Update: Gfinity says Xbox One sales figures were estimated
Upton arrived at 18 million figure from previous public guesses
UPDATE
Gfinity has claimed that CEO Neville's Upton's reference to "Xbox One's 18 million users globally", was not in fact an official figure, but one derived from the public estimates already made by others. Despite entering into a partnership with Microsoft to provide eSport tournament creation software for the Xbox One, the company says it is unaware of the actual figure.
“Gfinity would like to clarify that it has not sought to confirm Microsoft sales figures," a statement sent to GamesIndustry.biz reads. "The comments in the statement today is based on a variety of independent sources published earlier this year.”
A slip up by Gfinity CEO Neville Upton during a press release has seemingly revealed the sales figures for the Xbox One, something Microsoft has gone to great lengths to protect.
Understandably so, too, with the console having sold just 18 million units so far, less than half of the number of PS4s in customers' homes. According to Upton, who gave a statement regarding a new partnership with Microsoft to offer an eSports Tournament Builder App for the Xbox One, the figure is a global sell-through total.
"We are delighted to announce the launch of our Tournament Builder App on Xbox One," said Upton in the statement, "Which will enhance the Gfinity offering and enable us to reach Xbox One's 18 million users globally, offering this new larger audience the opportunity to interact with the Gfinity brand. We look forward to continuing our innovative development, expanding our reach and establishing ourselves as a platform for gamers of all levels who want to collaborate and enjoy playing online."
The slip would corroborate the estimate of EA's CFO Blake Jorgensen, who previously quoted a combined figure of 55 million for PS4 and Xbox One worldwide. Journalist Mary Jo Foley also gave numbers on an episode of Windows Weekly in January which also seemed to point to a figure of around 18 million, but Upton is the first person to name it directly.
Given that Sony had officially given a figure of 36 million sales for PS4 in January this year, Upton's giveaway definitely strengthens the impression that Microsoft is in a very firm second place in this generation's console war, with the launch of PSVR and the potential hardware refresh of the codename NEO project only likely to widen that gap. Still, rumours persist of a hardware refresh, potentially a considerable one, for the Xbox One as well, potentially with a reveal coming at E3.