Last week, we reported that Sony’s inFAMOUS bundle was beating out Microsoft’s Titanfall bundle in pre-orders on GameStop’s website. This revelation led to a long and heartfelt back-and-forth between fans of both consoles as everyone tried to understand the phenomenon. Even so, it’s not exactly surprising that one gaming bundle would be doing significantly better than another. What is surprising is the fact that something else of note is outselling Titanfall (the game itself, not the bundle) on GameStop’s website: the PlayStation 4 camera.
Currently being sold for $70, the optional PlayStation 4 camera is Sony’s response to Microsoft’s Kinect, a camera famous for its motion and voice tracking abilities. The PS4’s camera has many of the same functions as Kinect, allowing for voice commands to control the console and motion sensor abilities to be used in future video games.
Right now, you can go to GameStop’s website and sort everything by “best selling”, which will lead you to see that the PlayStation 4 camera is third on the list. Titanfall is not too far behind, however, sitting at number five. Given that the camera is used very sparingly in current PlayStation 4 games, it might be hard to pinpoint an exact reason that this is occurring. Still, we can’t deny that it’s intriguing that an optional piece of hardware is outselling the Xbox One’s most anticipated game.
The current consensus from some forum-going PlayStation fans is that gamers love the ability to choose whether or not they want “optional” peripherals. They are referencing the fact that all Xbox One consoles come with Kinect whether or not the consumer intends to use it. Many speculate that it is the reason the Xbox One costs $100 more than the PlayStation 4 as well. As of the current time, Microsoft has repeatedly been shown as opposed to a Kinect-less Xbox One.