Following the large news Xbox dropped yesterday about the Kinect, it seems analysts predict that the Xbox One will outsell the PlayStation 4 in North America as soon as next year.

As told by GamesIndustry International, IDC research manager Lewis Ward said that this recent decision has given the Xbox One the upper hand when it comes to console sales. “This change will be enough to push the Xbox One installed base higher than PS4 in the U.S. and Canada in 2015 rather than 2016. It kind of reminds me of Microsoft’s evolution on Windows and IE. The initial design needs some serious help (i.e., last summer’s DRM ‘Xbox 180’) and then improves to point of being a serious contender (this Kinect unbundling) and then vies for market share dominance (although I continue to believe PS4 will have the largest global installed base of any console at the end of 2016).”

Another analyst, this time Colin Sebastian from RW Baird, also stated that this decision was for the best. “We note the Xbox One pricing action is early, by historical standards, for a relatively new video game console. However, we estimate that price cuts on the Xbox 360 in August 2007 and September 2008 each drove more than 100k incremental monthly unit sales.”

Other analysts agree, although some say that the move to drop the Kinect will not motivate consumers to buy it, which means that developers would not want to make games for it. As independent analyst Billy Pidgeon said, “Microsoft has reverted to its Xbox 360 Kinect strategy and with a likely drop in interest from third-parties, Kinect for Xbox One has suddenly shifted from central to the Xbox vision to the periphery. However, later in the cycle when adoption is more mass market aligned and entertainment functionality is more heavily built out, Microsoft will be hoping that the value of Kinect will be more easily demonstrated and in demand.”

My Opinion:

I am not surprised about this news. Of course reducing the price and removing a piece of hardware people didn’t like will lower the barrier of entry for many people. I would have respected Microsoft more if they stuck to their guns, but alas, sales are what matters. This is mostly common sense that the Kinect will have little to nothing going for it after this new skew comes out, but it is nice to have confirmation. So, now that this information has gone live, how will Sony react? Will they lower the price? Have a massive blowout with hardware? Will they repeat E3 2013 and call Microsoft out on their reversal? Only time will tell.

Shawn Richards studies games to understand how they work. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.