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360 Sales Slow, Chip Blamed For Issues
Gamasutra has a bevy of information about the XBox 360. Sales seem to be slowing, just as supply issues seem to be resolving. Microsoft has a target for its annoyance regarding those issues. An analyst is blaming German chip manufacturer Infineon Technologies for the slow arrival of 360 units to market. Regardless of past problems, the company is going full speed ahead with more launches. Latin America saw launch on February 2nd, and "The system will launch in Korea on February 24, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore on March 16, Australia and New Zealand on March 23, with a global presence in 30 countries by the end of March."
I for one, am doing just that.
...
I have a GameCube, multiple GameBoys (color, etc), an xBox and
I'm going to wait until PS3 and NR are here and I can see what actual games work on them and what they feel like.
I'll probably get a PS3 this time, but maybe I'll get a NR instead. But the xBox360 severely underwhelmed me. Maybe if I had an HDTV right now I might be more into it, but from my perspective it's the Games that matter, not the console itself.
The reason I bought Sims 2 for the xBox was the graphics were better than the GameCube version. I'm still pretty unimpressed with the xBox, and moreso the xBox360.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
...or rather, blame the games. Want something to pin slow console sales on? How about the fact that Xbox360 still doesn't have a killer title! Perfect Dark Zero was a decent enough game, but by most accounts it fell short of being the must-have title that would drive sales of the hardware. The Xbox had Halo, the Xbox360 has... nothing even close to that in terms of popularity. No wonder they can't sell the hardware, there's no Xbox360-exclusive game that people really, really want.
Part of the problem here might simpyl be a lack of interest in the next generation platforms. Yes, there's the hard core people who will be out buying the systems early. But I own a PS2 and it plays the games I have just fine and I haven't bought a game for it in a while. Furthermore, because the XBox and the PS2 are still posessing large market shares, publishers are still making games for them.
Right now, what incentive is there to drop $400-500 on a new game system? Are the games that much better? Not really. Yeah the graphics are a bit better but not in the same way that the PS2 graphics were better than the PS1. I saw an XBox 360 at the store the other day and some kid was playing a fighting game. Yeah the graphics were nicer, but it was more or less the same game I would play on my Dreamcast back in the day.
In the end people will move to the new platform because that's where the games will be, but for now there's not a lot of incentive. Most people don't have HDTV's so they don't get much from that. Many people don't even network their game systems from what I've seen. So much of the touted features of the new systems aren't benefitting the majority of people.
Personally I'll probably buy a PS3 shortly after the release of the next GTA title.
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Ok, but who really wants to jump through those hoops 3 months after release?
We own(ed) a N64, PS2, PSP, GBA, XBOX and others.
:D.
But we have not bought a Xbox 360 yet. The reaons are multiple:
- The Price
The Xbox 360 is significantly more expensive than most other consoles before it. It simply doesn't fall into the "playmoney" category somehow. This makes the barrier of entry too high.
- The Games
I've bought the Xbox almost solely because of multiplayer Halo and because my wife is a big Oddworld fan. No sign of either for the 360. Call of duty looks nice, but nothing to shell out ~$350 for (X360+game).
- The Future
The Nintento Revolution is going to have Bluetooth (non proprietary) controllers, focus on gaming alone and is set to try a "different" angle on gaming. Hopefully it'll have a good Mario game and come thruogh on the hype.
The PS3 will have GT 5 (eventually). That's good enough for me
Either one are worth waiting for to have something to compare the Xbox 360 against.
Just my $.02
Cheers,
Andre
In my opinion, even if there was enough systems, sales would still be fairlys low.
There's a certain base of hardcore gamers out there who just have to have the next best thing. Since the 360 is the only next-gen system out right now, it's selling systems.
Sure, people are preparing for the future, confident that eventually there will be some killer games on the system. But right now, there's really no system seller. People point to the fact that "there's tons of games rated over 8.0 at IGN!" but... an 8.0 game isn't a system seller. It's a game worth playing, but not worth buying a system for. There's plenty of good 8.0 and higher games on the Xbox, PS2 or Gamecube that are comparable at the moment.
How do you tell a Sony zealot? He repeats the same PS2 sales figures on Slashdot. The 360 costs a shitload of money, has few games, and had serious supply problems when it was released. You can be absolutely positive that if the PS3 sells for $500/unit it will sell nowhere near 500k units in one day in the U.S., whether Sony is capable of shipping 500k or 5M units. It's just way outside of the price range for impulse purchases. If the PS3 makes any attempt to lock discs to machines, or ships with ten games no one cares about, or can't supply enough units so they start going for $1000 on ebay you can expect the PS3 sales figures to join the 360 in the "meh" release category.
Wow. There are four posts at 3 or greater, all of them speculating about reasons for slowing XBox 360 sales. The article says: "Needless to say, the main constricting factor for Xbox 360 sales continues to be the poor supply of the console, rather than a lack of consumers to purchase it."
Interestingly, none of the speculators have given any reason to trust them over Gamasutra, Wedbush Morgan, and Simon Carless. Hey, don't let that get in the way of a pointless flame-fest.
"We own(ed) a N64, PS2, PSP, GBA, XBOX and others. But we have not bought a Xbox 360 yet. The reaons are multiple: - The Price The Xbox 360 is significantly more expensive than most other consoles before it. It simply doesn't fall into the "playmoney" category somehow. This makes the barrier of entry too high. - The Games I've bought the Xbox almost solely because of multiplayer Halo and because my wife is a big Oddworld fan. No sign of either for the 360. Call of duty looks nice, but nothing to shell out ~$350 for (X360+game)."
Price? At $300 it is $50 more than the PSP and exactly the same as the Xbox, PS1, and PS2 at launch date.
Games? See how many other consoles are released with *4* titles grabbing 90+/100 ratings at launch. COD2, PD0, Kameo, and PGR3.
People will find any reason to try to bash this system, even make things up.