PS4 comfortable leader in U.S. consumer poll

Sony's PlayStation 4 was comfortably ahead of Microsoft's Xbox One in a recent poll on consumer interest in the new consoles this holiday season.

The survey, which was organised by Reuters and Ipsos, polled almost 1,300 people in the U.S. between September 23 and September 24. Around 26 per cent of participants indicated that they were likely to purchase a PlayStation 4 before the end of the year, compared to just 15 per cent for Xbox One.

Among the participants below the age of 40, the interest in purchasing a new console was generally higher, but the divide between Sony and Microsoft remained: 41 per cent opted for the PlayStation 4, compared to 27 per cent for Xbox One. This will be encouraging news for Sony, as the U.S. market is where the PlayStation conceded the most ground to Xbox over the course of this generation.

At Gamescom last month, Sony confirmed that it had received more than 1 million pre-orders for the PlayStation 4. Microsoft has not released hard figures, though it has already taken more pre-orders for Xbox One than it secured for Xbox 360.

However, the most popular choice was nothing at all, with 64 per cent of respondents indicating no intention of purchasing any new game hardware this year, despite a range of choices that included current generation hardware, Nintendo's 2DS and Valve's 'Steam Box' concept.

The poll also reinforced the perception of the Wii U as a failing experiment: only 3 per cent of participants said that they currently play games on Nintendo's console, versus 20 per cent on Xbox 360, 20 per cent on personal computers and 18 per cent on PlayStation 3.