In Russia, the latest generation of Sony consoles is the leader in sales. But the Xbox One game console has recently been showing great growth rates.
Yesterday, on January 24, the Russian edition of gamemag, citing its sources, reported that monthly sales of PlayStation 4 are 120 times higher than those of Xbox One. For this reason, according to the sources of the publication, Microsoft has reduced the initial cost of the Halo Wars 2 exclusive by 50%.
Three Russian retailers denied this data in an interview with App2Top.
“Microsoft’s share is objectively no higher than Sony’s, but there is no dramatic drop either. Xbox One consoles are on sale, people are interested, and lowering the price for the next release is an attempt to attract customers,” said Anton Fomin, a representative of Yulmart.
He also noted that the share of Xbox One sales in Yulmart is significantly higher than the market. As for the situation in the market as a whole, it does not confirm “such a (120%) difference in sales.”
The most popular prefix in PlayStation 4 became Russia in 2016,” a representative of the Svyaznoy chain of stores told App2Top Sergey Tikhonov. In general, Sony consoles account for ⅔ of the company’s sales in this product category. As for Microsoft consoles, the number of Xbox 360 and Xbox One devices sold is “about the same.”
Regina Rodnyanskaya from “M.Video” also noted that “the share of PS4 in turnover is higher, but not tenfold.” However, according to estimates of one of the largest electronics retail chains in Russia, in the 4th quarter of 2016, Xbox One sales “in monetary terms increased by 30% compared to the same period in 2015, despite the launch of the PS4 Pro in November. Sony console sales from September to December increased by only 12% compared to the same period last year. In physical terms (in pieces), they demonstrate similar dynamics.”
App2Top attributes the situation to a sharp drop in the average price of a Microsoft console in the 4th quarter. The average price of an Xbox One for 500 GB on August 1, according to Yandex.Market, was about 27 thousand rubles, at the end of December the price dropped to 21 thousand.
The price of the PlayStation 4 also declined, but not so sharply. Today, the console remains more expensive than its competitor.
