The year is about to end and it appears that the final quarter of 2016 has shown bright stature for Microsoft Xbox One as the platform has had outsold its prime competitor, Sony PlayStation 4 for three consecutive months (September, October and November). Will this mark the beginning of Xbox's domination in console? Let's find out.
Xbox One vs PlayStation 4
Several months after Xbox One and PlayStation 4 was released, it was clear that Sony's flagship was dominating in the console wars; especially with all of its already-established ardent fans. Aside from that, PlayStation also has a myriad of exclusive games which ultimately became a decisive factor when choosing between the two platforms. As the years passed by, Microsoft didn't yield over the competition and has constantly made updates and tweaks in order to improve their own flagship.
Here comes 2016, the year where both Xbox One S and PlayStation 4 Pro was both introduced and it seemed that the tables have finally turned in favor of the West. Since the numbers don't lie, let's find out what exactly happened and why 2017 will be the year for Xbox.
Exclusive Titles
Two of the most anticipated game titles for PlayStation 4, No Man's Sky and The Last Guardian only receive mediocre reviews and attention from its fans. The former, even flopped so bad that it made Steam changed its advertisement policy on all of its games by having in-game screenshots instead of displaying animated ones.
One the other hand, Gears of War 4 and Forza Horizon 3 were both well received by its critics and fans with the former having 9.2/10 rating by IGN and the latter having 9.5/10 respectively. It's safe to say that these two titles made a significant impact on why Xbox One outsold PlayStation 4 for this year alone.
4K Blue-Ray Player
When PS4 Pro came out, fans were baffled as to why Sony decided to omit the 4K Blue-Ray feature of the upgraded console especially with the growing 4K market, albeit still being incomparable to most common households not having 4K TVs. Nonetheless, it turned out to be a downer to some fans since the Xbox One S and expectedly the Project Scorpio has one. Many fans were rooting for the 4K player as the standalone device cost just as much as the platform itself - which could allure and save a lot of cash for most fans looking for 4K players.
Project Scorpio
Microsoft has been reticent with regards to the Project Scorpio, a device they claimed will be the most "powerful console built yet." According to Phil Spencer, head of the Xbox team, Project Scorpio will have specs far greater than Xbox One S.
Now, with the mediocre increase in PS4 Pro's specs from its predecessor, fans of the platform would see underwhelming results when compared to the upcoming console, since we can assume that Microsoft must have a trick or two up in their sleeve.
The only main deciding factor between the console wars is that PS4 Pro has VR feature, to which Phil Spencer has hinted that it is a feature that may not be readily available for the Scorpio upon lunch. Nonetheless, we may very well be seeing stellar results for Xbox One in the following months - unless the Scorpio flops.
