Xbox Sold Less Than Half of the Consoles That PlayStation Did Last Year

Electronic Arts recently held their quarterly fiscal earnings call and it definitely provided a few interesting nuggets of knowledge for those in gaming. We were given a closer look at what titles are in store, what E3 will be looking like and ... where exactly Microsoft and Sony lie concerning last year's sales.

According to the report, Xbox One experienced about 30 million console sales by the end of 2017, with PlayStation 4 coming in at about 73 million. According to EA CEO Andrew Wilson, that number was staggering and does affect how publishers and developers interact with each brand. It also sheds a little more light on why Microsoft has been so secretive regarding their sale numbers.

"Turning to our expectations for fiscal 2019, we expect sales of current-generation consoles from Microsoft and Sony to continue to be strong, with the installed base growing to 130 million consoles by the end of calendar 2018 from 103 million at the end of calendar 2017," he mentioned.

Microsoft has been very tight lipped about the sales, but this definitely isn't the first time Electronic Arts just shoved the sale doors wide open. The gap in sales is notable, and leaves a very small margin of error for the Microsoft platform.

Given that the Xbox One X console did cause a surge in sales but was released later in the year, it will be interesting to see how the numbers differ at the end of 2018. Xbox boss Phil Spencer has also been go, go, go about securing more Japanese title support, more RPGs, and enriching their first party experience. With the boss himself boasting "the biggest E3 ever" and knowing his plans about improving the quality of the brand, now more than ever it's imperative that they absolutely nail their E3 conference to prove to fans that they are dedicated to the play experience, dedicated to gamers, and dedicated to providing healthy competition in a way that benefits all players around the world.

In the same vein, it looks like Xbox might even be opening up a brand new studio in California, which we covered earlier here. If that's the case, that means there is a lot we don't know about what they have up their sleeves and it could be a total game changer for the brand!