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July NPDs Show PS3 Didn't Pull Ahead of 360
Despite last month's price drop, Sony's PlayStation 3 console just couldn't pull ahead of the Microsoft Xbox 360. Both, according to the latest NPD results, are still dwarfed by the continued domination of Nintendo's Wii console. 1up has the numbers for July: 'PlayStation 2 - 222k, PlayStation 3 - 159k, PSP - 214k, Xbox 360 - 170k, Wii - 425k, Nintendo DS - 405k, Game Boy Advance -- 87k.' For further commentary we can turn to Gamasutra, which offers a further breakdown on the numbers and some big picture perspective for this year: "Total industry revenue for 2007 presently stands at $7.0 billion. If there is no year-on-year growth for any month until the end of 2007, then the industry will finish the year with $14.5 billion in revenue, an increase in 16% over 2006. That's a reasonably pessimistic scenario ... If we start with our current $7.0 billion as of the end of July and continue at a rate of 40% growth through the end of the year, then we arrive at a total of $17.5 billion for all of 2007 ... If Wii supply constraints are eased, Halo 3 sells as well as expected, Sony's first-party software attracts more PS3 buyers, and Rock Band and Guitar Hero III are both hits, it seems likely that revenues may go above $18 billion. In this optimistic scenario, industry revenues during the single month of December 2007 would equal or surpass the total annual revenue from all of 1997."
Fiss
Apparently PS3 can't pull ahead of PS2, much less competitors products.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
These companies think we will just continue to shell out for the same old crap are basically incompetent. I'm just so tired of way overpriced totally lame games.
~ consoles are for kids
VGCharts is predicting that the Wii has already outsold the Xbox 360. If their numbers are on target (which they have been shown to be accurate in the past), then the market is officially settling in to a Wii > XBox 360 > PS3 console situation.
What's interesting about this situation is that it fits perfectly with the way the market normally works. On one end of the spectrum, you have a cheaper product that aims to make less money per unit, but make it up in volume. On the other end of the spectrum, you have a product that's more expensive and aims to make more money per unit even if the volume is lower.
The only thing messed up about this situation is that the high end of the spectrum isn't aiming to make money. They're losing money on each console in the grandest attempt at the razor blade model ever seen. Even on each game unit, the price of development is so high that it has to be cutting into the available royalties.
The bright side is that the cost of the PS3 components *will* go down very quickly. Cutting-edge parts always drop in price the fastest. If Sony keeps their price high enough to start making a small profit (or at least break even!) on each console, they'll have an opportunity to comfortably maintain the high end of the spectrum, and perhaps even grow that market in the future.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I called it and pretty much anyone who wasn't a self-professed "hard core gamer" did too. The reality is that the X-Box 360 is comparable in almost every important way to the PS3 but considerably cheaper, and the Wii is genuinely more interesting and has more scope for games development than either. The latter has captured the imagination of those inside and outside the gaming communities. The X-Box 360 is out now, has a substantial games library, and is as powerful as its more expensive rival. The PS3? Well, it has Blu-ray. And that's about it.
And Blu-ray is as much a millstone as a feature. It may tempt some HDTV buyers who are willing to throw money at unestablished standards to get the functionality they need today, but it also adds several hundred dollars to the production costs of the console. Microsoft has scope for price cuts that are suicidal for Sony to do.
I don't think this Wii, X-Box 360, PS3 ranking is seriously likely to change, at least not before PS4 and X-Box 720 (or whatever the next generation of consoles are called) come out.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
My 2nd 360 just died. First one shit the bed within 30 minutes of opening the box. Second one lasted about eight months of light use. This time it was the DVD-ROM drive that died.
I can recommend the 360 as an amazing game machine. But it's hard to recommend it as a piece of hardware. I also have a PS3, which I've used for almost nothing more than playing BD movies. Definitely a better hardware and case design. If I were a heavy gamer though, I'd still probably prefer the 360.
This summary has some interesting spin.
To me there are really two interesting things that happened with recent sales numbers:
First: The Wii took the over the overall marketshare lead for this generation.
Second: The PS3 almost pulled even in July in the US, but pulled ahead of the 360 into second place by almost 2x if you take worldwide sales into account.
I'm not particularly surprised the PS3 failed to outsell the 360 in North America. While the price cut represented an increase in value it didn't represent a decrease in the minimum amount of money to spend. I'm not an expert, but I'd attribute the increase in PS3 sales to people buying the system for the added value, and the failure to surpass the 360 to the non-interest of people who want/need to spend less money on a console.
If the Wii has passed the 360 worldwide then the next, and possibly last, major milestone will be to beat the 360 on its home turf. Being #1 on a region by region basis as well as worldwide would be indisputable proof of the Wii's dominance.
As it stands, Microsoft and Sony are both in similar situations. They need to take action, or concede this generation to their competitors. Microsoft can, at least, weasel their way out of it by bringing back Nintendo's line that they "aren't competing". It's a cop out, but that's Microsoft.
Despite the insufficient sales boost from the price cut, I am anticipating a resurgence of sorts from Sony. Maybe I'm ignorant, but for the non-FPS inclined population there are few interesting titles coming out for the 360 in the relatively near future. Sony may not be much better, but I get the feeling that they're paying better attention than Microsoft.
Microsoft's answer to the Wii appears to be that Viva Pinata party game/mini-game collection. To me, looks like a clear case of missing the point. The Wii isn't successful because of games like Wario Ware, Rayman and the like. Attempting to duplicate their success in this manner is foolhardy. Sony, at least, appears to have a better inkling of what's going on. LittleBigPlanet is a large step in the right direction, even if it is the only step we can see for now.
I don't expect the current patterns to continue without change. Halo 3 will represent a change in 360 sales, as will SSB: Brawl for the Wii. Personally I'd rather like to see the patterns be more volatile. It's not that interesting when within a year of the generation the outcome is obvious.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
Nintendo: 917,000
Everyone Else: 765,000
If we want to fight the crack problem in America, I think we should start with the analysts. Them and the local weather dudes.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
The PS3 is nearly even in sales with the more established XBox360 and has 0 must-have exclusive hit titles.
I've got both and when I see my XBox360 I think: Bioshock, Geometry Wars (@#W(!!! I will get the survive million achievement), and soon Halo 3.
I see my PS3 and think... Blu-Ray...
And it still sells nearly as many units as an XBox360? Any company would kill for that.
Sony has sold 2 PS3s for every XBOX 360 sold in July. Period. And that's without any good games. The XBOX already has the great lineup, but the system is boring. The PS3 hasn't even hit its stride yet.
Microsoft has to FUD out this statistic (which isn't counting most of the world because that's the only way the 360 can win) because they have run out of time to beat the PS3. And let me tell you, you would be an imbecile to buy a PS3 (the price certainly isn't going up, there will always be a 500$ version and eventually a much cheaper version). But you'd be even dumber to get a 360. It's just another clone of the playstation. Same basic idea. The PS3 really changes the idea of what a living room console is. So does the wii. The XBOX is just the cheapest possible way to get pretty graphics before breakdown. Not to even mention the fact that Sony's priority was just to establish bluray rather than win the console "war"
The Wii is competing against the PS2, and Sony already won that battle long ago (how's that original XBOX and Gamecube doing?). It's funny how Sony's winning with games in one market and winning despite not having any in another market.
Now I forget, is Sony selling three or four times as many consoles as microsoft these days? Oh yeah, it's really like five times as many if you count the PSP. And none of the Sony consoles are worth buying. But Microsoft just doesn't have what it takes.
My roommate got one last week and thus far I have to say if this is what they have to offer, they are in trouble in the long run. The controller is interesting, but I don't know that I'd call it any better. It has it's pluses and minuses over a normal controller. However the magic next generation of input it is not, at least not in my experience.
Also it seems extremely gimmicky in relation to the controller. Two of the mostly highly rated games, Wii Sports and Wario Ware Smooth Moves just aren't all that IMO. Wii sports is neat, and is fine for a little sports game, but I don't see anything special.
Take the tennis game for example. Yes, you swing the Wiimote rather than pressing a button, but that's all you are doing in effect. It doesn't measure the angle you swing at or anything, it is just timing. You hit at the right time and you get the ball to go where you want. This is the same thing you did with an older, button pressing style game, just using a different action. Interesting, but not something that really changes how games are played.
Likewise Wario Ware seems like nothing but a giant controller gimmick. You do tons of rapid fire mini games (about 3 seconds a piece) that involve just figuring out what kind of motion they want you to make with the controller. You do it right, you win, do it wrong you lose. These are punctuated by extremely strange sound effects and visuals. Regardless, it doesn't seem like any real attempt to use the controller in an innovate way, just various gimmicks.
If that's the kind of thing they have to offer, I don't see it as having a lot of staying power. It's got the "Ooooo nifty," factor combined with a good price that gets people to look at it now, but I don't see that as being what people will keep going for in the long run.
We'll see where it goes from here, but thus far I don't see it really capturing the imagination, more I see it just putting out some silly gimmicks that people find fun. Nothing wrong with that, stupid fun is good fun, but that isn't the kind of thing that is likely to keep it going solid in the long run. After all, there's only so many controller gimmicks you can try before it gets old. What will sell me is when I see a good game that uses the controller to really enhance the experience. Something where I go "Nope, couldn't see this working well on a pad/mouse/keyboard/joystick/whatever." So far, I haven't seen that. Haven't had a change to play a whole lot of games yet but other than the gimmick games, the others seem to be using the controller but only as you'd use any other. Zelda looks like a great game, but the controller adds nothing really. I find myself wishing I could hook up a mouse and keyboard as that would be easier to control in my opinion.
How the hell is this modded troll? Parent post simply describes 1) personal experience with the 360, 2) despite having had two units die on him, he is generally happy with and still prefers the 360 as a gaming appliance. Post lightly covers pros & cons of both units, and is obviously not a raging fanboy out to rile the masses.
Mod responsibly, people.
Actually, considering that PS3 has been out less than half the time of the Xbox360, I would expect it to sell more, because most people that would want one of those systems would likely already have an Xbox360.
The main reason PS3 sales are sluggish (and the reason I haven't even looked at buying one) is that most households in the US don't have an HDTV, and a PS3 really isn't worth the cost if you don't already have one. Considering that raises the minimum spending to enjoy the system to somewhere in the range of $1500 (System, Games, TV, cables, etc). While XBox360 certainly benefits from having HDTV, it's not as much of a requirement to enjoy the full feature set.
Microsoft 360 fan boys suck. Seriously, you're worse than Apple fan boys if you think that is a TROLL post.
And you can't do simple math. Or read.
Sony hasn't even sold 1 PS3 for every XBOX 360 sold in July. If you add up all Sony sales across PS2, PS3, and PSP, it might add up to between three and four times XBOX360 sales, but not fives times as you claim. I won't even get into the fact that, because MSFT doesn't even offer a handheld, the PSP numbers only really count against the Nintendo DS, with the PSP getting thoroughly destroyed by DS sales. Others would argue that PS2 sales shouldn't even count, because we're really talking about next^H^H^H^H current-gen console sales, not all-gen console and handheld sales.
Try again, and start by working on your reading comprehension and basic arithmetic skills.
What does sony have that's going to compete with Halo 3? (or even Metroid Prime 3? Hell, even Mario Strikers? ) Playstation Home? LittleBigPlanet and Killzone are the only great exclusives I see on the horizon, and both of those aren't shipping until February.
If blu-ray is the only thing going for them, the Paramount/Dreamworks Deal and Halo 3 could end this fight this holiday season. 3rd place with a huge loss on every console sold is a bad place to be.
I'm not sure that a two-week trend is statistically significant to overall momentum. Just sayin'. Maybe a bunch of kids finally earned enough mowing lawns so far this summer or something.
When did the future switch from being a promise to a threat? -C. Palahniuk
Nintendo systems are kicking butt. That's awesome. I love my Wii (that's what she said) and my DS, and I have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for Nintendo from my younger days. They're responsible for my favorite games growing up. But I don't think those console sales numbers tell the full story. At least not yet. There really does seem to be separate casual and hardcore markets right now. The question is which one is bigger. Out of the 5 people I know who own a Wii, I'm the only one with more than 3 games for it. Everyone else just has Wii Sports, Wii Play, and maybe one of Mario Party/Elebits/Excite Truck. I haven't seen comprehensive numbers, but I suspect that Wii owners buy less software than PS3/360 owners. Look at the monthly sales in the article. Number 1 is NCAA 08 for the 360 (pissed they didn't make a Wii version). I'll be VERY interested to see what Madden sales are next month. Part of that theory is that I think many Wii owners bought the system as an electronic board game. To play Wii Sports and so forth with their friends. They're content with 2 or 3 such games. The hardcore crowd is instead going to buy at least 1-2 immersive, live-in-the-basement-and-eat-Hot-Pockets-type games per month. And arguably, Wii just now finally got its second such must-have title today in Metroid. I thought it was telling that my Gamestops didn't do midnight openings for Metroid. I just think there's more nerdgasm going on for games like Bioshock, Crysis, Blue Dragon, and the next WoW expansion. And I think those are the folks that are gonna spend the money. I'm not going to be surprised if Wii console sales double up on everyone else this generation. But I'm also not going to be surprised if Wii software sales are eclipsed by sales for PS3/360.
Um.
Your logic is faulty.
First, the Wii hasn't been out as long as the 360, and has apparently caught up to it in sales.
Second, the 360 has had a year headstart -- so more people should have them, and less people should be buying them.
Third, "building momentum" or just a boost because of the 80GB version and lowered price for the 60GB?
I do sort-of agree that the numbers don't mean much. The holiday season numbers will be more important.
The reality is, no matter how much Sony or Microsoft try to spin it, is that consumers will not be buying next gen consoles in large quantities until after most of the TV market is HDTV. That will not be until 2009, when everyone is forced to switch over and the $2000 HDTV set from 2005 is selling - without the bugs on release - for $300 retail.
The market is a cruel mistress, and the Wii is surfing the wave, leading Nintendo fanbois and fangurls towards the next gen Wii successor they will release in 2009, completing their domination of the market.
Last night, for example, my son had three friends over for a lunar eclipse watching party (neat, turned red, blue and purple at times) and all his friends - who have xBox360 and PS3 at home - were wowed by the Wii and the games he had on it. Kids don't care about your excuses - they want what they want, as does most of the non-hardcore market that the Wii expanded into.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo took 3 different approaches to the HDTV Transition. Microsoft went with one HDTV capable machine to appeal to both markets. They discontinued the original XBOX (which was unprofitable and losing to the PSII), got out early with a machine that could handle HDTV for games but could be cut down to a low enough price point to appeal to SDTV owners. Sony kept their old SDTV box, the top selling PSII, on the market and created an essentially HD only PSIII box. PSIII didn't compromise on the DVD technology or any other HDTV feature so it is only a good value for HDTV owners. By the numbers in this story, Sony leads Microsoft handily in units and revenue and has probably led throughout the transition based on healthy PSII numbers. Nintendo went with a next generation SDTV box to appeal to both markets. They delayed their HDTV transition to later on down the road when demand for HD is higher and HD component prices drop. Since most of the market is still SDTV and the Wii has enough fun factor to appeal to HD owners it has been phenomenally successful. But Nintendo still doesn't have a true HDTV offering and has the technology platform transition ahead. Sony PSIII business should benefit as the HDTV market grows because it is a no compromise box designed to appeal to HDTV market. Sony's market share looks much healthier when you combine PSII and PSIII sales and that is the fair comparison to XBOX and Wii since Microsoft and Nintendo are targeting both markets with one machine.
That the Wii outsold the DS. The DS has been the king in all territories for a long time now...
There are two important things that set the PS3 above the 360: Bluray and processing power.
The Bluray is an absolute win. It's not about HD video-- it's about game content. As it is, media-heavy games eat up a lot of space, and game manufacturers are already compressing textures and dropping the size of their levels just to squeeze everything onto a DVD. Bluray allows for better textures and bigger worlds. Game designers no longer have to worry about the DVD limit.
The processing power is a double-edged sword. There's a certain point when there is "enough" processing power. After that, it's all just wasted. And the cell broadband engine is quite different from standard programming-- you can't just create more threads to take advantage of the additional processors.
However, for game engines designed from the ground up to take advantage of the platform, the PS3 has substantially more power than the 360. The 360 has a slightly better GPU, but the PS3 has more than enough extra power to make up for it, and then some.
The 360 isn't a bad game machine (unlike the original Xbox, which was a PC in an ugly case), it isn't "comparable in almost every important way to the PS3," though it is considerably cheaper.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
That's hardly telling at all. The original Playstation outsold the PS2 for quite a while, too, yet the PS2 is still the console to beat (in terms of total sales).
The Wii might make it, as it *is* strangely fun, kind of like the NES when it was first introduced.
I think everyone is counting out the PS3 *way* too early. It's a damned good console, with a lot of room to grow, both in size of games (Bluray) and in technical ability (CBE).
Plus, Ratchet & Clank will be out for it in October. I can't wait. (R&C is *way* more fun than should be legal, if you ask me.)
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
The main reason PS3 sales are sluggish (and the reason I haven't even looked at buying one) is that most households in the US don't have an HDTV, and a PS3 really isn't worth the cost if you don't already have one. Considering that raises the minimum spending to enjoy the system to somewhere in the range of $1500 (System, Games, TV, cables, etc). While XBox360 certainly benefits from having HDTV, it's not as much of a requirement to enjoy the full feature set.
The HDTV install base is shifting fairly rapidly. Right now I have 2. Most of the people I know have at least 1 in the household. However I'm middle/upper middle class Canadian. So perhaps our poor country cousins down in the states are ina different spot. You know with your currency falling 40% and all.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Funny by the numbers.
With great power comes great electricity bills.
August will likely show a PS3 spike and Here's why. This deal also can be combined though with the 5 Free BluRay movies offer.
The software charts however will paint a different picture as you stated. There are simply more (and better) games on the 360.
That's my point. There are more (and better) games on the 360 NOW... and still the PS3 is keeping pace.
If you just look at home console sales, we see that the two leaders are both SDTV friendly, i.e. Wii and PS2. For some reason, MS and Sony decided to heavily market their next gen consoles to the HDTV community. Last time I checked, less than 15% of households had HDTV. They marketed so heavily to this group that the public perception is that buying a PS3 or XBox360 for your SDTV is like putting spinning rims your '72 Ford Pinto. You just don't do it.
On the other hand, Nintendo didn't promote HDTV at all. Instead they brought a product to market that was half the price of the competition. We can see by the numbers today that Nintendo made the better business decision.
Then please explain the Wii...
Warioware -- I've played it and enjoyed it.
It struck me that the developers at Nintendo were using it as a platform to figure out control-scheme/scenarios that can be used in other games. Players who had this game early in the console's lifetime would, as a result, also be more prepared for future games if they used "strange" control mechanics.
Makes a ton of sense to me (fun game too). It made me go get the DS version.
Offtopic: Playing WarioWare got me thinking; there were mini games in which your hand motion with respect to the sensor bar allowed for precise positioning of an object in space that tracked very accurately, and since your hand's motion is limited by the weight of the wiimote it's as if there is a heft and physical extent to the virtual cursor as rendered in game. This is a very intuitive feeling and I understand why people gushed about Elebits in as far as the gameplay. You could keep using that metaphor in tons of games that have a physical aspect to them, so I expect to see a lot of 3d-physics type of interaction and problem solving which thankfully is in vogue now in game development libraries, and thus at developers' fingertips.
I can't wait to see what comes of that.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Sorry, but as a long time gamer and CG fan I have to disagree. Even back in the 16-bit days people claimed there was no need for a more powerful console because TVs were the limiting factor. I certainly think the 32-bit generation looked better than the 16-bits. There are countless shader effects available to the 360 and PS3 that weren't around last generation, as well as significant increases in polygon counts and in most case frame rates. Anyone who can't distinguish between, for example, Transformers for 360 and the Wii-d down version, on the same TV, needs an eye exam.
We hooked it up to the audio in the house so we can hear it on the patio and you can control it with the BlueTooth remote from some distance away. DLNA (UPnP, whatever) hooked up to another machine in the house with all our music on it... That's a pretty nice thrown-in type of use for a game console. That and being able to watch MPEG4 video and use that same remote to shuttle it around without needing to boot it into some kind of other operating system for that kinda functionality.
Also, we have a lot of PS2 and PS1 games and it makes them look nice on the LCD with the HDMI output. Haven't run into compatibility issues yet.
If the other people who bought it were like us, it's because 1) We wanted a blue-ray/DVD player for an HD set. 2) We had a lot of PS2/PS1 games 3) We were going to take advantage of the media convergence features.
Sony was nice enough not to rope you into using their bullshit formats on #3. Straight MPEG-4 AVC video or MP3 audio on USB HDs or memory devices, from the internet, etc. etc... it's good enough even if they purposefully don't support MPEG-$ ASP (so you can't easily watch your pirated XviDs of Sony media properties, sigh).
I guess the point is you get a lot out of the box. Supported, no fiddling around with anything, and enough features unrestricted to keep you happy.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
You mean "there's Warhawk." The other ones aren't out yet, and we don't know how they'll turn out.
Apropos, I downloaded Warhawk yesterday. It's a lot of fun. Not worth 40 bucks to most people, given how little stuff there's in it (very few maps, only two teams, very few different weapons and cars and no single-player mode), but it is a great game nonetheless - and sometimes it's even really pretty, especially when flying through the clouds. Huge pity they didn't put more content in it. And it does have four-player split screen, which is a huge plus in my book. I wish Motorstorm had that, too.
All in a ll a good distraction, but definitely not a system seller.
I think the issues you're having with the Wii can easily be attributed to a surprising lack of knowledge and/or experience. For example, you wrote:
This is blatantly wrong. You can use your remote to slice the ball to the left or the right, and you can even do stopballs. It takes a bit of practise, but all of the Wii Sports titles (well, maybe except Baseball) are a lot deeper than you think.
In fact, the boxing game - the most reviled Wii Sports game - is easily the deepest boxing game I've ever played. There's so much you can do with blocking, different strikes, aiming for parts of the opponent's body, and moving. No other boxing game allows this kind of exact control.
I think Microsoft understands what's going on, but they can't do anything about it. Everything about their console - from the name to the logo to the looks of the first Xbox to the games selection - just screams "male teenager."
They can't get into the casual market despite the fact that many of their online games are extremely casual. They've painted themselves into a corner, and now they can't really do anything about it.
The 360 is the hardcore console, and until Microsoft changes its strategy drastically (including changing the console's name - maybe for the next gen, if they remain in the console business), it will remain that.
While the Wii attach rate can't compete with the 360, it's not bad at all, and higher than the PS3's. I don't know the current numbers, but half a year ago, the PS3 attach rate was at 3.4 and the Wii at 3.6. I think the 360's is somewhat above 6 by now (but doubled in the last four months, and was thus around the Wii's at the same time of its lifespan), which is not surprising since it's been out much longer, so people had more time to buy games.
The point is, the Wii's attach rate is not worse than usual.
These Sony number, though they're not dominating, might even be a little higher than they should be. I've been considering a PS3 for a while now and after the $100 price cut on the 60GB PS3 and the 5 free Blu-Ray titles offer they've got going on, I've gotten more and more interested. If you look harder, there are further deals out there on the system. I don't think I've ever seen a competing system forced like this and I'm sure there are some people who are snapping it up with the reasoning that there's finally a chance at getting a decent deal out of it. If those discounts and sales are cut , I think Sony is going to fall off a bit again and we might see where Sony actually is in the console race.
Right now it's being promoted so heavily, it'd be hard to say where it'll all be when the promotions start to slow.
"If the good lord had intended us to walk, he wouldn't have invented roller skates." -Willy Wonka
Your analysis is faulty. While consoles generally have a spike in sales when they are initially released, it usually takes a few price cuts and good games to be released before people really start buying it. There are many people out there who think even $250 is too much to pay for an immature console with few compelling titles. When more people have the 360, it should encourage developers to make exclusive titles, enable Microsoft to make deeper price cuts, and build consumer confidence in the system. People will be saying, "Microsoft has sold many consoles, maybe they won't discontinue the 360 as quickly as they did the original Xbox." This should increase sales, not decrease them as you suggest. There is a point at which the market will be saturated, but if we have reached that point already then Microsoft is in serious trouble.