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.
I've been an XBox guy for the past three years, but with the appearance of the 360, the new games market for the original XBox dried up pretty quickly. I needed a new console - so why spend all that money on a 360 when there are plenty of good PS2 games that I haven't played that are available at cheap prices? I'll get a 360 eventually - but for now, the PS2 is just fine.
I mean, it's probably not good at all for MS. But I would think that people choosing to purchase a PS2 in this late stage of the game, probably won't buy a PS3 at/near launch. Before the 360 came out, sales of the X-Box 1 dropped.
Actually, on the other hand, this probably just people replacing broken PS2s. Which such a huge userbase, you'll see substantial turn-around for replacement systems. I know, myself that I need to purchase a new PS2 because my original one died (and I don't want to give up my game library).
Oh. And I have no plans on purchasing a PS3. Too expensive, and I'm having serious doubts that it's going to be the leader of the next generation. (And if it's not the leader, it won't get the 3rd party games. And the 3rd party games are the only reason to have a PlayStation)
While I'm sure there are legal issues with ripping DVD, BD content, I don't see them as being that much different than ripping music. If I own a DVD, why can't I rip it? Naturally it could encrypt the movie so it plays nowhere else. If Sony were smart, they'd offer this feature and ensure the PS3 also featured an online store where you could buy more content for reasonable prices. A reasonable price would be a timelimited movie for the same price as a rental, e.g. $6.
This is all hypothetical of course. In the past Sony would sell a device that hacked off their customer's hands off if their media divisions told them to. Here's hoping that a clue finally sinks in after years of mistakes. Aside from the UMD, the PSP actually offers a pretty good example of how you can make a cool multimedia device without crippling it to death in the process. UMDs were done to death by pure greed, but movie ripping via a memory stick is actually quite alright.
The poor sales of the 360 really shouldn't surprise anyone.
Console cycles are won and lost on two fundamental pillars:
1) Manufacturing technology
2) Exclusive IP
Neither of those two all important areas have improved one bit for Microsoft with the 360. Microsoft has no ability to manufacture their own hardware and no ability to process shrink their hardware to reduce costs over time. Due to the billions they burned through on the first Xbox project the Xbox 360 team is being kept on a tight leash. The Microsoft of the late 90s is no more and the willingness to throw billions at projects is long gone for anything outside of search or their core OS/app markets. So the Xbox team was forced to kill off the first Xbox early and rush very flakey 360 hardware out the door leading to the staggering number of defective 360s you are hearing about even seven months after the console hit the store shelves. There are numerous people who are already on their fifth 360!
As to the second area, Microsoft has failed to land any new exclusive IP that they didn't have for the first Xbox. People buy consoles to play exclusive titles. That has always been the case and that will always be the case as long as the console market exists. There is nothing for anyone who didn't buy the first Xbox to go out and spend 400+ bucks on the new Xbox. Which is exactly what you hear from people who talk about why they have no plans on buying a 360. Nothing the system has interests them.
The first Xbox sold around 22 million or so. The userbase was made up of:
1) Dreamcast refugees
2) PC gamers
3) Microsoft fans
Microsoft appears to have mostly lost the PC gamers segment due to the weak 360 hardware. With the first Xbox PC gamers could buy an Xbox instead of a new video card and have a gaming system that was more powerful than any PC for a year or so. That wasn't the case with the 360. The 360 was already graphically behind PCs before it even hit store shelves. PC gamers are going back to their PCs and buying new video cards and forgoing picking up 360s this time around.
Plus you have the hardware defect nightmare turning the rest of Microsoft's core target demographic off and sitting on the sidelines until there is some indication that the problems have been solved. So you are basically looking at some fairly large percentage of the existing 22 million or so Xbox owners abandoning the platform. Which pretty much tracks the poor rate the 360 has been selling. Right now the 360 is selling at somewhere between half to two-thirds the rate of the first Xbox.
These latest sales figures for Microsoft have to be gut check time for the 360 team. The current sales rate of the 360 is putting it in sub-Dreamcast installed base range for the console. Something dramatic has to happen soon. The most obvious is some huge price cut to get the existing Xbox fanbase to overcome their hesitations to buy the 360.
However, with both Sony and Nintendo coming out with free online services, Microsoft is looking at a situation where they are going to be forced to match and drop the 50 dollar a year charge for playing games online. If Microsoft has to do a massive price cut on the system and drop the online play charge they are almost certainly looking at another multi-billion dollar loss for the Xbox project.
With the continuing drop in Microsoft's stock over the past five years and the struggle they have been having to meet street projections each quarter over the past year, one has to wonder how much of a stomach Redmond has to soldier on with a console that is looking more and more like another gigantic source of red ink.
The longevity of Sony's console sales does really point out the mountain MS was trying to climb, doesn't it?
You say the original XBox market for new games disappeared, and it's true -- there's almost nothing new coming. Meanwhile Sony can rely on plenty of third party legs for the PS2; even if the PS3 outright crashes, there's still some cushion there.
Anyone who's scoffed at the idea of "market share" or said it was overrated should think about how much critical mass MS would have needed here. Even a first generation buyer of MS's product is hard-pressed not to go ahead and buy Sony's old version. You "needed a new console" and Sony's old one was plenty good enough -- and it has tons of games you haven't played. You don't even say you were dissatisfied with the XBox, but the 360 doesn't make sense to you.
It's all about the price and the third-party support, seemingly.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
The only people I see showing any interest in the 360 appear to be the most hardcore of existing/former Xbox and Dreamcast owners. I have never heard or seen anyone who is a Sony or Nintendo owner show even the slightest interest in the 360. And there seems to be a huge number of former Xbox owners who are turning to Nintendo or Sony this gen.
The latest worldwide sales figures for the 360 put it at right around two million sold(not shipped!) after seven months. After five years in the console market Microsoft has to be wondering what exactly are they are doing. They can't even claim to be spending their billions to grow marketshare since the 360 is selling worse than the first Xbox.
Spending so much cash for such a relatively tiny group of hardcore fans can't go on forever. Microsoft has much bigger and more pressing problems to deal with these days.
I'm in the same boat as you. I've got a PS2 and it does the trick for me and has the games I want available for it. I look at the Xbox360 and the PS3 and the first question I ask is "What >must< have game is going to compel me to buy this console?".
So far, the games that have been announced for the PS3, none fulfill that criteria.
Now, if Insomnia was to release a new R&C game for the PS3, I'd buy one in a heartbeat...
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
At that price, of course it's ahead of the $400 product.