When Microsoft announced that they had sold 3 million units of their new Xbox One console, the question many asked was why had Sony not issued their sales figure. Some speculation was that there was no announcement due to sales of the PS4 slowing down, despite consumer sales figures suggesting otherwise.

That speculation proved far off the mark this week when Sony revealed that they had sold over 4.2 million PS4 consoles by the end of 2013. Sony revealed the figure at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas as they unveiled what PS4 users can expect throughout the next year.

Consumer sales data indicated that Sony had sold in excess of 3 million consoles, but many were taken by surprise when it was revealed that the number of PS4 units sold had exceeded the 4 million mark. Even though the PS4 is currently available in more countries worldwide than Microsoft’s Xbox One, no one anticipated such a gulf in sales figures. That the PS4 costs on average US$100 less than the Xbox One and has more games available for it have been cited as the likely reason for the bigger sales.

In discussing the year ahead, Sony announced that their new cloud and streaming services were about to enter the public testing phase, with the company anticipating a full launch by June 2014. These services will support and be able to be accessed by both the PS3 and PS4 consoles, as well as certain other Sony devices.

In an unusual disclosure of an as yet unfinished strategy and plan, Sony also confirmed that they are looking into launching a new television service. Executives from Sony commented that they had been looking at where traditional TV and cable companies had been, in the eyes of consumers, going wrong, with a view to trying to establish a service closer to that which viewers and consumers would like and expect. The project is at such an early stage that Sony do not even have a provisional name for a possible TV service as of yet.

Although sales of both new next generation consoles are high, once again it looks like Microsoft’s Xbox One is coming in second to the popularity of the Sony PS4.