When Sony announced its partnership with EA to bring a Star Wars Battlefront PS4 bundle to market this holiday season, it placed a massive amount of pressure on Microsoft. Combating a multi-million dollar marketing campaign for a Star Wars game during a Star Wars craze is no easy task, but Microsoft has the best possible solution to the threat at its side: Fallout 4.
Fallout 4 will be out in just a month, and it's exactly what Microsoft needs to produce region-winning sales numbers for the Xbox One this holiday season. Let's go over why.
Fallout Is a Best-Seller
Whenever a Bethesda game hits store shelves, it’s a big deal no matter what country you're in. Fallout 3 was able to sell right around 10 million units, a figure that's achievable by fewer than 1% of games in the industry. Meanwhile, a couple years later The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim would more than double that number. Few franchises are bigger than these two titans.
Fallout 4 is the biggest release of 2015.Star Wars: Battlefront might be a Star Wars game, but underneath its galactic outer layer is Battlefield. Running on the same engine and striving for a similar experience, EA DICE's upcoming release can be looked at as a new Battlefield release in sci-fi clothing. That's not a bad thing, but many gamers have a bad taste in their mouth from the last two releases from DICE, and the franchise has never come close to matching Bethesda's top dogs.
Bethesda RPGs Sell Better on Xbox
Fallout 3's Xbox 360 version outsold the PS3 version worldwide by over one million. Similarly, most of The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim's sales were on Xbox 360. Although the PC versions have earned a reputation as being the best platform to play on due to mod support, Xbox has been home to Bethesda RPGs in terms of sales and consumer visibility.
This is significant because this generation PlayStation leads in multiplatform sales for almost every game. However, with marketing, a bundle, and a history of strong Bethesda presence at its side, Xbox One is very likely to lead the charge of the the largest video game release of the year.
The Thirst For Fallout is Real
It’s been five years since the last Fallout released. For a series that holds as much importance to gamers as Fallout does, it's an unbearably long amount of time. Discussion about the game was prevalent on social media and forums even before it was announced in June of this year, and you can regularly see hundreds of people talking about Fallout 4 on its sub-Reddit even though information has been scarce since its reveal.
Gamers are more anxious to play Fallout 4 than any other Holiday 2015 title.Some gamers couldn't wait. Within hours of Fallout 4 being revealed, Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas saw a massive spike in sales. The Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition in particular had an increase of over 1300% on Amazon. Gamers want Fallout 4, and they want it now.
More Than Just a Graphical Advantage
For those who don’t intend to play Fallout 4 on PC, there should be no question that the Xbox One version is the second best choice. It is confirmed that the Xbox One version will have mod support within months of release. Meanwhile, the PS4 version will be waiting much longer for the feature, assuming it ever hits the platform.
Mods are an absolutely integral part of getting the most out of any Bethesda game. In the case of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, they’re reason to keep playing the game well after the story ends. The game still charts as one of the top 15 most popular games on Steam as players actively make the game more epic, hilarious, and fun with a growing library of community created works. Mods can remedy nuances of the game, change character models, and even add content. It's a big deal for the feature to be supported on a console.
The Xbox One 4 Bundle is Great Value
Microsoft has made the Fallout 4 Bundle more than just a package with the Xbox One and one game included. It also comes a 1 terabyte hard drive and Fallout 3, which will utilize the Xbox One’s highly anticipated backward compatibility feature to bring this game exclusively to the new generation. This release will coincide with the launch of the new Windows 10 UI for Xbox One, along with being on the tail-end of one of the greatest first-party seasons in console history. It's going to be a big month for Microsoft.
There's also the possibility that the Fallout 4 Bundle will be pushed as the main console for Microsoft's holiday 2015 sales. Last year it sold the Assassin's Creed Unity Xbox One Bundle at an incredibly low $329 just a year after the console debuted at $499. It isn't outside the realm of possibility that $299 will be feasible this time around.
Fallout 4 Is Guaranteed to Be Good
While the jury is still out on whether or not Star Wars Battlefront will be a great game, Fallout 4 has earned the confidence of gamers through pre-release media. It brings significant improvements over previous titles in the franchise with a much better character creation tool, a voice acted main character, and base building. It'd be a mistake not to bet on Fallout 4 as king of Holiday 2015, and Microsoft is fortunate enough to have its support.
