IDC predicts Kinect-less Xbox One will overtake PS4 in North America

Microsoft will take control of the next-gen race in North America if it releases a cut price Xbox One without Kinect, analyst IDC has claimed.

International Data Corporation predicts that while PS4 will have the single biggest share of the market in 2016 with 51m hardware units sold globally, Microsoft can still take control of the North American market, Games Industry reports.

"The presumed unbundling of Kinect and Xbox One, which should facilitate rough price parity between it and the PS4, should lead to a spike in Xbox One sales,” it said. Assuming the console and sensor are unbundled in 2015, IDC expects Xbox One to recover and emerge with the largest installed base of any console in North America by the end of 2016."

Also on the way later this year or early next, IDC predicts, is a $50 price cut for Wii U although this won’t make a serious dent in the installed base gap between Wii U and the competition”.

IDC also reckons that physical games sales will plummet this generation with a decline to the tune of 45 per cent compared to the Xbox 360 and PS3 era. This means that despite a predicted growth in digital sales the console sector still faces a generational decline of around ten per cent.