If a recent Reuters and Ipsos poll is any indication, Sony may have the upper hand over Microsoft this winter as the two gaming kingpins debut new consoles.
Of the 1,397 people surveyed, 26 percent said they are likely to buy the $399 Playstation 4 compared to 15 percent that chose the $499 Xbox One.
The preference for Sony leaned heavier for younger gamers, as the 41 percent of 408 participants under 40 years of age opted for the PS4, compared to 27 percent for Xbox.
Perhaps Sony, which announced that PS4 pre-orders are well over one million, has the edge because of its cheaper price tag. Earlier this month, an analyst asked Xbox chief marketing officer Yusef Mehdi about the $499 price point for the console, calling it a “sticker shock” and wondered if Microsoft priced its device too high.
Mehdi said that his team always has priced its products “super competitive” in terms of being close to break even or low margin in order to have broader distribution. For the Xbox One, he said, Microsoft made a couple “big bets.”
“We wanted something to really differentiate that lets you play games as if you’re playing movies and we wanted to break the barrier of being able to voice control your television,” Mehdi explained. “So to do that, we added a lot of capability. For $499, we think the value we provide for that is a very good deal. We feel that we’ve done the right balance. And if you look either the pre-orders that we’ve been sold out for weeks, or do price-adjusted inflation on the 360, it’s actually pretty comparable.
Mehdi also said that the Xbox has a “better lineup of games,” which sounded very similar to the recent Xbox One promo trailer. He also cited the fact that the Xbox One won more awards at this year’s E3 video game conference than Sony and Nintendo combined.
Unlike Sony, Microsoft hasn’t revealed pre-order statistics for the Xbox One, but has indicated that pre-orders have exceeded those of the Xbox 360 launch by a wide margin.
