The consoles war between Sony and Xbox is probably one of the fiercest business rivalries in the tech world. This year is probably no exception with lockdowns all over the world forcing us to find new ways to stay entertained at home. Many gamers will be spending their free time in Verdansk endlessly attempting to get the next Warzone dub. However, in this generation’s console war it looks like PS5 has sent the Xbox S/X series to the gulag within the first couple of weeks of sales.
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PS5 & XBOX S/X Sales Face to Face
Marketing spend (prior to release)
- Playstation 5 – $15M
- XBOX Series X/S – $5M
Global Sales estimates NOV:
- PlayStation 5 – 1,483,910 (1,483,910)
- Xbox Series X|S – 1,345,386 (1,345,386)
Playstation takes the crown on the opening week of sales but Xbox is still gaining a pretty decent amount of market share so far considering it spent 1/3 of the marketing budget that Sony did. However, experts predict that PS5 will sell twice as much as the Xbox once more consoles are released.
Sony PS5 marketing tactics
Taking over Oxford Circus underground tube station
Sony replaced London Underground station Oxford Circus with it’s own X, □, △, ○ controller buttons which coincidentally happened to be outside of the Microsoft store. If this was done on purpose then this is some great trolling from Sony.
As well as boasting purposes this advertising campaign was great because of the amount of free press that it generated. For example, this image above appeared in all the biggest UK newspapers as well as popular social media accounts such as IMJUSTBAIT. This shows the power of some clever marketing which can lead to an image such as the one above going viral in the media.
Utilising celebrities and influencers to advertise on their behalf
Many celebrities such as Travis Scott and Robert Lewandowski were given free PS5’s from Sony. These celebrities posted pictures of themselves playing on the PS5 on their Instagrams allowing Sony to advertise the PS5 to all of these celebrities’ many followers. Many media experts such as Gary Vaynerchuk believe that Instagram influencing is still a grossly undervalued form of marketing today. This is knowledge that many businesses can benefit from today as partnerships with influencers can increase awareness far more than paid social media ads can in many situations.
