According to VGChartz’ most recent entry, Call of Duty Black Ops 3 is topping the USA charts with the most preorders of any upcoming game.
This shouldn’t come as any surprise as the Call of Duty franchise has one of the largest and most diverse fanbase in the entire gaming industry. Regardless of your opinion on the series, its popularity is almost unmatched.
With Black Ops 3’s release fast approaching, more and more gamers are preordering. However, there is a distinct difference in which console they are preordering for. While both consoles top the chart, the Xbox One is leading at 567,493 total preorders, with Playstation 4 falling behind at 418,262 preorders. While over four hundred thousand copies is nothing to sneeze at, that’s over one hundred thousand less than the Xbox One.
At E3 this year, Activision and Treyarch announced that Sony was their new home, promising earlier DLC, competitions, and more for the console. So, what gives? You’d think the PS4 would be the console to buy the game for.
As it turns out, there’s a lot more that goes into buying the seemingly simple first-person shooter than meets the eye.
The Xbox One is quickly becoming the most exciting console on the market. With the promise of Windows 10 support, a standard professional controller, and unparalleled user feedback and customer service in the industry, it makes sense that more people would rather wait a few extra weeks for DLC and updates than forego the potentially game-changing future of the console.
On the other hand, the PS4 is just as appealing. At its core, it’s a much more user friendly experience. From its interface, to even how you access the hardware, everything is made easy with a PS4. The console itself has a significantly bigger following than the Xbox One, with nearly twice as many units sold, and even sports some of its own professional equipment, even if it isn’t standard by Sony.
There’s also the possibility of money being an issue, of course. Most people who play Call of Duty did so through an Xbox One because of the console’s support for the series. As a result, more fans own an Xbox rather than a Playstation. Even with price drops, the PS4 is a tough purchase to justify when a fraction of that cost still pays for the game.
In the end, both consoles are viable options. You shouldn’t go out and buy one console over the other just to play this game. But, the massive preorder difference is worth considering before your purchase. The Xbox One clearly has the bigger predicted community, and as such, makes you wonder how long it will last when compared to the PS4’s community. Obviously, there’s no way of telling now, but in a multiplayer-centered game, community is everything.