The first week of sales for Crystal Dynamics re-release of last year's Tomb Raider, now known as the Definitive Edition, has garnered them quite the sales for both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. However, the PlayStation 4 boasted a much higher margin of sales over its eighth-gen x86 compatriot.
Videogamer is reporting that first week sales data from the UKIE trade body games chart and Gfk Chart-Track have estimated that 69% of the sales from Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition favor the PlayStation 4, where-as 31% of the sales fall in favor of the Xbox One.
While not explicitly saying it, Videogamer does seem to suggest that the revelation that Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition being native 1080p and 60 easy-as-a-Seahawk's-win-at-Superbowl-XLVIII frames per second may have helped shape a marketing image within the minds of core gamers that the PS4 version was most definitely the version worth purchasing.
I mean, having 1080p and 60fps for the PS4 version of the game plastered all over the internet is practically equivalent to saying that Chevy has a V8 and Ford has a V6 and they're going to race a few laps at Daytona. Most people will know the outcome before they pull a few revs out of the engine.
Still, the power-game is only part of the equation. Keep in mind that the PlayStation 4 has over 4.2 million units in homes at this very moment, spread deep and wide across the global atmosphere of gaming culture. The Xbox One only has 3 million units in homes at the moment and Microsoft is trying to sell those other 900,000 units at this very moment. The install base discrepancy is enough to warrant that software sales and global software attachment rates for the PS4 will likely be higher since Sony has moved more units. That's also not to mention that Microsoft's Xbox One is only available in 13 regions, with more Asian and Eastern Europe countries on the slate to allegedly receive the Mighty 720p Box One later this year.
Lacking a calvacade of consumers from countries where the console is unavailable to line-up at their respective local marts, brick and mortar electronics stores or that smarmy guy who reeks of cognac and musty polyester who hangs out in that alley your mother always warned you stay out of, means that Microsoft is missing out on a ton of sales by comparison.
It's interesting because EA thought the situation would be quite the opposite, with the Xbox One leading in marketing prowess and console sales, but they hoped both consoles would be at the 10 million mark by March.
Based on the February NPD and Gfk data will determine whether or not that 10 million mark is doable. Likewise, it will determine mostly how well Titanfall will sell this throughout this spring, and whether the game will be of killer-app status to move consoles where consoles aren't moving.
Nevertheless, this is just first week sales data, and the month's end could spell a different set of results based on the market data. For now, though, it looks like the appeal of the PS4 is not only spreading like a venereal disease in at an American military outpost in Vietnam, but that the software sales are backing up the console's sales data as well.
