The next-gen battle has been well underway for nearly eight months now and it hasn’t exactly been a close call between Microsoft and Sony thus far. International Business Times extracted some information from Edge Magazine’s latest issue (#296) that may further distance the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in terms of sales numbers. While not official, Edge claims that Sony is reporting 9 million units sold for their PlayStation 4. The last official update we received on the PS4’s sales numbers came in April, when Sony gladly announced their achievement of 7 million new generation consoles sold.
This updated information came forth during an interview with Microsoft’s Vice President Phil Harrison, where Edge dropped the new number of the competitor while asking about the Xbox One. Harrison pointed out that the Xbox One figure is “north of 5 million units”, although it was later revealed that this number is for units shipped and not sold. It is worth noting that this figure was released in April and Microsoft has yet to release new numbers, which may have been noticeably impacted by the cheaper Kinect-less Xbox One.
Harrison also made it clear that Microsoft’s console has yet to release in as many territories as Sony, with the Xbox One heading to “29 new countries starting in September”. Releasing in more regions is sure to give the Xbox One a healthy boost and may provide a more compelling competition between the latest console offerings.
Needless to say, Microsoft and Sony are sure to be throwing numbers around left and right this holiday season. And with Sony supposedly set to hit 10 million PS4’s sold in the very near future, Xbox One’s 29-country launch will have to be exceptional to catch up.
