PS3 Sales Surpass the X Box 360 & the Wii in America.

[Jast3r Rogu3]

Prices.

$250 - wii
$350 - x360
$400-$500 - PS3


For the week ended Feb 23, 2008 (American Sales) PS3 94,106, Wii 78,975, and the X Box 360 87,569. (Total Sales):PS3 177,387, Wii 230,921, and the X Box 360 134,284.

[Iguana Man]

Is this the first week or has this been an ongoing thing? Just curious.

[Mr. Furious]

MS has been screwing the pooch in just about every conceiveable way. Their big ace in the hole is Xbox Live. Their DRM has made that more or less a non-factor. Unless you're playing a lot of MP games, Xbox live is no benefit to most people. DRM makes it risky to buy anything and the cost for rentals is rediculous. Not to mention, you have to buy MS points instead of just paying in cash.

[MooglePorn]

I've said all along the 360 wins amongst the early, hardcore base... the PS3 wins across the larger scope, worlwide sales plus casual gamers, medium level gamers, people who love anything from Japan, etc... It was obvious to me then and still is now that one day, not TOO far away, the PS3 will become number 1 again. Well... maybe behind the Wii for a loooong time, but it will overtake the 360 at some point for sure, if it has not already worldwide.

[richierich]

I think that microsoft needs to make a significant price cut on the 360 if they want to stay ahead of the PS3. With Sony's $400 price point for the PS3, coupled with the best value for a blu ray player, it has a lot of appeal to the non-hardcore gamer. I know a lot of people who's first DVD player was a PS2 and it could turn out that most peoples first Hi-def DVD player is the PS3. Im not sure if the PS3 will surpass the Wii though. The Wii is its own little monster, right now.

[umainebearman]

How about software sales. You know where the sales figures actually count?

[brian]

Originally Posted by Mr. Furious

MS has been screwing the pooch in just about every conceiveable way. Their big ace in the hole is Xbox Live. Their DRM has made that more or less a non-factor. Unless you're playing a lot of MP games, Xbox live is no benefit to most people. DRM makes it risky to buy anything and the cost for rentals is rediculous. Not to mention, you have to buy MS points instead of just paying in cash.

Eh. Most of the games I buy over live (all 3 of them!) are mostly disposable and I wouldn't be too heart-broken to lose any of them.

Also, while the rental rates are higher, I've been tempted to rent some catalog-titles in HD just because I have no desire to own them(I rewatch most movies at most once every 3-5 years). It beats buying a Blu-Ray player if all I really feel like doing is watching Rocky in HD.

[Mr. Furious]

With the possibility of the RRoD, you could lose the games you paid for. I'm more inclined to buy cheapo, discount used titles before I'm willing to just lose the games because MS's DRM sucks.

As for rentals, ~$6 per rental also seems way too steep. Additionally, Microsoft points generally come in even hundreds (like 1500, 2100, etc) whereas the rentals do not. They're usually something like, 480 points, or some even 10's digit. This means you're likely to have to have leftovers you don't spend (thus increasing the cost for rentals). For not a lot more, you could do netflix for a month, get more rentals, and get them in your HD format of choice...

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Mr. Furious

With the possibility of the RRoD, you could lose the games you paid for. I'm more inclined to buy cheapo, discount used titles before I'm willing to just lose the games because MS's DRM sucks.

The DRM does suck, but the one good thing about it is that you truly never lose the game, so long as the publisher keeps it up on XBLA for download (and even if its not on XBLA, you can still play it on any console so long as you had previously downloaded it to the HD). You can always redownload it to any XBOX 360, only restriction being that you are signed in to Live with your Gamertag to play. With broadband internet so common, this is not a terrible tradeoff so long that there are no game-stopping glitches if the net goes out in the middle of playing a game (48hr offline "grace period" before lockout would be a good addition to the current DRM IMO).

This is in contrast to some other systems like the PS3 which only give you 5 downloads then lock you out, so you do not have permanent access to the games as is the case with 360. If I had to pick the two I'd rather have the permanent access even if it means I need to be signed on to play; when I buy something I want access to it permanently, not some finite period of time or # of downloads.

As for rentals, ~$6 per rental also seems way too steep. Additionally, Microsoft points generally come in even hundreds (like 1500, 2100, etc) whereas the rentals do not. They're usually something like, 480 points, or some even 10's digit. This means you're likely to have to have leftovers you don't spend (thus increasing the cost for rentals). For not a lot more, you could do netflix for a month, get more rentals, and get them in your HD format of choice...

Rentals are too steep, and hopefully they will drop them to no more than $4-5 for HD.

[Mr. Furious]

The retarded thing is that MS could put a huge dent in iTunes and the iPod with their market penetration with the Xbox. Start selling DRM-free music on xbox live. Then from there, serve it out from the xbox, transfer it to the zune, or another PC in the house. They won't do it though because the DRM is too important to them...

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Mr. Furious

The retarded thing is that MS could put a huge dent in iTunes and the iPod with their market penetration with the Xbox. Start selling DRM-free music on xbox live. Then from there, serve it out from the xbox, transfer it to the zune, or another PC in the house. They won't do it though because the DRM is too important to them...

Music DRM is more important to MS' customers than to MS. Remember, Zune Marketplace already has over 1000 MP3 DRM-free downloads. However most of the major labels have chosen to retain DRM with the Zune DRM scheme on Zune Marketplace. It is up to the record label, really.

Due to the fact that most music is listened to on-the-go and most movies are watched at home, MS probably felt it was more important to focus on movies instead of music at this point in time. Remember jack of all trades is master of none! I think Sony's recent strategy is a testament to that as they went from first to last in the gaming dept in short order as a result. Whether that will change in the future is yet to be seen, but Sony's failure to focus in any one area has cost them their previous dominance. Was it worth it to spend all that money just to lose mass market dominance in gaming (where they get ALL the royalties) and gain its current niche status in HDM (where they have to split royalties between lots of other companies)? How long has PS3 been out, and finally they win a couple of weeks (only in hardware, mind you, not software where they are still losing badly) and there is much rejoicing of PS3 fans in this thread? I think that shows clearly exactly how poorly Sony's strategy worked out. Yeah, BD might go mass market - or it might not. We have yet to see whether that part will even work out.

Sony may have won the HDM war, but now they are stuck with people buying PS3s - which Sony loses money on - only to not use them for gaming (as evidenced by poor software sales) and instead buying BDs (which percentagewise Sony makes much less royalties on then games). Microsoft sells a bit less consoles (which they make a small profit on), yet they dominate the software charts... Who do you think is making more money?

[umainebearman]

Originally Posted by Mr. Furious

With the possibility of the RRoD, you could lose the games you paid for. I'm more inclined to buy cheapo, discount used titles before I'm willing to just lose the games because MS's DRM sucks.

Thats not an argument any more. MS has there new warranty and replacement program. RRoD is a possibility but at least MS is willing to pay for the mistake and not ignore the problems however small the percentage like Sony.

[Derb]

Originally Posted by Ruined

Microsoft sells a bit less consoles (which they make a small profit on), yet they dominate the software charts... Who do you think is making more money?

Neither & no MS isn't making any profit.

[Mr. Furious]

Originally Posted by umainebearman

Thats not an argument any more. MS has there new warranty and replacement program. RRoD is a possibility but at least MS is willing to pay for the mistake and not ignore the problems however small the percentage like Sony.

Read about the issues DRM causes when you're trying to get your XBOX replaced. Then tell me it isn't an issue! People are being told that they have a new Xbox and therefore they have to rebuy the games! It's not a seamless - redownload the works based on your Live! ID. Sounds like it's far more complex and aggrevating.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Derb

Neither & no MS isn't making any profit.

o rly?

MS Gaming Divison 10/2007
Microsoft entertainment division turns profit, thanks Halo - Joystiq
vs.
Sony Gaming Division 10/2007
Losses in Sony's games division double - Joystiq

[ganthc]

I wonder if that income number accounts for the billion dollar return policy that MS had to do for all their build quality issues on the 360?