Microsoft announced today that sales of the Xbox One in the United States more than doubled in June compared to May. The article, which was posted to Xbox’s official news page, attributes the increase in sales to the new $399 Xbox One option.
The Xbox One originally came bundled with the Kinect motion-sensing peripheral forcing the total price to $499, a whole $100 over its main competitor, Sony’s PlayStation 4. On June 9th, Microsoft debuted a Kinect-less version of the Xbox One, a move that allowed it to drop the price to $399.
The PS4 has thus far been outselling the Xbox One, which many attribute to the lower price point. According to the NPD, May was the fifth month in a row that the PS4 outsold the Xbox One. Although exact numbers are rarely made public by either company, most recent figures put the PS4 at 7 million units sold and the Xbox One at 5 million units shipped. Note that units shipped only refers to consoles that have gone to retailers and doesn’t necessarily convert to units sold to customers.
When the Xbox One was announced and released, Microsoft ensured customers that the Kinect was an integral part of the system that couldn’t be removed, thus justifying the higher price. After introducing the Kinect-less Xbox One bundle, Microsoft stressed that Kinect was still important to its vision for the Xbox One.
Microsoft’s news brief also mentioned that sales of the Xbox 360 have also risen, though no concrete numbers were given.
