I'm all about honesty and truth and fairness, so while I'm totally on team Sony here...when Xbox was cheaper than PS3, it was regularly selling a tonne more; it wasn't until Sony went down to I think 299 that they really kicked up a storm. that plus all the exclusives they were getting around that time. but yeah, THAT much of a difference (Especially when coupled with all the other problems PS3 had) was certainly a factor. 

I think a lot of folks here underestimate allure of $25/month for console and 200+ games for many parents out there. Unless Sony has something similar to offer, MS could potentiailly grab big chunk of that market.

Xbox One and PS4 had similar price, the greatest shock at the time was PS4 outselling Xbox One in USA. I think Play Station has a sustained customer loyalty globally, since it was selling even at a staggering pricetag, when PS3 launched. Xbox Series X/S needs something extra to kickstart the launch, that's why they release the S version on launch, the propability of Sony outselling even at a higher price is known at MS Headquarters.

Parents can't tell the difference between Transformers and Transmorphers (The shitty no-budget copycat), what makes you think they're savvy enough to research console offering? And if they did, don't you think they'd know enough that Xbox's game offerings are kinda lackluster?

They don't have to research anything - they'll either see them advertised for $25/$35 a month, with "over 100 high-quality games for one low monthly price". Sure, their kids can come and pester them for PS5, but if Sony doesn't have something similar, this monthly thing could be big.

And it's coming to 12 countries "this holiday":

• Australia at Telstra
• Canada at EB Games
• Denmark at Elgiganten
• Finland at Gigantti
• France at FNAC
• New Zealand at Spark
• Norway at Elkjøp
• Poland at Media Expert
• South Korea at SK Telecom
• Sweden at Elgiganten
• UK at GAME and Smyths Toys
• United States at Best Buy, GameStop, Target, Microsoft Store, and Walmart

Nope. What a lot of folks here understand is that that is not something new. It's not like this is something MS is doing for the first time right now. They have been doing this since 2017. It has not made any meaningful difference whatsoever. To somehow assume that it would suddenly account for them gaining a "big chunk" of the market is honestly preposterous.

There is absolutely nothing to feed that narrative at all, especially when as has been said already, they have been doing this since 2017. If there were two or three flagship titles that would be added to GP on o around the launch of the new Xbox, say like a halo and new Forza, then that would be a totally different thing entirely.

Most importantly though, and this is what I think folks are really ignoring coming to launch, who has the mindshare? Who has the momentum? Whoever that is,is the one everyone s going to be talking about. That's the one kids are going to be asking or and people are going to be primarily buying. A cursory look at social media will tell you who that is. eg... MS officially announces series S, pricing for series s and x and release date and when preorders start... and what happens? PS5 starts to trend on twitter. Thats what you call mind share right there.

I don't know how it works for you, or how you think these things typically go. But if kids are pestering their parents for something, the parent doesn't go and buy something else that the kid didn't ask for because "it's cheaper".

Furthermore, that market you are talking about doesn't even come into effect this year. The launch is seldom ever driven by parents wanting to get a new console for their kids. Its usually driven by the loyalist. The people in the know enough to have pre-ordered months in advance or go and stay in line days in advance. To be tracking multiple sites daily to see which has stock...etc.

Soccer moms and dads get in next year. If they get in this year, they would account for less than 5-15% of all sales.

Look at the Google Trends ratio, still overwhelmingly favored toward PS5, even after the Series S reveals, within the US. The lion's share of its market. I don't see the needle budging at all for PS5, it will do just as well as PS4 has, but the needle might move slightly ahead for Xbox given the low price and "All Access" stuff. Those are solid deals, but you're looking at an extremely uphill battle for Xbox after going an entire generation without doing much but making excuses and empty promises. Their credibility is more or less in the toilet.

The caveat there also being if Sony decides to throw out a Hail Mary and go for the juggular by actually reacting to and taking advantage of Microsoft's price reveals; there's a reason they waited it out and still haven't revealed to this day--there's probably internal discussing happening as to how they want to price this thing. Sony typically gets arrogant and doesn't react too much to the competition, but if they really wanted to bury Xbox, this would be the time to do it. Unlikely, but imagine if Sony quickly threw together an All Access program and made the prices equal or lower (disc-less $300 and main console $500 or cheaper), it would be game over. No question.

Parents can't tell the difference between Transformers and Transmorphers?