBox last gen returned to PS. In US the XBone is competing more closely, but the difference in price and power made a lot of people jump to PS, in a way similar to PS2 owners going to the 360 because the PS3 was more expensive and was harder to program for (and not using its full potential until two or three years after launch).

But yes, the DRM fiasco hurt the reputation of the XBone badly.

I believe that MS didn't do enough positive PR events to fortify it's company image/brand on a worldwide level with the 360. It knew where the xbox brand stood to the majority of the world but didn't really take it seriously. It focused almost exclusively on the US and trying to make them happy. 

The attempted DRM policies weakened the already weak xbox brand worldwide. At launch, it was a hundred dollars more expensive and it had weaker hardware than the it's main competition. It took a long time to drop the kinect. 

So yes it's launch has alot to do with it's slow sales. It hurt the xbox brand even further. It's extremely difficult to change a consumer's mind on a product's percieved value and what they think of a company once their mind is set. 

DRM hurt it out of the gate and it's a snowball effect. Had a huge impact on sales.

agree with op.

The only damage the reveal done was allow Sony to better expose itself in america and get it marketshare back, not to ps2 levels, but got a lot of x360 owners.

Now in the rest of the world it would be the same regardless. Only some very defensive fans would expect otherwise.

The main reason XBONE is selling slow is resurgence of the PLAYSTATION brand.In PS2 days PLAYSTATION dominated everything,it was a common name in pop culture,you cud see it everywhere,SONY was one of the top BRAND names in the world close with MCROSOFT,COKE,EXXON MOBILE,GOOGLE,YAHOO,etc

then came the PS3 and PLAYSTATION bombed and SONY also took a big hot and the losses were massive,it is estimated SONY lost $7.5 Billion on PS3.

but even after PS3 bombing,PLAYSTATION kept up because of PS2,PS1,PSP GOODWILL to its brand name and the fact that XBOX has no brand power outside USA and NINTENDO didn't have brand power outside JAPAN and USA so PLAYSTATION was still big worlside and also big in USA & JAPAN.

even after PS3 bombing,it defeated X360 and came close to the Wii.And everybody knows and even knew before that Wii was a one hit wonder and it also won as PS3 bombed which contributed to Wii success and the sole reason X360 suceeded was PS3 bombing.

When the new gen started,Nintendo flopped and XBOX went back close to XBOX 1(original) success and PS4 and SONY went back to top

XBONE launch has a little to do with it but anybody following gaming industry for the last 10-20 years cud easily tell you before how this gen was gonna pan out

The e3 2013 reveal did irreparable damage to MS and the Xbox image back then, it allowed Sony to not only gain more ground but easily create a barrel of hype that's still lasting to this day, launching at a cheaper price also sealed the deal with word of mouth still going strong and the mentality of people buying what system their friends have in conjunction with word of mouth, the hardcore that saw the events of 2013 continue to spread the events to the general public as time goes on and the rest is history, denying the power of media/WoM is very foolish to think otherwise.

hardcore/early adopter have a huuge impact on the outcome. middle gen buyers buy the system their friends have and late gen buyers buy what has the biggest library of cheap games.

i agree with ludicous speed here,.. there is a snowball effect. late gen mistakes are not as costly as early gen mistakes.

I don't know anyone in person who said I am not getting an Xone because of the reveal. I have friends who saw the Xone bundle with Forza 5 and Fifa ultimate edition for 399 but still got a PS4 for 399 and bought Fifa 65€ with it.... At that point what should MS do?

I think the Xone is doing better than predicted, it is selling better than 360 and you could get a 299€ X360 at this point.