Two things have been very clear for the last few months: 1. Microsoft its getting its lunch eaten by Sony in the market, and 2. Microsoft is not taking this development lying down. Several recent developments have hit from Microsoft in aid of ratcheting up its own presence in the market, and these developments have been seen to coalesce and generate one particularly noteworthy result: new word from Infoscout suggests that Microsoft may well have won Black Friday.

The Infoscout report says that Microsoft actually comprised 53 percent of all console sales for Black Friday, while the PlayStation 4 took 31 percent. It helped that the Xbox One had not only divorced Kinect, but had also launched a price drop and some bundling deals, offering up new games like “Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag” and “Assassin's Creed: Unity” along with the system. This beat out PlayStation 4, which was not only higher-priced--$400 as compared to Microsoft's $330—but offered somewhat lesser titles, ranging from “Destiny” to re-releases of “The Last of Us” and “Grand Theft Auto V.”

This is a bit of good news for Microsoft; there were likely plenty of fence-sitters going into the last days of the holiday season, and though it's been a year since the original releases, so few games have come out so far that some might well have been waiting. With this, though, Microsoft took a crucial step forward. If it can maintain that momentum into the rest of the Christmas shopping season, it may well come out on closer par with Sony. It's not likely to be able to beat Sony—Sony's been too far ahead too long for that—but it can certainly narrow the gap and make it comparatively inconsequential, a bonus to keep game developers from considering Sony-only exclusives that would drive down the titles available for Microsoft.

Naturally, it's still early to tell the overall impact of such a thing. The better job Microsoft can do in terms of selling off the Xbox Ones and keeping the pool of potential players high, the better Microsoft's chances are of long-term survival in the gaming field. Thankfully, Microsoft has other advantages, like thriving product lines elsewhere, while Sony has recently made moves to put more focus on PlayStation. Microsoft may be able to stand Sony off with superior firepower, a development that may leave Sony in a bad position long-term.

If Microsoft can keep this momentum going, it's got a serious chance of taking back the top slot in the future. After all, Microsoft has substantial resources on its side, and can thus do a better job of offering deals that Sony can't immediately match. But Sony has a substantial head start and a whole new focus on its gaming platform. Only time will tell just who wins out in the end, but it's likely to be a very big fight to come indeed.