And Sony still won. Just shows you how much more they want to win America compared to Sony.

It may not matter to some, but marketing is huge to drive business for 95% of companies.  Spending 50 million to make an additional 200 million would not have made otherwise is a great investment that could be used for future games.

And guess what? Who made more money? Playstation.

But as sales showed, sony still won despite spending a third of the money.

We shouldn't kid ourselves that brands such as xbox and playstation need excessive publicity over the holiday period, kids want them regardless, and i would hazard a guess that if both companies put that money into more games, they'd have had similar returns regardless.

Very different aproach regarding the messaging too.

Sony had the "King" ad.
Microsoft focused on that bulshit one where they packed everything with 4k bluray to say it was only on xbox. Felt like Aaron Greenberg pr spin.

Not to mention, Microsoft offered more aggressive deals to the table. Here is the list of deals Microsoft offered on its own store and Gamestop. Plus, the Minecraft bundle was sold at $225.

It's silly really, microsoft needs to focus on expanding and supporting more flagship IP's and franchises on it's platform.

I recall another Holiday season Sony spent more than M$ in the US. What changed? Both of them spent less than I expected, tbh.

Sony had marketing rights for Black Ops 3 (a far superior COD to Infinite Warfare) and Star Wars Battlefront during the 2015 holiday season. During the 2016 holiday season, Sony mainly coasted with the UC4 bundle.

Honestly, good on them for committing to their system.