Now that the dust has settled on the launch of Xbox One and PlayStation 4, it appears that the PS4 has emerged slightly ahead of the competition, in North America at least.
"Sony's PS4 clearly bounced back from our mixed early-2013 supply chain checks, and appears to have a slight momentum edge among core gamers, as demonstrated by premium prices on eBay and persistent out-of-stock reports at retail," said Baird Equity Research's Colin Sebastian.
The analyst then added: "However, we view the console battle as too close to call, with both platforms selling well over the holidays. Moreover, a competitive ‘two horse' console race would be positive for software publishers and retailers if Microsoft and Sony are forced to compete aggressively for market share."
The analysis presented here is very American-centric, and doesn't take into account the global picture. In the last generation cycle the PS3 and Xbox 360 were fairly evenly matched when the wider picture was taken into account, but when considered from a North American perspective Microsoft's console was a clear frontrunner.
With the US market "too close to call" that could well mean a healthy advantage for Sony when considering the market beyond American borders.