Why did you go as far back as the start of the year? If you asked me at the start of the year, of course I would be surprised. Considering the recent time-line of events, I can honestly say I'm not surprised. Big profile "system sellers" only temporarily boost sales - it's a combination of price and software that ultimately sells consoles, and the PS3 is still too expensive to dip into the casual market.
By "recent timeline of events" I take it you mean the 360's price cut. That should be been fairly obvious a mile away - most users on B3D were moaning about the 360's idiotic delay to drop the price since Jan/Feb. That was always going to happen pre-Christmas. The fact that it took as long as it did surprised more people than that it happened when it did.
), but certainly very respectable.obonicus - I guess what you're saying is that based on information available mid-December it was expected that the PS3 would have a worse year than last year at the same price with a better catalogue of games. On this point, I disagree. You're also saying that before that point, it would have been a surprise. I of course agree here.
By recent timeline of events, I mean the 360 getting a price cut and Sony not responding, games like LBP and Resistance 2 not moving systems, and that in November, the PS3 was already down from last year. My reply was to Laa-Yosh, who seemed genuinely surprised that the PS3 is down from last year. I'm sure all of us know what has happened recently, so all things considered, how can you still be surprised?By "recent timeline of events" I take it you mean the 360's price cut. That should be been fairly obvious a mile away - most users on B3D were moaning about the 360's idiotic delay to drop the price since Jan/Feb. That was always going to happen pre-Christmas. The fact that it took as long as it did surprised more people than that it happened when it did.
The surprise here of course isn't that the 360 is doing well - it's that the PS3 is doing worse than last holiday season.
Oh and the year on year stuff is true - but I don't really think the PS3 should have pride in improving over 2007... it wasn't just expected, it was necessary for the machine to survive. The 360 of course had a fairly flat time, but again, 2007's numbers were great, and this years was also quite good. Not DS/Wii good (which are
But what do you think would cause a bigger increase in sales, a price cut, or a GT5 release? Like I said, big profile games temporarily boost sales, the cost of a console will have a bigger impact on sales initially and in the long run. The casual market is the biggest of them all, and like I said before, the PS3 is still too expensive to dip into that market, and they will never be able to compete or improve on their numbers unless they get their price down. That's what I think anyway. :smile:
All I'm saying is a price cut (especially when you hit the sweet spot) will have more impact on hardware sales than a better software lineup. I was replying to you specifically when I said that I think the 360's success this November/December was more to do with the pricecut.
That was then, when the PS3's lineup wasn't anything to brag about. Not to mention it was bundled with the PS3. I think the PS3's lineup is strong enough that a price cut is more important than a better software lineup at this point. 399 is too expensive to build on, you have to dip into that casual market, where I'm sure the majority of them aren't willing to drop $400 on a video game machine.
Multi-platform games have always sold considerably more on 360, with a few rare exceptions like Assassin's Creed. And the 360's install base is more than double the PS3's. Regardless, I think it's a moot poit TBH... I don't see how the gap widening ever so slightly between multi-platform games shows that the 360's increase is due to the software more so than the price cut.
Again, I don't think software alone can turn this around. I think a price cut to 299 paired with KZ2 is a good start though.
