Slashdot Mirror
PlayStation 2 Outselling Xbox 360 in U.S.
Aviran Mordo writes to mention an Ars Technica article about the sales struggle between the PS2 and Xbox 360. Since the launch, the PS2 has managed to maintain the lead. April was the first month Microsoft's new console eeked out Sony's old one, possibly as a result of the ramp-up in production. From the article: "I should note that we caution against putting too much weight on these sales estimates, especially in a comparative sense. The PS2 and the Xbox 360 are at opposite ends of their 'console lifecycles,' and the two are priced quite far apart as well (e.g., $129 vs. $299, PS2, Xbox 360 Core respectively). We are impressed, however, by the PS2's continually strong sales, even as many gamers turn their eyes towards the next-generation. These sales will help keep Sony strong and stable, even in the face of a disappointing PlayStation 3 launch, should fate take that turn." These sales may be bolstered as the year moves on by the releases of God of War 2, Final Fantasy XII, and Okami, all of which are for the PS2.
Hardly a far comparison when you look at price point. I would rather spend 129 then 600 any day for a system that is still a decent gaming system.
I can't believe its not butter!
I'm curious about how Sony will be able to translate the PS2 popularity into PS3 sales. The 100% backward compatibility promise is a great start, but I think that to sell the PS3 to all the people who don't have a HDTV, you need something better than 'this $500 machine does everything your $100 does'. No more memory cards, wireless controllers, possibly faster load times are all nice, but not enough. And I don't see consumers flocking to HD movies either. I own a HD projector, and HD movies _do_ look better on it than plain DVDs, but it is by no stretch the same landslide change that VHS->DVD was.
A boatload of highly desirable PS3 excluisives to popular PS2 franchises would possibly seal the deal. But most of the upcoming sequels, like Gran Turismo HD, seem more like HD versions of the same game. That won't sell any consoles to the non-HD consumers, which are still the majority, even in the early adopter bracket.
Try out fish, the friendly interactive shell.
I don't think Microsoft manufactured a shortage, or if they did, they horribly screwed it up, as you want a slight shortage right at release, and then blanket the world during December. (Did you notice how many more units are sold in December?)
They finally solved the supply issue, and sales peaked, and went back down.
But I don't think this is an Xbox 360 VS PS2 issue, but more indicative of a high priced next-gen console VS low cost current gen console; the PS3 will probably have similar issues as its price is even higher. The Wii stands to compete well in this range, however.
Fellowship 9/11
Why do you buy any object that delivers content? The quality of the content.
Why'd you buy a DVD player? The movies on DVD with their superior audio/video quality and that the movies YOU wanted to watch were available in this format. Otherwise we'd have stayed with VHS.
Why do you choose an operating system? The applications. If my customers send me msword docs all day long, i should be running windows as I'm in the best position to have 100% compatibility with their documents. Windows is more expensive to purchase than linux, but if I cannot run Outlook/excel/word/whatever then the cost of windows is a necessary and mandatory cost.
Why is PS2 sales still high? It's not the cost of the game machine, but that there are HUNDREDS of games available for it. With a large variety in the type of games available, any new consumer is more likely to find a game they want to play on the PS2 than on the xbox360 which still has only a few games.
If PS3 is backwards compatible with the PS2, it will be a slam dunk as people can still play their old games, if PS3 is not backwards compatible it will suffer from the same problems as the xbox360