Toy retail giant Toys'R'Us has released its annual list of the hottest products for the holiday season, and while both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 made the cut this year, only Microsoft's console made it into the "Fabulous 15." Why?
There are 36 products in total on the annual Toys'R'Us Hot Holiday Toys list, which doesn't mean much to the informed consumer but reads as gospel to confused parents looking for Christmas shopping ideas for their children. Of the 36, 15 are selected to head up the list as the "Fabulous 15," the best of the best.
This year's video game presence on the hot holidays toy list includes two product in the "Fabulous 15" — the Xbox One and Skylanders: Swap Force — and two in general popular — the PlayStation 4 and Disney Infinity. Should we be reading into this?
According to Toys'R'Us PR rep Nicole Hayes, securing any spot on the list should be considered an honor.
"The 36 products featured on the Toys'R'Us Holiday Hot Toy List are carefully selected after year-long consultations with our global merchants and their thorough review of all the new toy introductions for the year. We start the selection process with thousands of hot toy contenders, which we narrow down to 36 items – each of which is designated with that honor because they are truly HOT. The two new videogame platform introductions for fall made the prestigious list, with Xbox One on the Fabulous 15 and PlayStation4 on the expanded list of 36 products named to this year’s Toys'R'Us Hot Toy List. We anticipate that both items will be at the top of kids’ wish lists this year."
Interesting. Both consoles are considered "hot", but the global merchants Toys'R'Us consults while assembling this list seem to think the Xbox One is just slightly more "hot."
Ultimately the list doesn't matter. It's not like parents will be able to find either console just sitting around on store shelves between the November launches and the new year. They'll take whichever console they can get their hands on and they'll like it.