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PS3 "Strong Contender" To Overtake Xbox 360

Posted by Unknown on from the atari-jaguar-will-rise-again dept.

donniebaseball23 writes "Xbox 360 has been having an incredible year so far in 2011, but on a global scale Sony's PS3 is still gaining ground. In fact, this year PS3 has outpaced Xbox 360 by 10% worldwide, analysts have pointed out. While the Wii has clearly won the race for this console generation, the battle for second place is neck and neck, and PS3 has a good shot of overtaking Xbox 360. 'As for second place, as far as the hardcore market is concerned, I'd say PS3 is a strong contender for that position,' commented M2 Research analyst Billy Pidgeon."

7 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. Re:heh - by Desler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Cool story, bro. I'm sure with 50+ million in sales they are truly hurting because one person will never buy a PS3.

  2. Seriously? by c_jonescc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We're SIX years into the 360, and FIVE for the PS3. Do we really need to constantly be analyzing which is selling more every quarter as though there's going to be a loser?

    Both companies have proven very successful, and have buyers of overlapping interest. Why should anyone care which one sold more in random month half a decade into the production cycle? Really, why does it matter?

    Both companies have survived this cycle. That's obvious. They'll both be throwing their hats into the next generation, which is a clear indicator that there are no losers between them. The only point I see is getting the fanboys all riled up.

    --
    Getting diabetes AND salmonella would be a bad weekend.
  3. The Wii hasn't won anything... by Sir_Sri · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In terms of hours played of games, or money made on games, or games sold separate from the console the Wii isn't winning. At all.

    A game console is the base of a broader platform. For sony that included other media, but selling consoles is done so you can sell *software*, and, if you're into that sort of thing, software people actually want to play. The Wii has had a handful of good titles. The PS3 and 360 have had a handful of good titles every year they've been out.

    In terms of which console is the better to have. At this point the PS3 seems to be getting better exclusives (god of war, uncharted infamous etc.) but I'm sure Halo 4 will have something to say about that soon enough.

    1. Re:The Wii hasn't won anything... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The Wii won on net profit.

      That's... kind of important to some people.

    2. Re:The Wii hasn't won anything... by Dahamma · · Score: 4, Interesting

      These days the real net profit for a game console to a company is based on the sales of hardware, software, and online services.

      The Wii may have made the most (or only) profit on the hardware, but at about $6 per unit all of their profits from the Wii console so far don't equal a year of Microsoft's profits from XBox Live.

      And as TFA says:

      "While most PS3s sold in are active, Wii's active installed base is far lower than cumulative sales. Nintendo's first party software largely targets Wii's hardcore sector, while third party software performance on Wii remains soft and the mainstream sector has largely abandoned Wii."

      So Nintendo is basically not making any more significant profit on the Wii, while Sony and Microsoft are starting to cash in big time.

      The Wii was like a sprinter in a marathon. Led for the first mile, but isn't even going to finish the race...

  4. Re:Blu-Ray by CronoCloud · · Score: 5, Informative

    It was Samsung that released the first blu-ray player to market in 2006...and it cost almost a thousand dollars. Even the Deluxe PS3 model released in October of that year was cheap compared to that. And also the PS3 can do BonusView, BD-Live and 3D blu-ray titles, and that Samsung model could not be updated to do so.

    And even now and 299 the PS3 is still a pretty good deal. Massive storage, media features, a build in web browser, and games. It competes fairly well with things like Iomega's Boxee thing.

  5. No kidding by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Unit sales matter when things are starting out. Don't sell enough units, and you can find yourself out of the running since then nobody wants to make any games for you (and if you don't have games, nobody buys it, and so on). However at this point, everyone has sold plenty. Unit sales aren't a big thing. Right now attach rate is what matters, meaning how many games per unit you sell. That's where the big money is in consoles, the licensing on games. So it doesn't matter if you sell slightly more units than your competitor, it matters if you sell (on average) more games per unit.