Which of the December-launched systems won the holiday season? Sony's Playstation 4, by a significant (if not runaway) margin: 4.3m sold, compared to 3m Microsoft Xbox Ones. Nick Wingfield explains why: the PS4 was cheaper and better-pitched, whereas Microsoft bungled its marketing, spooking gamers with strict new DRM plans and spooking families with its enthusiasm for living-room cameras.
Microsoft has said many times that Kinect does not spy on people, but it does not take much imagination in these times to see how an Internet-connected camera and microphone in the heart of a person's home could be harnessed in unsavory ways. It's unclear whether this has seriously influenced opinions among gamers, but the continuing revelations of spying by the National Security Agency have prompted many to question how much they can trust technology, including people in markets outside the United States.
Nintendo's Wii U, with a full year's headstart, is at about 5m. Though probably still in the lead, it's widely considered something of a dud.
