The “games console war” topic invariably attracts more attention from passionate supporters and opponents than most other media technology issues, so we are standing by to be flamed, even if we all get swamped by Royal Baby coverage, as we publish today the latest findings from our ConsumerMetrix survey of 6000 people across the US and Europe on the new generation of games consoles from Sony and Microsoft which is set to reach the market later this year.

The survey ran in June, shortly after Microsoft announced the name and details of its Xbox 360 replacement. Sony had announced its PS4 earlier in the year, so we should allow for the fact that it has had more time to build awareness. Nevertheless this is the first major consumer survey to assess the current standing of the two platforms.

Across our sample 14.2% of people said they were very or somewhat likely to buy a PS4 during the coming 12 months, compared to 9.5% who said they would buy an Xbox One. If these results were translated into actual sales performance that would represent a lead of nearly 50% for Sony over Microsoft. The PS4 led the Xbox One in each country in the survey: the US, France, Germany, Italy and the UK. Like all consumer surveys the results should be treated with some caution as an indication of actual future sales, but they do seem to reflect the consensus opinion after this year’s E3, where Sony’s performance was widely accepted as superior to Microsoft’s.

For reference the Wii U came in third place at 8.6%, which if anything is a more disturbing finding for Nintendo than the previous result is for Microsoft. Having led the previous generation by a wide margin with the original Wii, Nintendo still appears to be struggling to reignite the magic which helped it revive the company in the late 2000s.

Of course, everything is still to play for: Microsoft already made changes to its Xbox One strategy after E3 in response to multiple criticisms, and still has enough strategic firepower in its armoury to give the PS4 a run for its money. But Sony will be quietly encouraged at these findings and more than 20 years after entering the console business the Japanese firm will be hoping that the PS4 will propel the company back to the number one spot it used to call its own.

David Mercer