The PS4 may be stealing players from Microsoft and Nintendo

A recent Nielson study may point to a dramatic shift in consumer preference in the initial sales of the current generation of consoles, a Re/code article reports. The survey provides a glimpse into a statistically significant portion of American living rooms and may show a shift away from Microsoft and Nintendo consoles and towards Sony's PlayStation 4.

Nielson surveyed 1,200 "active gamers" and asked them about what consoles they currently have in their home. Cutting up the numbers, they determined that close to a third of current PS4 owners did not currently own a PlayStation 3, but they do currently own a previous generation console from Microsoft or Nintendo.

Put another way, in 31 percent of American living rooms where there is a PS4 it's sitting alongside an Xbox 360 and/or a Wii.

Re/code is quick to point out that this does not take into account instances where consumers may have sold, given away or disposed of their PlayStation 3.

"Assuming that most people didn't do that, thought, the numbers underscore why launching at a $100 lower price point than the rival Xbox One was so beneficial for Sony," the article states.

One year ago Nintendo dropped the price of the Wii U Deluxe to $299.99. In July of this year Nintendo announced it lost $97M in the previous fiscal quarter, despite the success of Mario Kart 8.

In early May Microsoft announced that the Xbox One would go on sale for $399, the same price as the PS4, without the Kinect motion sensing peripheral.