"In all of 2005, MS sold a total of 1.5 million units... while Sony easily topped that in three days in 2000 with the PS2."
XBox 360 was lauched on Nov 22nd in the States. They sold 1.5 million by the end of November and would have sold more had there been no delivery problems. These numbers are for States sales only, whereas Sony's PS1 numbers are for sales in multiple countries. So I don't think that it is fair to compare single-country to a multi-country game console releases. Admittedly Microsoft should have either changed their marketing stragery to a multi-country release or produced more units before the release, but that's another topic.
"... they're not gaining marketshare fast enough for when the PS3 comes out."
I am not sure whether Sony will be able to beat MS in the market split. Of course, US will have more 360s and Japan will have more PS3s, but in other countries it would be a more even split. I think that Microsoft had the correct idea to be the first to release a 3rd gen console and now Sony is playing into their hands by postponing PS3 release and thus giving away a bigger marketshare to MS. If MS lowers the price of 360 before PS3 comes out, that will also increase their share of the market. Each one of these points might not be enough to win over PS3, but taken together they just might to make market distribution more even.
"... all of their games are compatible with the PS3."
I am not sure but I thought that XBox games can be played on XBox 360 since there is an emulator included with the system...
All in all, I completely agree with you that XBox 360 is still a money-loser for Microsoft but I tend to think that the reason is the production costs and not the sluggish release strategy.
Slashdot Mirror
XBox 360 was lauched on Nov 22nd in the States. They sold 1.5 million by the end of November and would have sold more had there been no delivery problems. These numbers are for States sales only, whereas Sony's PS1 numbers are for sales in multiple countries. So I don't think that it is fair to compare single-country to a multi-country game console releases. Admittedly Microsoft should have either changed their marketing stragery to a multi-country release or produced more units before the release, but that's another topic.
"... they're not gaining marketshare fast enough for when the PS3 comes out."I am not sure whether Sony will be able to beat MS in the market split. Of course, US will have more 360s and Japan will have more PS3s, but in other countries it would be a more even split. I think that Microsoft had the correct idea to be the first to release a 3rd gen console and now Sony is playing into their hands by postponing PS3 release and thus giving away a bigger marketshare to MS. If MS lowers the price of 360 before PS3 comes out, that will also increase their share of the market. Each one of these points might not be enough to win over PS3, but taken together they just might to make market distribution more even.
"... all of their games are compatible with the PS3."I am not sure but I thought that XBox games can be played on XBox 360 since there is an emulator included with the system...
All in all, I completely agree with you that XBox 360 is still a money-loser for Microsoft but I tend to think that the reason is the production costs and not the sluggish release strategy.
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