Microsoft, during their quarterly financial conference call, came out and revealed that the Xbox One was the top-selling “premium” console during the holidays, being out the likes of the PlayStation 4 Pro. What they fail to mention is that the Nintendo Switch was the top selling console during the holiday season, already selling over 14 million units year-to-date and may very well surpass the Xbox One in sales by the end of this year. Xbox’s head of marketing, Aaron Greenberg, even admitted the Switch outsold the Xbox in the month of December. Why the extreme spin?
Premium console can mean quite a few things, and while the Nintendo Switch may not be as powerful as the Xbox One or the PlayStation 4, the system is not to be scoffed at. Third-party ports such as DOOM look incredible on the “underpowered” hardware, even in handheld mode. The Switch’s software lineup for 2017 by far was superior to the Xbox One, especially in terms of exclusive content, for which the Xbox had almost none to speak of.
At this point, sheer power in a console doesn’t really matter anymore. Games like Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild look magnificent. Art direction actually has a bigger impact these days than photo realism. Being a premium console that costs $500 selling better than another “premium” console that costs $400 isn’t really that impressive, especially since the PlayStation 4 Pro has been out longer. Logically, less people would buy it at this point and it has a larger install base. The Xbox One is a great piece of hardware and I love mine, but this means nothing.