Whenever we have to use anonymous sources, take it with a grain of salt.
That being said, industry insider Ashan Rasheed, also known around the Internet as “thuway,” has been right before. As he recently Tweeted, his sources say that Xbox One “will be behind” throughout this generation. Such information arrived via “the grapevine:”
“Xbox One will be behind all generation, and not by some small trivial margin. It will be enough to show up distinctly in exclusives.”
— Ahsan Rasheed (@thuway) January 27, 2014
As most gamers know, the official numbers are in Sony’s favor
The current worldwide tally for the PlayStation 4 is 4.2 million units (as of December 28, 2013), and the Xbox One is at 3 million (as of December 31, 2013). Of course, we’re nearing the end of January now and we’ll need updated numbers. Still, the PS4 is very likely still in the lead by a significant margin, as January is typically not a big month for new hardware sales.
In regards to the PS4, Rasheed had this to say:
The PS4 has more left in the tank that will start showing up going forward. It was designed with more forward thinking hardware choices.
— Ahsan Rasheed (@thuway) January 27, 2014
The US is the critical region for Xbox
Having dominated the North American market throughout the previous generation, the Xbox brand really needs to hold sway in the US. It has almost no chance of beating out the PlayStation brand in Europe and Asia. From what we’re hearing, though, Microsoft might struggle even here…
