Surprise: A Console That's Available For Purchase Outsells Two That Aren't
from the fun-with-statistics dept
While the Nintendo Wii and the Sony PlayStation 3's arrivals into the market were met with a lot of hoopla (and plenty of stupidity, the actual supply of the machines themselves couldn't match the actual hype. Few of the consoles were actually available, while those that were being sold by third parties carried a high premium. It's hardly surprising, then, to see that the Xbox 360, which was essentially available to anybody wanting to buy one, outsold both the Wii and PS3 in December, and its dominance during the month really doesn't signify how things will play out among the three machines over the long term. After all, the same sort of shortages happened when the Xbox 360 launched, and now it's the dominant console. Certainly not being able to have large numbers of machines on hand for the holiday season -- though it looks like supplies might be easing -- gave the Xbox 360 a boost. But the real battle will be to see which console leads sales at the end of the 2007 holiday season, and for the entire year. Update: Well, hold on: it looks like the numbers upon which the original story may be inaccurate. NPD Group, the purported source of the sales figures, says it's not yet released numbers for the timeframe being discussed, and won't do so until next week.
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Re:
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Who Cares?
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Re: Who Cares?
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If its not a Wii, its going back.
(ok, not everybody, but my next door neighbor is)
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Eh...
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ps2 outsold them all
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everything gets outdated. every computer you ever buy, every car you ever drive, everything. play the consoles while they are around. nobody suggested popularity was important.
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Just to let you know, that is not a real Playstation 3 system. I forget the name the give them, all my friends have a ps3 and I've only seen it freeze once, and you didn't have to restart the system, just hold down the PS buttion and exit the game.
Not like my friends XBOX 360, we left dead rising on for 8 hours and it bricked itself. after taking it apart and heat gunning it to resoder everything, it lasted 24 more hours of dead rising and died again. I've also played the we, granted I do think the wiimote is a great idea, the system is lacking some major power, and the wiimote just pisses me off sometimes. The PS3 is the future, blue ray, cell processor, it's already got Yellow dog linux for it. It's basicly a gamming system and a computer. We've put linux on my friends PS3 and it works like a charm, the only things they need to do is wifi(I think they already added a guidde on how to set it up) and openGL.
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Nintendo
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they were
As for the PS3, they aren't getting $600 of my money for, as Arkwin suggests, a "gaming system and a computer" seeing as how my computer whips the PS3 hands down for graphics and performance, doesn't require Sony's DRM BS and only cost me about 1/2 that to put together.
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N.E.S.
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360 top Dog..
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Sales Comparison Nov 05/06
PS3 Unit Sales Nov. 2006 - 197,000
Xbox360 Unit Sales Nov. 2005 - 325,902
Wii Unit Sales Nov. 2006 - 476,000
Now for fun, lets add these:
PSP Unit Sales Nov. 2006 - 412,000
Xbox360 Unit Sales Nov. 2006 - 511,000
GBA Unit Sales Nov. 2006 - 641,000
PS2 Unit Sales Nov. 2006 - 664,000
DS Unit Sales Nov. 2006 - 918,000
For some reason, I can't find any original Xbox sales numbers. It's weird to me articles would include the PS2 sales and not the Xbox sales..
I'd say the real winner is Nintendo (Wii, DS, GBA) since they actually make money on all of their products sold. (+games and peripherals).
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To continue...
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Breakdown of the Systems
Mark my words: Wii for the "Wiin" this round.
Xbox 360: Definitely the "high end" console to have. If you have a HDTV and you play games, you owe it to yourself to get this system. While the launch titles deserved to be chucked in to the garbage before they even hit the store shelves, there are some really great games for this system. Namely "Gears of War", "Viva Pinata", "Oblivion", "Dead Rising" and "F.E.A.R.". While there are obviously other games that one may take quite a liking to, those 5 are the primary games to look for. Being that you can get the HD-DVD add-on for a "mere" $200 is quite good also. While you can get a decent HD-DVD player for around $150 before shipping and any applicable taxes, one has to consider the quality of such players as opposed to one made directly by Microsoft, whom of course had a major hand in making this format. As for whether you should care about HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, consider that it's not really worth worrying about it yet and you're better off waiting a couple of years before caring.
Bottom Line: The Xbox 360 will do pretty great and will help assure a "stronghold" of sorts towards the generation after this. It will provide for greater advancement in the high end department of gaming. A.K.A. Second Place(for this generation)
(As for which format will win, my prediction is HD-DVD as todays market just doesn't want to pay for the extremely higher price of Blu-Ray. Albight, when it comes down to it if they get the Blu-Ray to be as reliable as the HD-DVD format and the price about the same, I would say that the Blu-Ray would win hands down. The only problem is, that I can promise you that Blu-Ray won't meet that criteria before HD-DVD is in the majority of homes that will care about HD and thus, it will have already lost.)
Playstation 3: It's doomed. There really is no other way of looking at it. Unless they fix all the hardware problems, make sure the games never cost over $60(including any special editions of games), and lower the cost to at least $400, there is no way for this console to survive this round. Sony made a gigantic mistake by not waiting until Christmas of '07 to release this console. If they had waited until then and fixed all of their current problems by then, including how many were available for the initial launch, and making the price tag about $100 for both versions of this console, then they would have had a pretty decent fighting chance. As it is though, Sony is going to take a BIG hit with this mess up! There are no two ways about it.
R.I.P. Playstation 3: While I'm quite certain enthusiasts who love modding may love the array of options that are open to them with this system, the fact is they're a minority when it comes down to it. It's a realistic fact that Sony may actually decide to cut their loses and either stop making the Playstation 3 permanently or until they can fix the bugs and the price tag. While their attempt to make a computer/gaming console is admirable, admirable won't save this system from the grave.
Summary: Wii has already won, Xbox 360 is going to do really awesome and the Playstation 3 is playing chess with the grim reaper. Wii is for anybody who likes games, the Xbox 360 is for people who love HD and games that are on the edge of technology that is available to them(physically and monetarily) and the Playstation 3 is for modders.
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Re: Breakdown of the Systems
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Something To Ponder
That sounds like the 360 sold at a faster clip, but it didn't. It was available for almost 3 more weeks than the Wii was.
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Numbers?
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Yes, Numbers
The Wii only outsold the other systems in November.
Try Google: "nintendo wii sales 2006 npd". You will find several stories on the first page with that same data (as above).
But, being that the Xbox360 had 3 weeks in Nov. over the Wii, I would say that in the same Nov. 19th-Dec 31st timeframe, the Wii did outsell the Xbox360. I guess we'll know later this month when the NPD Group releases all of the sales numbers.
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The way I see it...
I see a lot people taking the Wii as a second system becuase of the fun factor and the price. If you have already dropped $400(for a 360) or $600(for a PS3) then you are more likely to go for the $250 Wii instead of dropping $400 or $600 for the PS3 or 360 you didn't buy as your first system.
Add that to the fact that Nintendo is targeting non-traditional gamers (whole families instead of just the kids, the olderly, and as much as I hate to say it, the majority of women) this generation the Wii is looking very good. The 360 (a very powerful console that is catering to the home theater market as well as the console market) is the only thing that will keep them out of first and if the 360 is on top then I think Nintendo will take 2nd for sure.
As for Sony I think they have too many pissed off customers out there. And with the high price of the system people are scared of shelling out that much money for something they may not like. I have no pity for the people that thought they were gonna get rich quick by selling a PS3 on ebay but now are struggling to get rid of them. Hell I've been seeing PS3s on the shelf for the last serveral weeks but I have yet to see a Wii for sale.
But that's okay I have enough PS2/Xbox/GC stuff to play until the Wii is plentiful again. I hope to have a 360/Wii combo by the end of 2007. Maybe buy one this summer and other this Christmas.
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Not really a valid comparison, is it?
Obviously the new thing(s) will always - either by accident or by design - be in short supply. Remember how difficult it was to get an Xbox360 for Christmas 05?
Given that they have been out for a year, one would hope that they have gotten their supply chain sorted out by now.
Nothing to see here folks, move along...
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