PS4 vs Xbox One compositeThis holiday season both the Xbox One and Playstation 4 will ship an expected 2.5 million to 3 million units each, that is according to Baird analyst Colin Sebastian. These are expected worldwide shipments with the majority of these units, around 1.5 to 2 million units, expected to ship to North America.

“While many forecasts still give an edge to Sony/PS4 in North America sales, we continue to expect similar or even slightly higher sales of Xbox One by the end of the launch window,” Sebastian’s note reads. “Our shipment unit forecasts are slightly below consensus of 3 million or more for each platform.”

Interestingly, Sebastian also discussed the option of reselling the system via other outlets, such as Ebay. While this is a great proposition for sellers to make a profit, buyers should stray away from such options if they don’t want to overpay.

“[B]oth Sony and Microsoft are generally sold out of their initial unit shipments of PS4 and Xbox One, respectively. As a gauge of the popularity of the new consoles, we note that sales on eBay of Xbox One preorders average close to $800 (vs. base price of $499) and PS4’s for close to $600 (vs. $399 base price) – both healthy premiums.

“In addition, retailers in our checks indicate there is consumer demand well in excess of supply, as evidenced by fast sell-outs of incremental unit allotments, such as at GameStop,” Sebastian wrote. “Looking further ahead, we still believe a more accurate gauge of new cycle demand should be made after the initial sales window, dominated by core gamer fans.”

The Xbox One will make it’s debut on November 22 in 13 territories which includes both North America and Europe; while the PS4 will hit store shelves on November 15 in North America and November 29 in Europe.

(Source: IGN)