Microsoft’s Regional Director Rips Blu-Ray Questions Sony's Strategy
- Thread starter Ben-Nice
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Nick Laslett
Regular
You would think with all this doom and gloom about the PS3 that the Xbox360 was actually a sales phenomenon.
It is a shame things could not be farther from the truth. It is still in the balance whether the Xbox360 will meet it's initial sales projections. As it is the US life-time to date sales are lower than what the Xbox achieved in the same time frame and this is in a market with no direct competition, unlike the Xbox that had to compete with a year old PS2 and Gamecube.
The Xbox360 even manged to underperform the Xbox launch sales in Japan, which is quite an amazing feat, when pre-launch MS made such a big deal about how things would be different this time.
I was disappointed with the Xbox360 May NPD sales figures, now that the hardware shortage is over I wondered what the reason was for such low numbers. It will be hard for sales to pick up during the slow summer months, especialling in the rest of the world where we have the World Cup to occupy us.
As an Xbox360 owner I am thrilled by the quality of the software, especially Oblivion, but at present this does not seem to be converted into hardware sales.
It is a shame things could not be farther from the truth. It is still in the balance whether the Xbox360 will meet it's initial sales projections. As it is the US life-time to date sales are lower than what the Xbox achieved in the same time frame and this is in a market with no direct competition, unlike the Xbox that had to compete with a year old PS2 and Gamecube.
The Xbox360 even manged to underperform the Xbox launch sales in Japan, which is quite an amazing feat, when pre-launch MS made such a big deal about how things would be different this time.
I was disappointed with the Xbox360 May NPD sales figures, now that the hardware shortage is over I wondered what the reason was for such low numbers. It will be hard for sales to pick up during the slow summer months, especialling in the rest of the world where we have the World Cup to occupy us.
As an Xbox360 owner I am thrilled by the quality of the software, especially Oblivion, but at present this does not seem to be converted into hardware sales.
TheChefO said:
Actually high-end today supports 1080p very well. It just started though. It won't be "standard" for years to come, but we all know that today's high-end is always tomorrow's low-end.
Nick Laslett said:
The difference in the equation is that most gamers don't know what the competition is bringing to the table yet. At the time when xbox launched, everyone laid their cards on the table and consumers could compare equally. When all systems are available on the store shelves you'll see a massive pickup of sales across the board.
scooby_dooby
Legend
Nick Laslett said:
The XBOX was selling at $199 within 6 months of it's launch, before the pricedrop, at $300 it sold a mere 75,000 units in April.
I find these NA xbox-360 comparisons fairly disengenious, it's slaughtering XBOX in worldwide sales, which everyone likes to ignore.
I agree the numbers are very low for 360 for May, it will be interesting to see what the reaction is if they fall again.
scooby_dooby
Legend
Well that would be strictly US sales I believe, which were ~3.5million. So MS is on trck in my estimation to at least double that, and that's not bad considering they don't even have Halo.TheChefO said:Interesting - thanks for the info ScoobWhat were the worldwide sales of Xbox 1 year after launch?
Here's xbox1 sales in NA for the first 12 months:
And PS2 sales in it's first 12 months:
220k at $399 is bad, but not the end of the world, PS2 only sold 280k in may of it's first year in the US at $299. PS3 could completely destroy that, but at the $500 pricepoint I highly doubt it.
courtesy of GAF
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=105508
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scooby_dooby said:
how do you figure 'double'? Do you mean WWX360 vs USXB1?
surely the measure should be a straight USXB1 v USX360? in which case the X360 is selling slower than XB1 (1.7m v 2.1m). Sure some of this could be down to shortages, but they don't exsist anymore - so sales should (in theory) be high(er) than they are - this (IMHO) shows that demand <or= supply and therefore the sales should just continue with XB1 like figures (about 3m after 1 year).
For me the interesting period will be when PS3 is launched - will X360 hit 1m sales like XB1 did at xmas?
As for BC - as someone how worked in Currys over the DC & PS2 launches, BC was a major selling point (as was DVD playback)...I really think parents will be happy with console and one game (little Johnny will get xmas money and buy his own games - but if not he's already got lots of games he already plays). The other factor in BC is (and this is a great example IMHO) PES5 - without PES being BC I wouldn't have bought an X360...with PS2 I'm sure some have games they simply don't want to 'lose' when they upgrade - the sell on of PS2 will finance a game and save space...BC is important and I wonder if the lack of support from MS (towards XB1 & BC) is a factor in it not selling better (it's got no competition after all) .
On the 'system seller' side of things, tho I partly agree - I think too much is placed onto H3, I certainly think it'll boost sales, but H1 & H2 didn't make XB1 the 'must have' console...IMHO variety of sofware (or lack of it) cost XB1.
Just my thoughts.
On the 'system seller' side of things, tho I partly agree - I think too much is placed onto H3, I certainly think it'll boost sales, but H1 & H2 didn't make XB1 the 'must have' console...IMHO variety of sofware (or lack of it) cost XB1.
Just my thoughts.
eb said:
Bc agreed - its important for parents - even more so for ps2 parents as theyre likely to have more games (bigger investment).
Halo - Disagree
Aside from Halo there was no reason to own xbox on launch day. And did you see their sales numbers for Halo2? When they drop Halo3 it will move systems on hype alone. Hopefully the game is good and can continue the sales stream.
scooby_dooby
Legend
eb said:
Surely? Why? So you can completely ignore the main advantage of a worldwide launch which is building up a larger install base in the initial year?
I'm comparing WW to WW for the first year, MS should easily hit 7million which would be double what XBOX sold in it's first year. If MS can sell 10million by years end, they will have sold nearly half of the lifetime XBOX sales in one year.
360 tracking below in the US is not a good thing for MS, but one look at the numbers tells you exactly why. Paltry numbers in Nov/Dec compared to XBOX1. The bulk of XBOX's sales were in those two months, after that 360 has been outselling it without a pricedrop, and without Halo which is not bad.
Still 220k is WEAK, whatcha gonna do now Pete??
TheChefO, whilst I agree H3 will boost sales (well duh!), I'm just saying the X360 has some great titles that made me want it at launch (in particular CoD2, PGR3 & Kameo). Add to that the mouth watering prospects of GR:AW, GoW, H3 and Dead Rising and you had me sold anyway. MOST early adopters will ALREADY be Halo fans (IMHO) and whilst I 100% agree there will be a spike, don't forget that the total Halo sales figures alone added to the installed userbase won't be enough to be the 'winner' (as such)...whereas I think a lot of people are expecting H3 to be some sort of game that will mean everyone must own a X360, I simply disagree as H1 & H2 didn't make the XB1 such a console!
Scooby, again I agree - obviously it's good to have a total userbase twice that of the original machine, however it's somewhat apples to oranges is it not? X360 is selling slower than XB1 in both the US and Japan (and the shortages have now gone, so that's no longer an excuse)...Europe however seems to be a great success story so far. Also I'm curious, do you know what the sales were for Europe and Japan up to Oct/Nov 2002? These figures need to be added - I can't believe it's be as low as 500k but I guess it's possible? As for outselling since it's initial launch...couldn't that just be the stock (finally) coming in and now those people have a console the figures are begining to drop?
I'm not totally disagreeing with either of you, just trying to see it from a different angle.
Scooby, again I agree - obviously it's good to have a total userbase twice that of the original machine, however it's somewhat apples to oranges is it not? X360 is selling slower than XB1 in both the US and Japan (and the shortages have now gone, so that's no longer an excuse)...Europe however seems to be a great success story so far. Also I'm curious, do you know what the sales were for Europe and Japan up to Oct/Nov 2002? These figures need to be added - I can't believe it's be as low as 500k but I guess it's possible? As for outselling since it's initial launch...couldn't that just be the stock (finally) coming in and now those people have a console the figures are begining to drop?
I'm not totally disagreeing with either of you, just trying to see it from a different angle.
eb said:
I agree as there are a lot of people that don't like fps's and even a chunk that do still don't like them on consoles. The point of getting people to buy into 360 early is to establish a large enough base of consumers that MS can sell to Publishers to make their games available on their system, regardless of why they buy in as long as they do so and do so early it helps them accomplish their goal of more consumers/more publishers/more games/more sales/more royalties.
So if halo 3 helps them build this base sooner rather than later then it is a plus.
scooby_dooby
Legend
I compare apples to apples in my 2nd paragraph. The only reason the 360 is tracking below xbox1 is because it had such horrible sales in Nov/Dec. In the following months, 360 has been outselling it pretty well, until may
And May sales for the Xbox are pretty obviously due to the price drop down to $199.scooby_dooby said:I compare apples to apples in my 2nd paragraph. The only reason the 360 is tracking below xbox1 is because it had such horrible sales in Nov/Dec. In the following months, 360 has been outselling it pretty well, until may
mckmas8808
Legend
Sis said:
With NO next-gen competitor I would expect higher sells from the 360. I expected at least 350,000 units sold.
scooby_dooby said:
Sorry, but hey will never do that.
They sold some 2,4 million in the US till now, Europe less than half of that, Japan / Rest of the world almost nothing and sales are dropping now due to the summer hole, i doubt they even get the 5 million till end of the year, considering Sony will start hyping PS3 with the start of autumn.
mckmas8808
Legend
Nemo80 said:
I can see MS hitting 6 million worldwide before the PS3 is out. And be year's end I can see them hitting close to 8 million. According to Sony they will also have 4 million shipped (i.e. sold if they can actually move and make the product) sold world wide by year's end.
Japan really is hurting MS.
scooby_dooby
Legend
Nemo80 said:
They are still claiming to have 5million by the end of this month. Even if they're under, you're probably still looking at 4.5mil by the end of june worst case. I think 6-7mil by Nov is pretty realistic.
btw: do you have sale #'s for all 30 countries 360 is currently available in?
