Nothing strange about it?
Perhaps you are trying to balance my sour comments towards Microsoft and didn't think out your point.
Just extend the logic I used for the PS2's effect on Dreamcast's launch. (PS2 = Xbox360)
Xbox360 was not a new console.
Dreamcast was a new console from an almost forgotten console company.
Xbox360 was the continuation of a console that was already on the market.
Furthermore it claimed backwards compatible with an existing library of games.
How is this similar to Dreamcast's situation leading into launch?
There are no accidents in the logic or strange exceptions to the scenario I described for Dreamcast.
Xbox360 did well because it was established system being continued.
Dreamcast was nothing like that. It did not have a stable public image and did not have a pre-existing game library.
Perhaps you are trying to point out that both launch first in their generation.
There again the logic is consistent with what I described in regards to Dreamcast.
Consumers held out after launch, waiting to see what the competition would offer.
But the PS3's launch was more expensive and without an exceptional offering, so sales went to the less expensive HD system.
Read the charts and see for yourself.
Holiday Before the PS3 launched: http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?con...All&cons3=X360®3=All&start=38655&end=39019
Holiday After the PS3 launched: http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?con...All&cons3=X360®3=All&start=39019&end=39383
To examine my points accurately you must ignore the spikes and launch shortages and instead look at the weekly numbers for an approximate average.
The Xbox360 was moving roughly 90,000 units a week before the PS3.
Then even with two new competitors to split the market with it is doing almost 100,000 a month.
So obviously people really were holding out for the competition.
Otherwise sales could not have remained steady. The holdouts were satisfied and decided to start buying.
Now for the point I made about SDK 3.0 (October 19, 2007) and more specifically Runtime 2.1.
These two items along with some other things mentioned and a few impressive exclusive titles have altered people’s mood about PS3.
Look at the current & recent world wide charts. http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php
This is a coincidence since consumer are not aware of this major SDK improvement.
But starting the weekend of release the Xbox360 and the PS3 began switching places in their global popular sales ranking.
Despite Januaries NPD surprising many people and Microsoft spinning things that February would be different, was that true?
Right now 2/24/2008 there is a steady gap between them. Wii > PS3 > Xbox360
Furthermore let’s look ahead, by looking back at the PS3’s spike in March and April of 2007.
That was a price drop, new bundles, new colors, and Dual Shock 3, released just in Japan.
You don't have to be an exceptional analyst to anticipate what will happen in America this April & June.
New Bundles, New Color, New Dual Shock 3, lower power Chipset, Yellow Dog Linux 6, GT5 MGS4, etc etc.
The same thing that happened last year will happen again this year except in a larger market with games on the global market.
So the spike will in all likelihood easily be larger and longer than last years. This is also the beginning of summer Vacation.
This leads to a continuing trend that is hard to ignore. http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php
PS3 is in fact easier to understand on a hardware level and program for on a software level than the PS2.
(I say this from my own personally informed perspective, having read a lot of open documentation.)
Additionally the PS3 sold 1 million units in the UK in a short period of time than Xbox360 and PS2.
PS3 has been lagging globally because it was without Dual Shock.
However it is on track to both match and outpace the PS2’s legacy going from launch forward.
http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php?cons1=Wii®1=All&cons2=PS3®2=All&cons3=PS2®3=All&weeks=156
The cost of making the PS3 was also able to reach Black, in a shorter period of time than the PS2.
The Dreamcast really was the origin of all current gaming.
This goes largely ignored or unknown to the online gaming community.
A press that seemed to revel in negatively questioning Dreamcast previous history of multiple systems.
Has nothing bad to say about Xbox360 going through 5 different versions and the PS3 through 4 less different versions.
The controller of the Xbox360 looks like the one used by Dreamcast, even choosing the same colors and similar triggers.
The motion sensing Wiimote & nunchuck used with Wii, were really invented by Midway for use with the Dreamcast.
The Dreamcast was the first White symmetrical console.
The first to support internet browsing and gaming.
The first to support keyboard and mouse.
The first to have its own private gaming network.
The first to be broadband capable.
The first to have voice interaction (Seaman).
The first to base controller ports on USB.
The First to win my mind and imagination.
So even if all these and many other things are not truly firsts.
It was the first to bring so many great gaming things together in my life.
More importantly after the NES, it was my first truly loved gaming system.
It even sold for a lower price than the Wii from launch forward = $199.
Dreamcast was the most bombastically Awesome system in the last decade.
It was sad to see it bomb out against false worries, copy theft, and stiff competition.
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