Domain: vgchartz.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to vgchartz.com.
Comments · 322
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Re:Let the eBay'ers rejoice
Are you kidding me? They do outsource their production. Pretty much all of it actually. Their stuff is just that popular. Look at the sales figures, they out pace the sales of everything else, unless you count baseball cards and chewing gum.
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Re:Taking the wii controller tothe next level
The Wii continues to dominate the console market in numbers sold. Couple that with the massive sales of the DS and it's quite apparent that Nintendo is utterly crushing the competition. =) http://www.vgchartz.com/
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Re:So this brings about a deeply stupid Question.
So true, so true. We can already see the console industry suffering a horrific backlash from peddling the most heavily DRMed hardware on the planet.
It's hard to see how they can survive much longer with sales like these? -
Re:Xbox 360 Hardware Still Isn't Profitable
It was the first console in the current generation of consoles to sell 10 million in the U.S., compared to 8.8 Wii's and 4.1 PS3's.
Wait, let me get this straight. The XBox 360 had a full year head start on the other two consoles, and yet you're crowing about a mere 1.2 million difference between the Wii and 360? I have nothing against the 360, but you need to get some serious perspective.
Let's take a look at some current numbers, shall we?
Wii: 25.79M
360: 18.89M
PS3: 12.60M
The fact that the Wii has a third more consoles than the 360 isn't surprising. What IS surprising is that the 360 is starting to lose its lead against the PS3. With a 4.2 million console difference, the race is awfully darn close. (For comparison, the original XBox sold 24 million consoles compared to Sony's 120+ million.)
As I said, I have nothing against the 360. I can honestly say that it has a lot of great features and is possibly the most balanced machine of the current generation. (Hardcore? We got that. Casual? We got that too. Downloadable movies and TV? Check. Leader in online support? Check.) That being said, it is under brutal attack from the competition. Microsoft is going to need to step up their game if they don't want to fall behind. Because I can tell you this: Both Nintendo and Sony are working double-time on the same goal. -
Re:Killer Features
http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii®1=All&cons2=PS3®2=All&cons3=X360®3=All&start=39201&end=39565 says otherwise. In the last 5 months or so, the PS3 has been steadily outselling the 360, by 20-30%, but earlier in the year, the Xbox had the edge. During the last 12 months, the 360 has sold about 8.8 million units, the PS3 about 8.9 million. (from http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii®1=All&cons2=PS3®2=All&cons3=X360®3=All&start=39201&end=39565&weekly=1 )
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Re:Killer Features
http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii®1=All&cons2=PS3®2=All&cons3=X360®3=All&start=39201&end=39565 says otherwise. In the last 5 months or so, the PS3 has been steadily outselling the 360, by 20-30%, but earlier in the year, the Xbox had the edge. During the last 12 months, the 360 has sold about 8.8 million units, the PS3 about 8.9 million. (from http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii®1=All&cons2=PS3®2=All&cons3=X360®3=All&start=39201&end=39565&weekly=1 )
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Re:do ya feel lucky, Comcast?True, not all 360's have hard drives. However, there have been 3 times more 360's sold than PS3's and approximately 80% of 360's do have hard drives, so there are still more 360's with hard drives out there than there are PS3's I suggest you do some more homework. The Xbox360 is currently about 11.53M in the US compared to the 4.65M for the PS3 (approx 2.5 to 1). However the US is not the world and if you take the rest (including Japan) overall Xbox360 sales are lagging behind the PS3. Basically at the moment the Xbox has sold 18.35M world wide to the PS3's 11.92M (check it out here and since the Xbox360 has been out a year longer this does not look good for the console. People may prefer watching shows on their TV to their PC. I don't disagree on that however many more people like to watch a show on their TV as a group or family (a PC does not offer that) and since HDTV is taking off in first world counties people won't put up with a picture which can look fine on a small TV or a PC with a 20" to 22" screen but not a 40" and above HDTV even with upscaling.
I have said before and will say it again that video downloads (aka "video on demand") are not going to take off world wide since the bandwidth is just not there and even if it was it would be highly wasteful of bandwidth. Like it or not we are talking about DRM and control to stop piracy and I cannot see this changing any time soon. The alternative and most effective way of viewing movies is "video on availability" which is something that companies like Foxtel offer. Sure there are going to be some places where downloads are viable although I think you will find it won't be cheap. -
Re:Bull
Also unlike COD4, Sins doesn't have console versions available for every system under the sun (pun not really intended). Yes, what Sins has done is remarkable, but comparing Sins PC sales to COD4 PC sales is apples to oranges, because PC games of virtually all console titles are cannibalized by the console sales. (For reference, the XBOX 360 version of COD4 sold 750K copies its first *week* -- http://www.vgchartz.com/aweekly.php?date=39397&boxartz=1 has the numbers).
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Re:I'll buy that...
no GTA game has outsold the Halo or Smash Bros franchises
Except for GTA:San Andreas (15.36M), GTA:Vice City (14.20M) and GTA:III (11.60M) of course, which ALL sold better than either Halo I (6.43M), Halo II(8.45M), Halo III (7.41M), Super Smash Brothers (5.55M) or Smash Brothers Melee (7.08M) Smash Brothers Brawl (1.50M so far). Unless you're comparing single GTA games to whole franchises in which case GTA:SA and GTA:VC beat every smash brothers game put together.
My references of course are here. I know a lot of people here like Nintendo at the moment and a lot of people like plugging the XBox as a covert way to rubbish Sony, but could people at least check the facts before hitting the mod button? The parent was just blatantly wrong and a little check on google could have fixed it. I mean, how many people even HAD a gamecube for Melee? And how many people would buy an XBox without GTA:San Andreas? I mean, the statement was just obviously wrong.
So, if I may digress from parent bashing and say something constructive about a game series I love. They sold better because they are simply better games. I've played a fair bit of SSB and Halo and they are both good fun, but in GTA you get to run, drive, shoot, jump, ride, fly, parachute, play game consoles, shop and play a huge variety of novel and challenging missions. Halo and SSB is pretty much the same the whole way through. Sure, you've got some vehicles in Halo and you've got different characters in SSB. But it doesn't just give you the world of potential adventures like GTA does. SSB you hurt players and then hit them off the edge, that's more or less the game. In Halo you shoot up bad guys, with GTA you might be racing ATVs through the country in one mission, shooting up a drug lords house the next. Maybe after that you can steal a flightless plane and drive it through a tunnel, then use some explosive scale models to sabotage some rival interests. How about a stealth mission, using a dagger to kill guards and go undetected through a Rapper's mansion. Maybe then you can go on a boat race over golf courses, race around town in a clunky van picking up "avant guard" literature then maybe you can sneak into a military base and steal a jetpack. GTA is always different, always fresh, always quirky, and THAT is why so many people love it.
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Re:I'll buy that...
I'm not sure where you're getting your numbers from, but they don't jive with what VGChartz has. The top series from the last generation:
- Grand Theft Auto: 41.16m units (SA: 15.36, VC: 14.20, GTA3:11.60)
- Gran Turismo: 23.75m units(GT3:14.87, GT4:8.88)
- Halo: 14.88m units (H1: 6.43, H2: 8.45)
- Super Smash Bros Melee: 7.08mil
And the list goes on and on and on. GTA was huge, followed by Gran Turismo, and then finally you get Halo. A lot of this has to do with the PS2 being the top selling console of the generation, but when a GTA game was the biggest selling game of a whole generation and the series by far the biggest of the generation, it's pretty rational to expect a ton of sales based on the name alone.
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Re:Open source and standards ftw!Two words concerning Xbox 360: Channel Stuffing. Factor that out (and use a halfway accurate chart this time, Sport)*. Now couple it with the device's inability (still) to turn any profit at all?
Suddenly things don't look so good for the 360.
Even worse news? Compare this little puppy for growth rates.
By the by, Windows Mobile is now being outsold by iPhones in the North American market, and Everyone Else ('cept Palm) in the global markets (ref: Canalys; will dredge up on request).
Microsoft has exactly two main sources of income: Windows licensing, and Office licensing. If they start losing out on those (which looks to be the case as time passes), the whole house of cards will come crashing down on them.
* you used game sales in your chart, not device sales. You also used a single week of game sales as a metric, which is kinda dumb).
Like I said elsewhere, MSFT won't die tomorrow, but I certainly wouldn't count on building an entire career based on 'em...
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Re:Open source and standards ftw!Two words concerning Xbox 360: Channel Stuffing. Factor that out (and use a halfway accurate chart this time, Sport)*. Now couple it with the device's inability (still) to turn any profit at all?
Suddenly things don't look so good for the 360.
Even worse news? Compare this little puppy for growth rates.
By the by, Windows Mobile is now being outsold by iPhones in the North American market, and Everyone Else ('cept Palm) in the global markets (ref: Canalys; will dredge up on request).
Microsoft has exactly two main sources of income: Windows licensing, and Office licensing. If they start losing out on those (which looks to be the case as time passes), the whole house of cards will come crashing down on them.
* you used game sales in your chart, not device sales. You also used a single week of game sales as a metric, which is kinda dumb).
Like I said elsewhere, MSFT won't die tomorrow, but I certainly wouldn't count on building an entire career based on 'em...
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Re:Open source and standards ftw!
You're absolutely right. I'm sure that the XBox360's higher install number and sales rate that keeps pace with the PS3 are all just a backwards sign of it's utter failure. With the rate that Windows is losing ground to Linux, it'll only be another 30 years before it's no longer the dominant player! Windows Mobile also being the dominant player in that field is a fluke, I'm sure, and it's going to fail soon. When you take those factors into account, they've only got a few decades of ridiculous power and profits! THEY'RE DOOMED!!!!
That is, unless they break into a new market or do just about anything else that keeps the status quo. Also, since Firefox hasn't cut IE's install rate to below 50%, the terms "embarrass" and "decimate" might be premature, although decimate does technically apply. -
How's it hangin', Bill?
PS3 CAN take off.. Price it at $299.00 including a game and 2 controllers.
How about a Ferrari with a condo in Dubai? That sure as hell will get units moving! Seriously man, get real. Considering a controller costs about as much as a game nowadays, you can't even find a similar 360 bundle that cheap.
Drop all game prices to below $50.00
If you're putting Sony to task for $60 new-releases, then hold everybody accountable. Anything else is unabashed fanboyism.
until they do that, it will stay as the wannabe console that nobody is buying.
That's weird, according to fact the PS3 sales are on par with the 360 at the same point in their respective life-cycles. But facts are SO over-rated. -
Re:Don't Count HD-DVD Out Yet
http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=PS3®1=All&cons2=X360®2=All&cons3=X360®3=------&start=38676&end=39467&weekly=1
If you look at the sales data, the PS3 is right on track with the 360 in terms of sales versus the amount of time it has been in production.(virtually identical in fact).
That's close to 10 million worldwide sales for Blu-Ray players on top of the marketing data at most sites. Unlike the 360, that's 100% Hi-Def format as well. If you add the two together, it's a starker picture.
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HIGH-DEF MARKET SHARE - BRD VS HD-DVD SOFTWARE SALES (1/13/08 - Nielsen/VideoScan):
Week End. 1/13 Blu-ray Disc: 85 HD-DVD: 15
Year to Date Blu-ray Disc: 74 HD-DVD: 26
Since Inception Blu-ray Disc: 63 HD-DVD: 37
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No Brainer here - this is similar to the total sales if you add in consoles. Blu-Ray is clearly winning by an almost 2:1 margin in both sales and titles. So it's really over. This news piece was just the final confirmation to what most of us already knew. -
Re:"blue ray player" totals
PS3 has been more than doubling that number
So no, it does not include the PS3.
What I find most interesting though is the loss of about 7k sales overall. That would be the cost of a more expensive format.
I personally am happy blue ray wins (I want 50GB burnable disks, not 30GB). But I would have been pretty satisfied to see Sony lose to just because I like to see big companies fail when pushing things to hard (I guess Toshiba pushed pretty hard too, but they keep to quite for it to be as enjoyable). -
Re:The Xbox 360 Is Fundamentally DefectiveAnd yet, despite knowing this, they're still outselling the PS3 nearly two-to-one. That says more about Sony than it does about Microsoft. You are right but only a few months ago the ratio of Xbox360 to PS3 was almost 3 to 1 world wide, now it is less then 2 to 1. The Xbox360 has well over a year start on the PS3 in the USA and Japan but in Europe and Australia the PS3 has been out just 10 months. Go to here for current sales and then to compare launches and you can see that the PS3 is starting to overtake the Xbox360 although in the USA the Xbox360 leads almost 3 to 1 which is significant while the lead in Europe and Japan is very marginal and shrinking. Of course if you want the add the Wii to the argument then don't bother, the Wii is outselling all consoles although when you consider the price differential it is not surprising.
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Re:The Xbox 360 Is Fundamentally DefectiveAnd yet, despite knowing this, they're still outselling the PS3 nearly two-to-one. That says more about Sony than it does about Microsoft. You are right but only a few months ago the ratio of Xbox360 to PS3 was almost 3 to 1 world wide, now it is less then 2 to 1. The Xbox360 has well over a year start on the PS3 in the USA and Japan but in Europe and Australia the PS3 has been out just 10 months. Go to here for current sales and then to compare launches and you can see that the PS3 is starting to overtake the Xbox360 although in the USA the Xbox360 leads almost 3 to 1 which is significant while the lead in Europe and Japan is very marginal and shrinking. Of course if you want the add the Wii to the argument then don't bother, the Wii is outselling all consoles although when you consider the price differential it is not surprising.
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Re:Toshiba Fell Victim To The Xbox Demographic
overall the worst selling console
The PS3 and the XBox 360 have been neck and neck for that title since the PS3 was released. Currently the PS3 is just edging out the 360 in terms of total sales within the same length of time due to a slightly stronger holiday season this year than the 360 had last year (aided in no small part by the Japanese refusing to touch MS consoles with a ten-foot pole).
Before you reply, I should point out that you said "worst-selling console," not "console with the lowest number of units sold." It's a very important difference, caused by the early launch of the 360, which anti-Sony fanboys (not saying you are one, of course; you appear not to care either way) like to fail to point out. It also helps to explain the apparent incongruity between PS3 sales and Blu-Ray dominance; PS3 sales really aren't all that bad, all things considered.
Rob -
Re:Toshiba Fell Victim To The Xbox Demographic
overall the worst selling console
The PS3 and the XBox 360 have been neck and neck for that title since the PS3 was released. Currently the PS3 is just edging out the 360 in terms of total sales within the same length of time due to a slightly stronger holiday season this year than the 360 had last year (aided in no small part by the Japanese refusing to touch MS consoles with a ten-foot pole).
Before you reply, I should point out that you said "worst-selling console," not "console with the lowest number of units sold." It's a very important difference, caused by the early launch of the 360, which anti-Sony fanboys (not saying you are one, of course; you appear not to care either way) like to fail to point out. It also helps to explain the apparent incongruity between PS3 sales and Blu-Ray dominance; PS3 sales really aren't all that bad, all things considered.
Rob -
Re:Toshiba
"If the PS3 continues to outsell the 360, they are going to do fine selling movies online."
When exactly did the PS3 start outselling the 360? In Nov for example the 360 sold 770k and the PS3 only sold 466K according to NPD. Here is a decent graph of sales over the last year to show that the PS3 worldwide isn't closing the gap. -
Re:Problems still not resolved as of last night...
I copied the data and sent it to a friend. Lucky for me, I was able to find the source again.
here
There are several other references to it onliine as well. -
Re:360 In Serious Trouble
Oh yeah.
As seen on vbchartz, the XBox 360 has been in serious trouble for the last 6 months.
It's only doing slightly better than the PS3 in weekly sales worldwide, despite having been out for 12 months longer.
I'd be real concerned if I were Microsoft. -
Re:Call me when it's over.
Yes, a death march that exactly follows the 360's sales... pretty impressive considering there were no games for half of that time. http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php?cons1=PS2®1=All&cons2=PS3®2=All&cons3=X360®3=All&weeks=156
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Re:Am I the only one...
Why is it that everyone claiming that bioshock really IS all that is good and right in a game ignores the arguments against that position that actually have substance. Things the DRM clusterfuck and bloody wierd mouse controls
...which only affected the PC version. The Xbox 360 version has sold over 1 million copies already, but I can't find any sales numbers for the PC version. My guess is that the game is far more common on the 360.tallscreen FOV
I assume you're talking about the way widescreen was implemented. That's fixed as of right now, on the 360 at least. And really, was it ever a real issue? If I hadn't seen side by side screens on a forum somewhere, I never would have noticed. It certainly didn't detract from my enjoyment of the game, anyway.player character's lack of impact on the world
What sort of impact were you expecting, but didn't find? More importantly, how would this additional impact have fundamentally improved the game? I was happy with the amount of impact I could have on the gamespace. Hacking or destroying a turret was persistent, harvesting a Little Sister was permanent, and the actions of the Big Daddies would change after the Little Sister in its area was gone. And of course, there were other major changes as you progressed through the game (e.g. destroying the reactor). What else were you looking for? Fully destructable environments? Would that have somehow made the game better? As far as I can see, it would have been pointless eye candy, and a lot of development effort that would ultimately contribute nothing to the narrative of the game.Did anyone ever figure out how on earth the sensitivity manages to slowly change over time after loading and saving?
Not sure what you're talking about here; maybe this is another PC issue?
In all, I think most people ignore these complaints about the technical issues because they don't affect the majority of the people playing the game. As far as I'm concerned, it's primarily a 360 title that had a same-day release of a PC port. I don't think it's a perfect game by any stretch, but I do think it's a very good game, and an excellent example of how game designers can include a rich narrative in a game without using cut-scenes. Technical issues with the game on the PC simply don't factor in to my appraisal of the game. -
Re:Alternative explanationsI was with you right up until the end....
I do think he is right in that neither format will be the choice for obtaining and playing hi-def content, online distribution ultimately will win.
Online distribution is only feasible if you have an Internet-enabled device connected to your HDTV. Sure, media center PCs are getting more common (and more affordable), and the numbers on HD-ready game consoles are steadily rising, but the vast majority of HDTV owners do not possess either (a fact that will likely remain, as the magnitude of the HDTV sales figures indicates).
Maybe in 10 years the tide will have turned and most people will be using online distribution. However, there's serious money to be made in the meantime, and that requires physical media. -
Re:It's good that Nintendo makes money on the Wii
While we're at it, check out these attachment rate figures from last week.
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Re:so another year of awesome wii sales then?
People need to stop using hardware sales as the sole metric for determining success. Nintendo's business plan is fundamentally different than that of MS and Sony because they're actually turning a profit on each console sold. The other two rely on game sales for profits, which seems to be working at the moment for the 360, perhaps slowly followed by the PS3.
Take a look at recent sales numbers: http://www.vgchartz.com/aweekly.php
Scroll down to where software sales by system are compared, then subtract out the number of Wii Sports and Wii Play sales from the Wii total to find out the non-bundled sales number. You would end up with software sales as follows (of this generation):
1. 2,369,203 - Xbox360
2. 1,944,527 - Wii
3: 943,709 - PS3
Nintendo's really moving their systems, but with the exception of Super Mario Galaxy and the two bundled games, has a relative dearth of top 10 titles for the Wii. Xbox360 in terms of hardware sales, while trailing the Wii, and depending on the week selling on par with the PS3, is doing quite strongly in software sales. More expensive system, more expensive games, and still sells a lot.
So if you're MS, why cut prices just because the Wii is cheaper? They're going to keep on chugging along until their costs come down enough that the increase in game sales from a price cut outweighs the foregone income on hardware sales.
Nintendo isn't dominating the market but expanding the market, which is exactly what they set out to do. In succeeding at this goal they've shown that there is room for more than one console and discussion of a 'winner' is generally unproductive. -
Re:It's good that Nintendo makes money on the Wii
Software sales charts? Please note that Super Mario Galaxy moved more than 417,000 units last week to land in the number 2 slot behind WiiSports at over 421,000 units in the American sales chart for last week.
Also, check out the software sales totals for last week, where it shows that Nintendo sold over 2.5 million software units, when compared to the 360's over 2.3 million units, and the PS3's 943 thousand units. Also note that Nintendo as a games publisher sold over 2.3 million units when compared to Activision and EA at 1.1 million units. Kindly note Microsoft's publishing numbers at over 598 thousand units and Sony's at over 381,000 units.
Please provide numbers and a reference supporting your argument that the Wii's attach rate is lower than 360 and PS3. Thank you. -
Re:It's good that Nintendo makes money on the Wii
Software sales charts? Please note that Super Mario Galaxy moved more than 417,000 units last week to land in the number 2 slot behind WiiSports at over 421,000 units in the American sales chart for last week.
Also, check out the software sales totals for last week, where it shows that Nintendo sold over 2.5 million software units, when compared to the 360's over 2.3 million units, and the PS3's 943 thousand units. Also note that Nintendo as a games publisher sold over 2.3 million units when compared to Activision and EA at 1.1 million units. Kindly note Microsoft's publishing numbers at over 598 thousand units and Sony's at over 381,000 units.
Please provide numbers and a reference supporting your argument that the Wii's attach rate is lower than 360 and PS3. Thank you. -
Re:Most Powerful and Open Console yet?
Selling video game consoles at a loss is nothing new. What is new is that one of the console manufacturers is actually making a profit from each console sold. Historically, most video game consoles have been sold at a loss. It's the old "give away the razor to sell the blades" (i.e. give away the system to sell the games) strategy.
You're right that selling a system that includes high-end technologies like Blu-Ray and the Cell processor does not make Sony arrogant, but it does make the PS3 expensive. It's the things that Sony's CEO, Howard Stringer says that makes Sony look arrogant. Specifically, Sony's CEO said "The price of the PS3 is high but you're paying for potential" and "obviously, it's a higher-risk strategy - as all new inventions are - but if the PS3 lives up to its total potential, then I don't think anyone will be worried about Nintendo or Xbox's cheaper price." Here's the source. Is it not arrogant to assume that gamers, one of the most informed consumer groups, will pay $600 for a game console for its "potential?"
The PS3 has to compete on price or they will not succeed in this generation of the console war. This competition/console war is good for all gamers because it forces the console manufacturers and game developers to innovate AND keep their prices down.
Take a look at what Toshiba's HD-DVD players are going for this Christmas. Now, look at the statements from Sony's CEO, Howard Stringer about how the high-defintion format war is a "stalemate." Don't you think that low-cost players, high-definition movies, and cheap porn will lead to HD-DVD's victory over Blu-Ray this Christmas? Is it not arrogant to call the format war a "stalemate" when your format is on the verge of collapse due to its cost? -
PS3 beat 360 this weekBy a mere 416 units, the PS3 outsold the 360 worldwide this week. While 360 continues to be strong in North America, PS3 is dominating everywhere else.
In light of all the past comments which ask, "Why does Japan love the PS3 do much?" I have to ask: "Why does America love the 360 so much?"
:-) -
Re:Useless
Agreed, Sony's statement is incredibly vague. I don't know how much stock to put in vgchartz.com's numbers (they're mostly estimations, after all), but they're showing an 84% week-to-week increase in PS3 sales in North America for the week end 24 Nov. 07. PS3 sales in Europe increased only slightly compared to the previous week (~25%), because there's no Turkey Day-related shopping bonanza on that side of the pond. Japanese data for the same week isn't up yet, but I'd guess that if sales there are increasing at all, it would be more similar to Europe than North America. If these numbers are even close to accurate, then the only way PS3 sales could be said to have tripled is if Sony is comparing last week's sales to the same week last year, and lumping PS3 sales for all regions together. That would be pretty deceptive, since this time last year, the number of PS3's being sold in Europe was pretty close to zero. Oddly enough, if you go from "close to zero" to "roughly 100k," it looks like a pretty big jump. Even then, I don't think you could accurately say sales have tripled. Anyway, to put things in perspective, it looks like the Wii still outsold the PS3 by a 2-to-1 margin in North America last week, and the 360 outsold it by roughly 30%.
The actual good news I see for Sony is that they've finally started selling more systems than the Wii in Japan, on a week-to-week basis. For quite a while, they were lagging behind even in their own backyard. I think it was kind of inevitable that they'd start to move some systems over there though. The 360 isn't taken seriously in Japan, and has hardly moved any units compared to either the Wii or PS3. If you want to do high def console gaming in Japan, the PS3 is considered to be the only game in town. Popular Japanese series are finally starting to drop for the PS3 (e.g. Shin Sangoku Musuo 5, will be released in NA as Dynasty Warriors 6 in '08, quarter of a million copies sold in Japan in two weeks, according to vgchartz), and that's driving hardware sales I think. Now they need to get a title with similar system-selling potential out in North America. Ratchet & Clank is close I think, but not quite enough of a household name. Something like a Metal Gear Solid or GTA title exclusively for the PS3 is what they need if they want to have any hope of catching the 360 or Wii in North America, but I don't think they have any titles with that kind of must-have cachet on the near horizon. -
Indeed, compared to the DS...
Nothing is changing in japan.
If you compare it to the DS, its failing behind.
Each year, the number of DS units shipped grows massively in japan (and worldwide). 3.7 Million in their first year, 8 Million sold in their 3 year. (20M sold to date)
Compared to the PSP, which after 3 years, is selling only marginally faster then it did at release. (2M the first year, 2.5M the 3rd year, 7M Sold to date)
The DS sales are effectively snowballing into something gigantic, meanwhile the PSP is just taking a stroll around the block.
Its not just in japan, its worldwide as well, the PSP is slowly slipping into a footnote when compared to the success of the DS
http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php?cons1=DS®1=All&cons2=PSP®2=All&cons3=X360®3=------&weeks=187 -
Re:Might spell BIG trouble
Actually with regard to the original Xbox Microsoft had an issue with cost of the Nvidia graphics module in that Nvidia would not drop their prices http://www.geek.com/microsoft-and-nvidia-end-xbox-dispute/ which contributed to the overall losses on the Xbox. This dispute actually forced Microsoft to bring the Xbox360 out earlier than they originally wanted.
I would not say Sony was greedy in keeping the PS2 alive since the sale of each PS3 is a loss (not sure exactly how much though) it makes perfect business sense to offset these losses against the PS2 and at the same time you provide the Gaming market with a cheaper machine than any of the other consoles. While this may not make much sense to some affluent people it is an excellent buy for poorer people who can't even afford a Wii, much less buy games for it. What makes the PS2 such an excellent buy is that good games are still being made for it (OK there are some stinkers as well) that can satisfy just about all gaming needs at a budget price. This is great for people on a limited budget world wide and is also nice for more affluent gamers in that they can save money as well.
As for the poor take-up of the PS3 you should should look at http://vgchartz.com/ and plot the PS3 against the Xbox360 (align the launches) and there is little difference. The Wii is the only console that has literally broken all records for console sales, but how long this will go on remains to be seen.
Actually the only current generation console that you can (sort of) modify is the PS3 since you can use it as a media server and can put Linux on it if you want to run emulators. I do have a Backwards Compatible PS3 (it is annoying to make this distinction now) and my only native PS3 game is Oblivion which is IMHO a great game but I also have plenty of PS2 games (I even buy new ones) that tide me over till the PS3 has more games I like. Sounds weird but a smoothed and unscaled "good" PS2 game on a HDTV really adds to the game play and you can save quite a lot of money doing this, I know I have. -
Re:Wiiiii!
Right on, Kenoli! Nintendo's console is:
1. Less expensive 2. More innovative 3. More fun
Almost every game that Nintendo publishes is a must-have and there are a number of great third-party titles (Resident Evil, Madden, Elebits, Rayman, and Call of Duty come to mind). Now that we all know how excellent Super Mario Galaxy is, there will be a new system-seller this holiday season.
Note that Nintendo has not had to drop the price on the Wii since launch. Surely, manufacturing the system has become less expensive, Nintendo is making even more money from the system, they are producing more Wiis for sale at retail, and still can't keep the system on the shelves!!!
The Wii has over-taken the 360 as this generation's console market leader while selling systems for half as much time.
The ONLY thing the Wii is missing as a game system is high-definition graphics rendering and I expect that Nintendo will give us that in their next generation system, along with highly improved motion control. I can only imagine how much Nintendo's new system will !!!ROCK!!! when that day comes. Quoting the movie 300, "THIS IS SLASHDOT!!!" (err, Sparta) where the Wii rules ;-) .
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Re:Perhaps this should read...
In Japan, the 360 is basically dead, of course. But in Europe, it doesn't look that great for the PS3, either: http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii®1=Europe&cons2=PS3®2=Europe&cons3=X360®3=Europe&start=39026&end=39390
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Wishful thinking?
I'm no Sony fanboy...as a matter of fact, I'm one of the few gamers who does not own a PS2 and I know I'm in a very slim minority.
Fact is, any console manufacturer would looove to have the PS2's sales lifecycle; it's the best-selling console of all time.
The other fact is that no matter what lies the XBox 360 game boxes tell (i.e. 1080i/p stickers on game boxes), the 360 renders games like Gears of War and BioShock in 720p (at best) and upscales its output to 1080i/p. Graphically, the 360 is an intermediate step between the Wii and PS3.
I am a Nintendo fanboy and hope they put out a next-generation console with improved motion controls and 1920x1080p graphics right around the time that PS3 hardware reaches the mass-market price-point of $200-250. That said, Nintendo has not been first to market with a console since the NES. Nintendo is surely hard at work on their next-generation console, but I will be pleasantly surprised if it sees the light of day before its competitors. -
Re:Perhaps this should read...Hasn't the PS3 had lackluster sales for its entire lifespan? A serious question, rather than a disagreement with parent or an attempt to troll. In the US it is lack luster. World wide it's picked up a lot. Media creates data for the 22-28th of October shows the PS3 1:1.4 to the wii and 5:1 with the 360. Couldn't find data for the US. Apparently world wide it's shows a more 1:1 with the 360 and a 2:1 with the wii.
I don't think this is true. Right now, sales numbers are for Wii:360:PS3 are about 3:2:1. The 360 sells twice as much as the PS3, and the Wii sells three times as much - which is actually a comparably good number for the PS3, possibly helped by people trying to get the remaining PS3s with backwards compatibility until those are discontinued.
These numbers are from vgchartz.com, which isn't the most reliable source, but has been pretty spot-on so far.
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VGChartz
Who needs NPD? http://www.vgchartz.com/ has detailed weekly sales data available for free, and they're no less reliable than NPD nowadays.
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Re:Summary is seriously lacking here.
Oh, and you'd also think that the "owner/administrator" of such a sales site would keep his profile page as neutral as possible as well.
http://vgchartz.com/profiles/profile.php?id=74 -
Re:Perhaps this should read...
But in Japan their sales are picking up quite quickly
Really? They've certainly had a couple of weeks that aren't as bad as some of the others but I think it's a bit early to be claiming some sort of significant upswing. -
You'd think so, but the PS2 still outsells the PS3
http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=PS2®1=All&cons2=PS3®2=All&cons3=X360®3=All&start=39019&end=39383
(if you ignore the spike of the last couple of weeks)
Having said that it still outsells the 360 week by week too... -
Re:The sad reality...
You do know the 360 outsold the Wii last month, right?
Negative.
http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii®1=All&cons2=PS3®2=All&cons3=X360®3=All&start=39348&end=39376
Did you mean U.S. only? -
Re:Ooh, that could turn out messy.
Unfortunately, since I posted that link, vgchartz has removed the functionality that the link actually pointed to. The link (when I wrote it) sent you to a graph that showed cumulative sales for all consoles lined up as if they started selling at the same time. Now it just shows weekly sales for the last year. The closest thing they have to what that link originally pointed is this and you will just have to mentally move the Wii and PS3 lines to the left to align with the 360, and from that you'll see that the PS3 line lines up nearly perfectly with the 360 line.
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Re:Ooh, that could turn out messy.First off, if you don't want to believe me, then nothing short of having you look over my shoulder while I type this at work is going to change that. Here is a link to my profile on vgchartz. I'm not going to tell you what company I work for simply because I already told you I am working on games for the Xbox360 and Wii. I don't know why it's so important to you either. Let's pretend I not only work for vgchartz, but even own, created, and am the sole runner of the site. What does that prove to you? Like I said in a previous post, I'm not sure where you are finding out that I post to it a lot since in my history there is this thread and one other one where I link to it.
No, it doesn't sound like he is talking about last Saturday but that is not how you presented it.
You are the one who said that people are talking about "last Saturday" when clearly they are not. Also, you have to understand that the 360 had an entire year without next-gen competition and had anticipated games for it both available and forthcoming that would entice people to buy the system. Comparatively, the PS3 has faced competition from both the 360 and the Wii since its release and has not yet had the same type of anticipation for any of its games, and yet it still sells as well as the 360 did during its first year. Trends. We are talking trends. In other words, if we follow the same trends, then the PS3 will always be a year behind, but only a year behind, and as this generation of consoles gets older, a one year difference isn't going to mean much. For example, both are selling ~6 million per year. So 4 years after the release of the PS3 (which would be 5 years after the release of the 360) the PS3 will have sold 24 million and the 360 will have sold 30 million. That really isn't that much of a difference. While there is clearly a winner between those 2 consoles (we're not talking about the Wii here), from a developer's point of view, there isn't that much of a difference. Look at this list (I don't work for Wikipedia either, even though I have linked to them a lot as well). The top selling non-bundled non-handheld console game of all time is Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which sold 20 million copies. The above projection of current trends would be able to support that kind of sales, but it's a rather moot point since the GTA series is now on both the 360 and the PS3, so certainly sales like that could be supported.
Now do you see why I bring it up. It's nice to use current trends for future prediction. But I try to do it intelligently. For example, if I didn't try at all, and just used a couple of recent weeks, I would see the 360 on a huge decline and the PS3 on an upswing. Which would predict that the 360 will be selling 0 consoles each week in just a few months, but the PS3 would be outselling even the DS in a few months time. But that would be ignoring the facts that the PS3 is rising in sales due to a price cut, and the 360 is just coming off of a sales boost due to the release of Halo 3. The Holidays are also coming up and sales for all consoles are going to rise. There are anticipated games for all the consoles on the horizon, and the PS3 has the benefit of also having lots of Bluray titles on the horizon as well (I realize there are HD-DVD movies coming out, but with the HD-DVD add on for the 360 that doesn't come with the system). This holiday will be important for each console in terms of the trends that they set. If the PS3 can come out on top of the 360 (in terms of weekly/monthly sales) in the next few months, then it will have set a nice trend for itself. That doesn't preclude the 360 from setting a decent trend for itself as well. On the other hand, it's possible that the 360 will walk over the PS3 this holiday season and Sony will have to wait till next generation to get b -
Re:Ooh, that could turn out messy.
For the benefit of all of us, are you talking about vgchartz.com or vgcharts.com, which are two different websites.
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Re:Ooh, that could turn out messy.
While I'm really a PC gamer, I do like to watch console sales. It just so happens I can clear up any confusion you have in this regard. I'm going to say this once and make it clear: The PS3 is selling just as well as the Xbox360. Remember, the Xbox360 had a full year ahead of the PS3 where it did NOT have to compete against other next gen consoles. The Xbox360 had Halo fanboys expecting Halo 3. The Xbox360 had Gears of War right after launch. I'm not sure what is driving most of the sales of the PS3 (could it really be Bluray?) but it is selling just as well as the 360. Ergo, if no one is buying the PS3, then we can conclude that no one was buying the 360 either.
I'm not implying or inferring that you are an Xbox fanboy. I have no idea, and it very well could be that you won't play anything but board games, and have said the same thing about the Xbox elsewhere. I just wanted to clear this up in case anyone else saw this. -
Re:Better position to compete?
They may be ahead in overall numbers, but that's only because the XBox 360 was out a full year earlier than the PS3. Accorinding to this chart the PS3 and the XBox 360 have had pretty much equal sales at the same point in their lifetime.
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Re:Wii selling out
Not that it really matters anyway. Seriously, I was looking at vgchartz.com and according to their numbers, the Xbox360 outsold the Wii for only two weeks. During that two weeks, it sold about 25,000 more units than the Wii. However, the first week after the Wii regained it's weekly sales lead, it outsold the 360 by 16,000 units, and the week before it lost its weekly sales lead it outsold the 360 by over 45,000 units. Seriously, those two weeks that the 360 outsold the Wii are irrelevant. MS has had it's day (or two weeks I suppose), but when the fastest selling game can't get your console above a "number two console", then you have to start eating some humble pie. I guess that's why he left.