Analyst: Xbox One ‘may have two to three times’ more launch units than PS4

Robert W. Baird analyst Colin Sebastian believes Microsoft will have about "two to three times" more Xbox One units available at launch than the PS4. Keep in mind, this is launch day units, not the number of pre-orders (so don't get your fanboy undies in a bunch) — though it's widely expected both systems will sell out at launch.

“Despite losing the headline battle at E3, the Xbox One appears to be regaining some momentum, in part due to the used and online policy tweaks,” he wrote in an investor note. About a week after E3, Microsoft did a complete reversal on its strict DRM policy, allowing users to freely trade-in, resell, gift, and rent disc based games.

“Importantly, our supply chain checks suggest that Microsoft may have the benefit of a two to three times unit advantage at launch compared to the PS4," Sebastian added. Let's not look too far into this. All Colin is really saying here is that when it comes to the holiday push, there might be more Xbox One units readily available for purchase than PS4 — based solely on the amount manufactured. This also goes against what we previously heard that the number of Xbox One units allocated to GameStop was significantly less than the amount of PS4s they received.

Of course, the number of available units will ultimately depend on how well each system sells. It's entirely possible that Microsoft could be manufacturing plenty of systems and that they could also sell out. In fact, Xbox chief of staff Aaron Greenberg recently revealed that demand for the Xbox One has been "through the roof." Granted, no statistical facts or numbers were released alongside his comment, so it's hard to judge exactly what "through the roof" means.

Still, you can pretty much guarantee the Xbox One will sell fairly well at launch; as will the PS4. As it stands now, launch day editions of both systems are sold out on GameStop and Amazon.

[VG247]