Pachter: PS4 ‘to win’ console war over Xbox One, Wii U

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, knower of all things video games, expects the PlayStation 4 will outsell the Xbox One by about 30% through 2016. In an industry note, he added that his firm expects "Sony's PS4 to 'win' the next console generation," while touching on the likelihood of price cuts for all consoles.

Pachter projects the PS4 to reach worldwide sales of 37.7 million systems by the end of 2016, 30 percent higher than the 29 million Xbox One consoles expected to be sold during the same period. Both are considerably higher than the Wii U which is projected to hit worldwide sales of 20 million units through 2016.

The analyst believes all three consoles will eventually experience price cuts sometime in the next three years. Nintendo is expected to drop the price of the Wii U 50 percent to $150 or, at worst, discontinue production of the console entirely. The PS4, meanwhile, is expected to drop $100 to $299 over the next three years, while Microsoft will cut $150 off its own Xbox One and lower the price to a much more attractive $349.

"We think 'winning' is important to both companies and it is possible that Microsoft will reduce Xbox One pricing far faster than we have forecasted," Pachter added. "Should hardware prices come down faster than we have modeled, it is likely that hardware and software sales will grow faster."

It's believed that Sony's PS4 won the first round of the console "war," outselling the Xbox One in most markets, but tons of variables surround the sales reports of both Sony and Microsoft. Similar to the previous generation, I believe the success of both systems will be determined by the longevity and which one can maintain sales for the next five, six, seven-or-so years. While the Xbox One may have gotten off to a slightly slower start, there's still plenty of time to turn it around.

[GI.biz]