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Fallout From the November Console Wars
All three 'next generation' consoles are out, and we can finally stop using that term. The NPD numbers for last month have been released, and there's plenty of information there to discuss. Analysts have already made some observations, with brandintel specifically pointing out the Xbox 360's 'surprising' role in last month's fight. For some more well-reasoned thought, Dean Takahashi's take is the place to turn: "At this rate, Microsoft isn't going to hit its goal of 10 million units by year end ... Sony's number is consistent with its warnings, but 197,000 is worse than what many expected ... the fair fight is really going to be what happens in the year 2007, when all three console makers should be able to ship as many consoles as consumers want. To me, this looks like consumers are hit with a case of sticker shock. The mass market is paying for cheap PS2s, DS Lites, and GBAs." Despite the Wii's success last month, it should be noted that Nintendo is no longer bragging of 1 Million units in the U.S. by the end of the year. So, essentially, it looks like all three companies will fail to hit their console goals for the year.
When it comes down to it, I believe I can have the same amount of fun (if not more) with the $130 Nintendo DS than I could with the $300+ current-gen consoles. My fun wouldn't increase five-fold if I bought a PS3, I don't think.
No, not when you think about it. Consider the typical big-box electronics store customer:
"Excuse me, do you have any PS3's?"
"No."
"Nintendo Wii's?"
"No."
"Well, what do you have in stock?"
"The xBox 360."
"We'll take it."
Having product on the shelves covers a multitude of sins.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
Who'd thought that the Wii would suck the life out of the PS3 launch?
The Wii gets all kinds of free press and publicity, if not for Sports, then for idiots destroying their plasma screens and blaming the Wii-mote strap for being too weak.
In the mean time, Microsoft has the best game out in Gears of War for the 360, while the only thing I hear about the PS3 is that it is so hard to program that most games will suck on it for another year.
Oh, and thanks for the root kit, Sony. Karma is a bitch, eh?
Do you think those companies want to miss their sales forecasts, and get punished in the stock market for doing so? Of course not. All three companies have run into supply problems because, well, releasing a console worldwide is pretty damn difficult. (Consider that in the past, hardware releases were generally not global either) Should MS, Sony, and Nintendo be chastised for their errors? Certainly.
But this whole "oh, they're just artificially restricting supply to make the illusion of demand" is just nonesense. It's usually spouted off by fanbois who can't imagine that there are actually consumers that want the "other" system.
-- jchenx
There's much hype and fanfare, then I'm only able to actually produce 500,000 units. The Sales numbers at this point no longer mean anything. You can only have a valid comparison if there is a steady supply of all three models. Come on folks THINK.
Actually, they do mean something, just not that much about market acceptance. Since these consoles sold out, we can use the sales numbers as production numbers. And from that standpoint, there are really two interesting pieces of information: Not really a surprise given all the warnings, but Sony was able to make only half of their grossly down-sized forecasts. This means producing the PS3 is even more difficult than was thought, or the blue lasers are in even shorter supply than thought, and may even indicate that the longer term supply will be limited. In some ways more surprising is that Nintendo was unable to reach their manufacturing target for launch. I would naively assume that they should have minimal problems, but that apparently isn't the case. Maybe the remote is a trickier beast than thought? Supplies of extra remotes have been short for those who were able to buy a console.
I realize that these sales figures may not be complete. I doubt that means Sony really sold twice as many consoles.
An interesting catch: All these companies depend on IBM. Apple dropped IBM largely because they didn't seem ready or willing to develop and produce mainstream chips on a schedule that suited Apple. Are they partly responsible for the shortage of PS3 and Wii? I have no data to back that up at all; it's just idle speculation.
The enemies of Democracy are
It's pretty disingenuous of you to not mention that you're referring to the Core configuration, which has no wireless capability or hard drive.
If you buy a Core system for $300 and actually want to save your game or have XBox 1 compatibility, that's an additional $100 for the hard drive add-on, putting you up to $400 (Microsoft really wants you to get a hard drive). Along with a game, that's $450, and at that high of a price, you may as well just shell out for the Premium configuration at a whopping $400, which is $450 if you include a game.
And after all that, you still have to pay Microsoft money every month just to be able to play online. Microsoft currently has no plans to make Xbox Live free, while Sony and Nintendo will offer it totally free.
Of the three consoles, I actually consider the Xbox 360 the most overpriced. Nintendo can justify their price with the built-in WiFi, 512MB flash storage, and remote control, while Sony can cite Blu-Ray and the Cell in contributing to the cost of the PS3. I really think the 360 will be in trouble in the next two years when Sony sorts out its supply issues and everyone else picks up the Wii as a cheap primary or secondary console.
"Sufferin' succotash."