NPD June 2008

Status
Not open for further replies.
About 25%, like I said ;) They haven't managed anything like doubling sales; they're still in the same ballpark as last gen. I'm sure MS were hoping for far more sales than this.

You'd have to also take into account the price difference. There's been a $50 price drop in 2.5years with the common sku sitting at $349 (as of June NPD).

Someone who recalls Xbox 1 price history can probably tell us more about how quickly the first Xbox dropped.

I'm sure if they dropped the price to $199 for the premium, it'd sell like crazy and while that would make some charts look great, others, such as the P&L's, would take a severe beating. However, if they'd don't have the 60GB down to $299 by this holiday, 3 years into the console, I'd be shocked.
 
You'd have to also take into account the price difference. There's been a $50 price drop in 2.5years with the common sku sitting at $349 (as of June NPD).

Someone who recalls Xbox 1 price history can probably tell us more about how quickly the first Xbox dropped.

I'm sure if they dropped the price to $199 for the premium, it'd sell like crazy and while that would make some charts look great, others, such as the P&L's, would take a severe beating. However, if they'd don't have the 60GB down to $299 by this holiday, 3 years into the console, I'd be shocked.
Ok, pricing is still hight but I think that Ms is lagging behind their schedule as far price is concerned imo.
Without the Rrod cost I think that Ms would have been profitable from quiet some time.
While being profitable Mswould have been more agressive for pricing.
 
You conveniently forgot to mention that that was the week when GT5 Prologue launched...

I take umbrage at the use of the word "conveniently". I was talking about a 10 week period from week 11 to week 21, not a single week or even a 4 week period.

To reduce the timeframe, over the 4 week period straight after the price cut 360 sales doubled in comparison to the 4 weeks prior, yet still did not beat the PS3 in a single week. Of course GT5 Prologue will have had an effect over this timeframe.

Here's a link.
 
More NPD fallout from analysts:

Todd Greenwald, an analyst for Signal Hill, recently told investors in no uncertain terms that the "Xbox 360 needs a real price cut." While Microsoft did drop the price of the console in the US by US 50, the analyst believes that it isn't enough in the face of the competition.

According to Greenwald, "We [Signal Hill] remain very skeptical of Microsoft's pricing strategy and competitive positioning versus the PlayStation 3." He expounded on this further:

"At US 349, with a 60GB hard drive, we just don't think it is a compelling product compared with the PS3 at US 399 with an 80GB hard drive (along with more processing horsepower, Blu-ray, Wifi, HDMI, and going forward, more exclusive content."

Further driving home his point, he pointed out that the Xbox 360 has already been surpassed in the U.S. by the Wii, this is despite the one year head start the former console had over the latter.

In addition, he added that the introduction of an 80GB PS3 model which is retailing at the same price as an Xbox 360 40GB "was a strong counter-punch to Microsoft's US 50 price cut on the 360."

With regards to games, Greenwald said that the PS3 is already going to be getting the upper hand with all of the exclusive titles that will be coming out:

"We think this should give Sony a leg up versus the 360, along with several exclusive titles like the just-released Metal Gear Solid, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, Killzone 2, Gran Turismo 5, God of War 3, etc. Beyond Gears of War 2, Microsoft doesn't seem to have the same library of exclusive, must-have titles."

He put out a solid argument as to why the Xbox 360 should drop its price. However, there are more things Microsoft has to consider before doing this. We'll have to see if Microsoft can indeed drop its pricing to make the Xbox 360 even more competitive.
 
I agree with this analysit (which is pretty rare... they often spread complete bullshit...)

Sony has gain momemtum, as manage to keep people waiting/hoping for up coming titles.
On Ms side, the failure of "too human" is bothering (especially as it was supposed to be a three episodes serie).
But the guy doesn't making it sounds like Ms is "doomed" , Ms has ways to react.

I wonder if a dicussion on Ms strategy for the second life part of the 360 could not be worse it.
Main axes could be:
price
relevance of arcade pack
exlusives
who they are fighting with.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well I dont know. As I said in an older post of mine, it is Sony that I believe needs a price cut, not MS.
 
Er, MS does have a few more compelling exclusives. And I couldn't care less about Resistance, God of War or even MGS, the appeal of these certain titles is far from universal.
Gran Turismo is truly a certain winner, LBP is more then risky, and KZ2 probably won't move numbers comparable to Halo3 or even the PS3 version of COD4.

But I do agree that the X360 is less and less competitive. Seriously, $50 is a joke just for the Bluray playback, and then there's the wifi too.
 
Well I dont know. As I said in an older post of mine, it is Sony that I believe needs a price cut, not MS.
I do get your point, Sony has enough mindshare so a price cut would really boost the sales.

For Ms well, it would help but the question is "to which extend?".
Price always helps especially with a system that is pretty old now, old enough to have already fed most parts of the enthousiasts market.

So that is exactely why it could be interesting to question Ms strategy for the second part of the 360 life ;)

(Maybe Ms will feed some of our expectations during the remaining 2008 "gaming" shows).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You are basing that on your personal taste?
+1.

Resistance is one of the best selling PS3 titles to date. God of War is pretty big, especially in NA. MGS4 is already a proven system seller (maybe not a huge system seller, but it helped nonetheless). LittleBigPlanet has a lot of positive buzz around it and appeals to many gamers. i agree Killzone 2 won't reach Halo or CoD4 numbers, but does that matter? its very impressive so far, and if reviews are good, i'm sure it will be a big hit. and we can all agree that GT5 will be a winner. and don't forget the games that are most likely coming, like Uncharted 2. or the games that aren't really system sellers (but are great nonetheless) like R&C and Motorstorm.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think the future X360 games hold their own more than well enough against PS3 titles, and claiming otherwise is imo uneducated view of the situation when personal preferences are ignored, but PS3's library is growing and the high quality Blu-ray playback is making the overall value pretty high compared to the 50$ cheaper X360. So going forward MS has their hands full.
 
+1.

Resistance is one of the best selling PS3 titles to date. God of War is pretty big, especially in NA. MGS4 is already a proven system seller (maybe not a huge system seller, but it helped nonetheless). LittleBigPlanet has a lot of positive buzz around it and appeals to many gamers. i agree Killzone 2 won't reach Halo or CoD4 numbers, but does that matter? its very impressive so far, and if reviews are good, i'm sure it will be a big hit. and we can all agree that GT5 will be a winner. and don't forget the games that are most likely coming, like Uncharted 2. or the games that aren't really system sellers (but are great nonetheless) like R&C and Motorstorm.

I dunno why you people dont think that Kz2 has the potential to reach CoD4 numbers, if we believe even 1% of the hype going on in the KZ2 thread, this game should piss on CoD4 sales.

Why shouldn't it sell more than CoD4?
 
I dunno why you people dont think that Kz2 has the potential to reach CoD4 numbers, if we believe even 1% of the hype going on in the KZ2 thread, this game should piss on CoD4 sales.

Why shouldn't it sell more than CoD4?

The "4" has alot to do with it, with 4 games out the game has a greater audience from the get go. And it´s really facing CoD5 :)
 
You are basing that on your personal taste?

Sales numbers are like this (might be a bit wrong with some)
Resistance 2-2.5 million
KZ1 2.5 million
MGS3 3 million
GOW 2-3 million

Gears of War 5.5 million

Not to mention the still substantial difference in hardware sales. Since Japan isn't really important for western titles, it looks like this:
X360 19-19.5 million
PS3 11.5-12 million


MGS4 moved what, 200K units in the US maybe? And those were the last of the backwards compatible PS3s, do not forget that either. And some people called Halo3's performance lackluster, so just what is the magic number then?
 
Er, MS does have a few more compelling exclusives. And I couldn't care less about Resistance, God of War or even MGS, the appeal of these certain titles is far from universal.
Gran Turismo is truly a certain winner, LBP is more then risky, and KZ2 probably won't move numbers comparable to Halo3 or even the PS3 version of COD4.

But I do agree that the X360 is less and less competitive. Seriously, $50 is a joke just for the Bluray playback, and then there's the wifi too.

Do you think it is a joke you have to pay $50 more because it had Blu-Ray or do you think it´s a joke that it is so cheap?

You forgot the free online btw.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sales numbers are like this (might be a bit wrong with some)
Resistance 2-2.5 million
KZ1 2.5 million
MGS3 3 million
GOW 2-3 million

Gears of War 5.5 million

Not to mention the still substantial difference in hardware sales. Since Japan isn't really important for western titles, it looks like this:
X360 19-19.5 million
PS3 11.5-12 million


MGS4 moved what, 200K units in the US maybe? And those were the last of the backwards compatible PS3s, do not forget that either. And some people called Halo3's performance lackluster, so just what is the magic number then?

Xbox owners buy more software - they are certainly in the hardcore crowd. But you have to ask, how big is this hardcore crowd? As big as the Xbox crowd? 25million? Is the 360 going to expand on its market?

How much hardware did Halo 3 move? I don't recall there being a very big spike.

And wah? Japan isn't important why?
 
What I mean is that it's a joke to sell the 360 for only $50 less, just for the BR playback alone. It should drop to $300 right now.

Halo3 caused about 550K hardware sales in september, more then double the average. It's actually an all time record for this month I guess; search for the thread...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top