Microsoft Breaks Silence On Xbox One Sales...Sort Of

Yesterday, Sony announced that it had sold 7 million PS4s to consumers, a colossal number any way you look at it. It left us wondering how its chief competitor, Microsoft's Xbox One, was faring -- all we had heard was that Microsoft had sold 3 million units in 2013. Well now, we can wonder at least slightly less -- Microsoft has announced 5 million units shipped to retailers, making the sell-through less than that, though by how much we can't say.

The PS4 was once again the best selling console in the US in March, which is bad news for Microsoft's hopes that Titanfall would galvanize its player base. Kudos do go to Respawn, however, as Titanfall for Xbox One was apparently the best selling game. The considerable hype, however, didn't appear to be enough to unseat the PS4 -- even though inFAMOUS: Second Son launched a full week after Titanfall.

What's funny is that the Xbox One could still be considered a success -- it's outpacing Xbox 360 sales by 60 percent during the same time period, and an attach rate of nearly 3 games per console is an excellent number. And the machine is selling quite well considering the fact that Microsoft botched the pre-launch marketing and priced it $100 more expensive than its chief competition. It's just that the PS4 is a much bigger success. The broader story isn't just about Sony beating Microsoft, it's about this console generation getting off to an incredibly strong start. The future of gaming is still very much in question, but traditional consoles have a lot of steam going forward. It's especially strong when you consider that there still isn't any must-have content for either system.

But back to the console war. I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- the PS4 has a number of advantages over the Xbox One at this point, but none of them are nearly as important as price. Microsoft has repeatedly said that it is not considering making an Xbox One without the Kinect, but it's going to keep getting creamed unless it can find some other way to bring it to price parity. On top of that, Amazon just launched the FireTV at $99 -- so you could theoretically buy a PS4 and have enough money left over to get a streaming device with what some are saying are superior voice controls. The Xbox One is trying to be everything at once, and it may yet succeed. Or it might get overtaken by dedicated devices that perform each of its functions better and cheaper.