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PS3, Xbox Having Disappointing Christmas Season
Both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 appear to be having a bit of a rough Christmas. For the PS3, it's all about launch jitters. The worst of these jitters is probably the dubious nomination from TIME magazine, who has cited the console as a 'bust'. The 360, likewise, is having problems meeting expectations, especially those of Michael Pachter. He's the gent that expected big sales this Christmas for the console, and he's now trying to figure out why the 360 fell short. What is, perhaps, a larger problem - lack of penetration for the Xbox Live service - is being discussed by Reuters. While the still laudable number of 4 million subscribers sounds impressive, the article points out that the runaway success of the Wii and the overall ratio of possible to actual subscribers should give Microsoft pause. In short, Sony and Microsoft are having good, but not great holiday seasons. Next year, when there's enough stock to go around and big games on the way, we'll see who really 'has the stuff'.
They named the 360 console of the year, along with all the other consoles.
I love the Wii and can not wait to see what 2007 brings for it. I'll still probably pick up a 360 or PS3 once they hit about 200-250, but the current entry price is simply to high.
I'd rather own a Wii. They just sound more friendly, frankly.
Although, to be fair, I haven't tried Gears of War. It sounds fun, though.
Bottom line is: I have a PS2, don't have an HD television and even if I did, the only announced HD movie that would possibly interest me is the scuba diving one with Jessica Alba and the Fast And The Furious guy. If one of the new consoles offered something really new, and if it weren't an adventure game in itself to find one, I'd buy it (and had been planning to buy first a 360 and then a PS3), but right now just don't see the point.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
While Microsoft might have a legitimate worry with the 360, it's plainly obvious to me that it's too early to be calling the PS3 in trouble. I mean every single one they've manufactured and shipped has sold shortly after arriving at the store (or well in advance). That's hardly a sales failure (although it is a supply failure). More importantly, rough launches have hardly doomed consoles in the past. Both the PSx and especially PS2 had rough launches and look how they turned out.
There are a lot of things you can criticize about the PS3, but the sales are not one of them. Really, you can't say much at all about the sales until they start sitting on the shelves for more than 5 minutes. Even if total sales during the holidays are slow due to lack of supply, it doesn't really matter that the total volume is low until the boxes finally stop selling instantly.
I read the internet for the articles.
Stores all over North America have been getting restock every couple of days. The eBay scammers were counting on Sony having continued production problems past the holidays. That has turned out to be a false hope resulting in crashing eBay prices for PS3s.
Microsoft apparently is flooding the channel with 360s to try to be able to make an effort to be able to claim they reached their sales goals for the first year. People are reporting giant stacks of 360s sitting in aisles in stores this past couple of weeks - my local Frys has the biggest stack of consoles I've ever seen as of a couple days ago. As the article talks about, Microsoft is having a real hard time moving systems even with the 100 dollar rebates they've been paying stores for for the last couple of months.
Most interesting is the lack of supply of Wiis. People have speculated it is because Nintendo is having to switch the wrist straps. Whatever the reason, something is up. No one is reporting hardware failures like the 360, so it will be interesting to see what happened. I would not be surprised if the numbers for December are a whole lot closer between the PS3 and Wii than anyone imagined they would be.
Anecdotal story, but I may speak for others:
I am fascinated by the Wii, and already own two games(Zelda:TP and Super Monkey Ball) for the Wii...and I still do not own one. There just aren't any that aren't sold on the internet or on a freezing cold line at 3am.
So rather than going home empty-handed to sit out my holiday vacation days in boredom...I picked up an Xbox360 to tide me over till February when the Wii (hopefully) where the Wii is available on the inside of stores rather than the outside.
So my desire for the Wii managed to boost Xbox360 sales. Having an Xbox360 made a large number of games available to me, and it led to purchase a series of games I'd been curious about but never cared to pursue. So Nintendo can also be thanked for netting me 10-12 games(though only about 6 are new).
Naturally my story will not be common, but I don't think it will be all that rare. I just happen to have an excess of disposable income due to my circumstances and underdeveloped propensity to save.
Ebay!
Seriously, go search for PS3s on ebay, what you'll find is that there are some selling for under retail now! I wonder if those sellers actually go through with those auctions? The Wii? It can still be found selling for nearly double retail.
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I just mentioned in another thread a few minute ago that Micro Center is offering a $100 rebate on Xbox 360s, both the core and pro systems. For the core system, that would end up being $200.
Now, that being said, beware the nickel-and-diming:
So if you're just looking for something that will play the fancy new Xbox 360 and classic old Xbox games, you can get it now for $200. If you're looking to build it out to any degree, you should indeed probably wait.
This crop of systems have been the most expensive of any console generation that I remember. Once the systems get out there and all the die-hard gamers have their money spent on their system it's time to lower the price.
For me, $200-$250 is my price point, and I've bought almost every Nintendo system anyway, so they'll get my money for sure.
The PS3 will never be in my home until it reaches that price point or I can get a good deal somewhere. I have a HD set (and DVD movies look nice with my mythtv system set to 720p), but it's 4:3 and only has component inputs, so the blu-ray is useless for me right now. I didn't even buy a PS2 until it was $179, and that was because it bundled with the network adapter (which saw no use, oops).
The Xbox of this generation is the same of the last generation: not enough games for me to be interesting in purchasing. I could probably pick up a used Xbox for $75 if I really wanted to, but there's just no real need that is pushing me to spend even that much. The 360 has the same feeling for me. Some interesting games, but not enough interest to push for a purchase, even though I would probably enjoy Dead Rising.
Xbox is a no-go. To expensive, proprietary networking (Xbox Live) and a serious negative "dark-side" bonus from the PC OS division at MS. Wii *and* PS3 both don't have VGA or DVI output. Which I personally find really hard to believe but it appears to be the truth. PS3 is one of the rare home devices capable of non-compressed HD output - why it doesn't even have optional VGA/DVI at a retail price of 600 Euros is totally beyond me. I really don't know what the Sony board was thinking, but I do know I'd be doing a rabid fit and chopping of heads with a genuine japanese sword over at Sony HQ if I had any larges stakes in the PS3 business. Nintendo not adding VGA/DVI against all announcements really disapoints me too. I have a bunch of GameCube games I inherited from a friend and would've like to try the one or other new Wii title. Especially with a console only costing 200 Euros.
Whatever. I'm a modern 36 year old geek, I don't have a TV. I watch 'computer'. No VGA/DVI == not my console.
There you go, you just lost yourself one customer by skimping on parts that cost something close to 20 cents per issue. For my part you can all go broke.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
- It's not a new way to play games
- It's not a BluRay (or HD-DVD) player.
- It's not fully backward compatible
- It's not a Linux platform.
- It's not friendly to casual gamers
It's just the XBox...only prettier. There's no easy way to market that...I walked into Futureshop (Canadian Best Buy) and saw a PS3 on the shelf. The drone said they had 5 of them, and that they had been there for nearly a day. Bought my upconverting DVD player, went over to Rogers video to rent a few movies, they had THREE PS3's just sitting on the counter. Granted, who the hell knew that Rogers sold consoles? Either way, managed to snag my 4th Wiimote there. Sony is not doing so great.
Sorry Sony, I have a PSOne and PS2 and may take a look at your shiny new flagship someday. And Microsoft, well you blew it when you announced that it wouldn't be 100% backwards compatible with the XBOX that I had just spent a ton of money over the last 2 years in games.
I just bought an amazing for $20. What game? Resident evil 4.
...
Maybe if they offered something beyond just "shinier graphics"
Saying the Wii doesn't have supply issues just because they ship more units than the PS3 is wrong. Who cares how many they ship, or what the demand is...the fact is THEY STILL HAVE SUPPLY ISSUES. You can't walk into a store and buy one now, so how is that any better than the PS3? It's funny everyone is slamming the PS3 for not having enough units shipped, then saying the wii is so great as proved by the fact that they are flying off the shelves.
It's hard to say if Sony is having a bad Christmas or not round here, as their 'we can't be bothered' attitude to Europe means they forgot to send us any. The Wiis are all sold, which means Microsoft are probably picking up extra sales from worred parents who would be left without a 'big present' for little Timmy if that nice salesman hadn't convinced them to go for the Xbox 360.
Apple are either being incredibly clever holding back the iPod shuffle knowing the 'next present up the ladder' is their own Nano, or they seriously miscalculated demand, since they are practically unobtainable here.
I think the real problem for the Games market is that there were no really 'big' must-have games this year. I'd have bought a Wii if the Mario Game was out, a PS3 if it and GT5 was out, and a Xbox360 if hell froze over. My spend on games this Christmas is zero, and I'm not the only one.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Though I don't agree that all the Heavy hitters will be pushed to Q4 2007, I'm curious about what you said. If there isn't anything good out for the Wii, and won't be until (as you speculate) late 2007, then why do you love it?
I was in Circutcity (Inserty funny name parody here), looking for a game for the nieces. The ps2 game shelf was gutted. But in there infinite wisdom the managment decided to stack xbox360 consolse on the floor in front of the games (maybe to tempt someone?).
Price is still a big factor in games, and there are still good games cheap for the last generation consoles.
we need videos of people throwing Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers through their TVs on youtube. That seemed to have working for the Wii. And before you're all like "no, nah ah!" this is Microsoft and Sony we're talking about, they'd probably be like "yup, that must be the wii's secret to sucess" If I saw a commercial with Bill Gates whipping around a 360 controller then smashing it into the camera lense and breaking it, I'd be more inclined to buy a 360.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
Price is still a big factor in games, and there are still good games cheap for the last generation consoles.
Don't forget the DS. I've seen PS3's on the shelf more often than I've seen DS Lites in Stock (both are rare, but I haven't seen a DS Lite available since black friday)
The Wii, on the other hand, has Zelda, which looks like fun, and Wii Sports, which other members of my household will enjoy playing. So I'll probably get one of those first.
But it's not about liking one console more than another, or (to a huge extent) about the price; it's about the games.
Which is the *ONLY* thing that 99% of the console players want out of an online service!!
Make it free to play online already!
Offer stupid extras or game downloads or other crap as premiums, but don't charge for basic multiplayer game functionality.
That goes for all of the other console mfgrs as well.
The 360 at least has LIVE to differentiate itself, which IMHO is better than what the PS3 has. Quite honestly Blue-Ray is the only defining characteristic of the PS3, and that might be more of a selling point if the system was $200 cheaper for each version.
It has a 'Me-Too' motion sensing controler (that isn't as good or acurate as the Wii),
a 'Me-Too' Online Service that they tout as better than Live (it isn't.)
'Me-Too' retro game downloads that aren't as good as either Live arcade, or the VC. (Great! I can download PS1 games on the PS3! You can't actually play them on a PS3, you need a PSP. What!? )
the PS3 Is NOT friendly to casual gamers - That freakie baby ad was just disturbing and actually turned off a number of parents. I suppose they weren't 1337 enough.
PS3 Runs Linux... with 256 megs of system RAM... You can get a Sub $100 PC to do that...
That's what happens when you choose to support proprietary crap instead of an open standard like PC gaming is [supposed to be, MS's attempts to hijack it via DirectX notwithstanding].
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
It's only $100. The 20GB PS3 compares closer to the XBox 360 Premium, feature-wise, than the 60GB PS3.
First year sales tend to set the tone for a console's success, but both the Wii and PS3 have only just arrived. It's also too early to say what the prognosis is for the XBox 360. "Didn't sell the staggering amounts of units we expected" != disappointing season. It means the analysts misread the market. Again.
A Dec 19 report published on http://www.next-gen.biz/ suggests that XBox 360 will maintain the lead until 2009, when PS3 overtakes it (both leaving Wii a distant third).
For the record, I bought an XBox 360 last month and have been very pleased with my purchse. I'm bitterly disappointed that I haven't been able to get my hands on a Wii. The PS3 sounds like a good system, but I plan to wait a few years before picking one up. I don't need bleeding edge hardware - I just want fun games. Hardware is always eclipsed within a year. Fun games are forever.
We've been getting shipments of everything but the ps3. WE've had tons of 360's ordered hundreds for the holiday and they are selling but we've barely had any ps3's. The ps3's status is worse then the 360's last year. We knew we would be getting at least one shipment a week if not more. Three months after launch we were never out of stock for the 360's. I've not heard a thing about us even getting more ps3s.
Parent's aren't even interested in asking about the ps3's and when they do it's something like. "Well, we also want to get a ps3 but you guys probably don't have it right?"
I don't know who's got in in shelves but they aren't really available here in central ohio.
Hmmm... Pie...
In australia, you can find premium xbox 360s for $599, and the ps3(60g) is going to go for $999 (even if our currency goes up 10% local resellers will pocket the difference)
By the time the ps3 is released, March/April, everyone will have NO money left, because thats usually the time when people start pumping large amounts
of their wages into the CCs that they spent big on the December.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
I agree, but the reality is that most people who bought Wii consoles have been buying more games, and a lot of the purchasers are dads (like me) who are buying more Wiimotes and nunchuks and more games for their kids and other relatives.
The problem as I see it for the PS3 is that teh number of good games out there is pretty small. That may change in the next year, but it's not changing for this Xmas season, so they miss out on a massive buying surge that the Wii is picking up.
Plus, we've been buying GameCube games too, since those work in the Wii. I noticed this even down here on vacation in Santa Barbara - where people have been buying new and used GameCube games if they ran out of Wii games they wanted.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
A few commenters have said that PS3s don't always sell out instantly.
I'd love to know where; I have an actual paying project held up by the fact that I can't find a PS3 for love nor rubles.
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According to Gamerankings.com Zelda: Twilight Princess is the 6th highest rated game of the last 2 generations from an average of all reviewers. Next highest of any of the new consoles is gears of war at #16.
I suppose that doesn't make it a "big game".
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Except... there ar three or four games at most for each of these add-on "gamepads." Even the EyeToy didn't get more than a few mediocre games. On the Wii, every game can and will use the remote to some degree, because developers know they can rely on it being there.
And as we've seen, ideas usually don't suddenly appear. They need to be refined over time. Look at FPSs on the Wii: CoD got the aiming pretty good, Red Steel implemented some additional remote features (such as "calls" you get during multiplayer games or throwing of hand grenades using the nunchuck), and so on. The second or third versions of these games will perfect the control scheme. You can't just create two or three games for such an innovative controller and expect them to be perfect in every way - that's why most EyeToy games are either pretty bad, or pretty bland.
It should be noted that no new revision ever fundamentally changed the hardware. They made new versions of the GB, GBA and DS smaller, prettier and included a brighter screen, but they never increased the screen's resolution, or made them faster.
First of all, yes. Zelda is amazing. I think it's one of the top four Zelda games ever (the other three being Occarina, Past and Awakening, imho). Possibly the best.
Second, I don't understand why people prefer Rayman to Super Monkey Ball. Rayman's multiplayer mode for most minigames is to let players play the game one after the other. That sucks! Rayman is a pretty crappy party game. In addition to that, you have to unlock minigames. That sucks even more!
Contrast this with Super Monkey Ball: All game are unlocked from the go, when going into a game you always see how many players and whether to attach the nunchuck, and in most games, there's a splitscreen mode!. Oh, and bottom-placedp player gets to choose the next minigame, which makes for some interesting competition.
I haven't played the single player mode in Super Monkey Ball, so I can't comment on that, but for multiplayer gaming, I prefer Super Monkey Ball to Rayman.
I mean, anything *new* that is that good. The launch games have been absolutely stellar. Zelda, Elebits, Madden 07 (gasp, I've hated madden for a decade now!), Trauma Center, and even Red Steel have kept me quite entertained.
Why can't all fpga/microcontroller manufacturers just release free optimizing compilers???
January we'll see Warioware, which to me is a KILLER APP for the Wii. Also Expect to see some more announcements after Christmas as to what is coming out when. I expect, Metroid Prime 3 Q2, Smash Bros in Q3 and Mario Galaxy in Q4. I have no inside info, but I expect them to give their 'headliners' some room to not compete with each other. Also Ubisoft has stated they will have 8 more titles out before the end of March 07. I'm hoping we get more titles as well put together as Rayman RR, and less like Farcry (was rushed out the door).
### Which is the *ONLY* thing that 99% of the console players want out of an online service!!
I kind of doubt that number. The most interesting thing for me about XBoxLive is that you have easy access to free demos, trailers and stuff. Sure, multiplayer is very nice as well, but having easy access to all those games, even if it are just demos or trial versions can provide a heck of a lot entertainment as well. And as far as I understand, you don't have to pay anything to get access to it, which you can't say about the Wii, where everything, beside Opera, requires you to pay, no demos, no trials, nada.
OK - I've had one for some time, and they aren't making ANY new games for it and all that, but I was in EB Games the other day, and they were selling complete (albeit used) Xboxes for $20. $20!!!
I don't care if you HATE the Xbox (I'm fairly neutral about the last gen - I bought all three over the years) but $20! Some used games cost that much!
Tell me about it. After standing in line for the Wii unable to play my DS because there was too much ambient light for me to see the screen, I decided to get a Lite. There's nary one to be found in this part of the state (came across a few pink ones the other day, but I decided I wasn't that desperate).