Why isn't XB360 outselling PS3 in Europe? *spawn

[AzBat]

If there are a few other American posters on board that can attest that would be great, but count me in for, "no, the styling of the original xbox didn't help in sales in the states".

Nobody thought the original xbox looked good!

The only thing good about it was it had a top-class GPU and a HDD which enabled some really cool game experiences for equal price to a playstation2.

Us Americans were able to look past that ugly mess and see it for the inner beauty it had!

Actually I'm an American & I thought it looked pretty good. But I was more drawn to it's PC centric nature. So going from a huge PC to a small Xbox was a godsend. But on the other hand, it was the beefy GPU, CPU & hard drive that really made me take notice. I think you'll find that a lot of PC gamers were drawn to it for those reasons. Once it came out then everybody realized that it was an awesome system for first person shooters. I haven't played a FPS on the PC since.

BTW, to keep it on topic of nationalism. I absolutely believe nationalism played a part in Xbox sales in the US. Just not sure how much. The last true American console was the Atari Jaguar. I think people were really excited to see something that wasn't from Japan. BTW, 3DO doesn't count since they had Japanese mfgs build the systems. However, I was excited about it for the same reasons as Xbox. I just don't think many people in the States cared especially after the initial $700 price tag.

Tommy McClain

 

[TheChefO]

That undoes your argument nicely! And your mention of graphics was focussed on 360's cross-platform titles generally performing better than PS3, but Joe Gamer doesn't know or doesn't care; not the difference between Wii and PS360.

The argument of ps3 vs xb360 has more to do with: "is the higher price translating to a premium gaming experience?"

It is still a factor. Granted, it is seemingly a diminishing factor as graphics advance, but it is still something to consider for gamers making a console purchase.

I disagree. Social forces come into play from install base. Launching a platform or growing a platform by attracing new customers outside the existing peer groups requires marketing. That is, marketing attracts new customers. Executing your product/services well generates loyalty and self-propagation via peer groups.

I can see why you might say that.

Decidedly incorrect. XB360 doesn't have a BluRay player. XB360 hasn't had iPlayer and a host of other EU onine TV channels for a while (that's being fixed). PS3 hasn't had the Netflix tie in. 360 hasn't got Music/Movies Unlimted. etc. There's a lot of difference between the media services on offer which will only become more important if/as the media services become consolidated. If Movies Unlimited becomes successful, MS will be lacking in their next console, and similar if Live becomes dominant then Sony will be lacking. But you can't mix-and-match the content, so it'll be an important deciding factor similar to a hardware format war. This is one attack vector Apple has open to them should the decide to give consoles a go - they already have a very large install base or iTunes users who could be offered an entertainment system that supports all their iContent.

I understand things are different in EU, but I'm going under the assumption they will both offer a similar experience online and nullify any major advantages either way.

The origins of PS weren't to make a console for console gamers, but to make the go-to platform for people to be entertained (play-station) as opposed to work (work-station). Sony went out to appeal to everyone, and in that they were pretty successful, although mostly attracting new gamers from young people I think. It took PS2 to broaden gaming to its most encompassing.

I disagree.

That was their end-game, but not how they entered the market.

PS1 could play CD's, other than that, not much of a multimedia powerhouse and no online component to sell multimedia services there either.

Uh, yeah. Nintendo and Sega were barely heard of. Sony entered a practically empty market.

They were facing a competitor with significantly deeper pockets that could invest heavily in hardware, advertising, and research. This new competitor had a vested interest to see this entertainment device spread beyond gaming and fully claim the livingroom. Sega and Nintendo could not compete. Sega was then driven out of the competition and Nintendo barely survived. If not for the gimmick of Wii, many would question whether they would still be in this game.

 

[TheChefO]

Actually I'm an American & I thought it looked pretty good.

I found the one American that liked the original design!

 

[AzBat]

I found the one American that liked the original design!

LOL I doubt I'm the only one, but I will say I liked it even better when I switched to a transparent blue case.

Tommy McClain

 

[Arwin]

They were facing a competitor with significantly deeper pockets that could invest heavily in hardware, advertising, and research. This new competitor had a vested interest to see this entertainment device spread beyond gaming and fully claim the livingroom. Sega and Nintendo could not compete. Sega was then driven out of the competition and Nintendo barely survived. If not for the gimmick of Wii, many would question whether they would still be in this game.

Wasn't the Playstatoin 1 born from Nintendo cancelling cooperation with Sony on having a CD drive instead of the cart based system they eventually went for? Sony having done a big part of the preparation of providing CD based gaming then realised it would be relatively easy to instead of writing off their investment, expanding it to a console of their own?

 

[TheChefO]

Wasn't the Playstatoin 1 born from Nintendo cancelling cooperation with Sony on having a CD drive instead of the cart based system they eventually went for?

Indeed Playstation was originally to be an add-on for SNES. Nintendo somewhere along the timeline of development decided they didn't like the idea of Sony taking a percentage of game sales, and cancelled the add-on.

However, that doesn't spell out Sony's long-term intention with Playstation.

I think they had every intention to taking the gaming device to the general entertainment hub we see today. I'm not sure they envisioned BRD and all of the specific online streaming content providers & methods, but the intent was to be the center of living-room entertainment and to get a cut of the action from whatever content was delivered via whatever method was necessary for delivery.

A "workstation" at work and a "playstation" at home.