Report: Xbox 360 outsells PS3 despite higher average price
Despite a $35 higher average price tag, the Xbox 360 is consistently outselling the PlayStation 3 by about 12,000 units a week.
Microsoft has been taking the top spot over the PlayStation 3 and Wii for over a year in the monthly NPD figures. However, the average price consumers are paying for each of the consoles make that feat even more impressive. Analysis shows that the average price of an Xbox 360 console has increased over the last several months, and the system is ruling the roost in spite of it.
The analysis from Gamasutra shows that while the PlayStation 3 and Wii both dropped in average retail prices (by roughly $40 and $8 respectively) between July and September, the Xbox 360 actually rose from $280 to $306. This is $35 higher than the PS3's average price of $271 as of September. "Compared to its closest competitor, Microsoft is selling 12,000 more systems per week and at a $35 higher price," the analysis concludes.
The average price is determined by how many of each model is sold at retail, and Microsoft has an advantage in that department. While Microsoft offers a lower-priced model at $199, its Kinect bundles at $299 and $399 have sold well. Given the popularity of the peripheral, these are probably responsible for driving up the average unit price.
American gamers are not only willing to pay more for Xbox 360, but they're also willing to pay for Xbox Live, which adds an annual $60 fee on top of console ownership.
This doesn't mean that Sony is suffering, though. The price cut in August was a strategic move this year, and it's on-track to set a new record calendar year and achieve its sales goals for the fiscal year ending in March 2012.
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replySteve Watts posted a new article, Report: Xbox 360 outsells PS3 despite higher average price.
Despite a $35 higher average price tag, the Xbox 360 is consistently outselling the PlayStation 3 by about 12,000 units a week.-
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"Five Hundred And Ninety Nine US Dollars" and 2 to 3 years of middling PS3 releases caused by developer difficulties in optimizing for Cell didn't help Sony.
At the same time, they have a lock on the Japanese market, and have more market share than Microsoft in Europe. The US market is the largest one of those three, but NPD always acts like the US market is the only one that exists.-
Well to be fair, in the US market the 360 leads the PS3 by a much larger margin compared to the other regions (except of course for Japan, but we all knew that.) And the fact that it is still selling so well here seems pretty amazing this late in the game. Actually, if you look at the total lifetime sales for all devices (consoles and hand-helds) a good portion of them have larger sales in the US region than elsewhere.
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Does it even matter? If people are willing to keep replacing them, that in itself says something. I embarresingly own 3 of the things (one for each member of my household), but have never had to replace one yet due to it dying (I still have the original XBOX Elite). I still have an original PS3 for that matter (it is my Blu-Ray player).
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Sure it does.
If MS is selling more replacements than it is selling to new users, then the actual market penitration rate remains steady. To the developers, it means that the market may be increasing for MS, but it won't for them because people are simply replacing old and busted XBoxes. I doubt this is the case, but it would be an interesting metric and would give a better explanation of how fast the market is really growing.
Also, some of these could be second units for the home, which would also mean the the market may be expanding for the hardware side, but not the software side.. A user might buy a second Xbox for another TV, but they probably will not buy two copies of a game.-
they also have the highest attach rate as well
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Not that surprising given Microsoft's lead time on the PS3 release. Despite the technical flaws, namely the RROD, that came with pushing for such a quick release of the hardware, Microsoft did the right thing by beating Sony out of the gate. Pushing the next generation up was the only chance they had to take away some of the massive market share the PS2 had. Sony also did themselves no favors by pricing the PS3 so high and taking a marketing approach that borderline insulted their potential customers.
It's gonna be really interesting to see how the next generation of hardware shakes out. With only Nintendo announcing firm plans for a new system, it's really hard to tell at this point who might take the upper hand next round. Microsoft and Nintendo both had a great run this generation, so I'm intrigued to see if Sony manages to use their underdog status to turn things around with the PS4 and get back on top.-
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Oh for sure. It could've easily backfired on them.
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Yup, still makes me sad when I think back to how awesome of a system the Dreamcast was. :(
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Sega had multiple fails leading up the Dreamcast.
SegaCD - Wasn't bad but didn't live up to the hype
32X - A clusterfuck and waste of money
Saturn - underperformed
By the time the Dreamcast came around Sega had a bad name. Microsoft built some cred with the original Xbox. People were happy with it.
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Getting it out sooner wasn't the only reason though, the PS3 had a really slow start at the beginning simply because it was so crazy expensive when it first came out. Sony made a lot of big mistakes early on for the launch of the PS3. They pulled out of it a year or so later... but that hurt and already late start I think.
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Also initially a Component/composite cable in all 360's. Even the Elite had HDMI at launch. But the PS3 just came with composite.
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Hence why he said the Elite had it at launch, not the original 360.
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Dragon's Crown
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The Wii
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IBM
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It's an sim race machine to me.
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Last I heard in Europe PS3 is selling at a faster rate, but 360 already had a larger install base so it was close. In the US it has never been close with the 360 pretty much just dominating. Japan obviously is all PS3 all the time. Regardless of whatever the current number of consoles sold is, breaking even with MS is a huge loss for Sony this generation, but perhaps they're making up for it now with more games and a better attach rate.
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Yeah, at this point unless there's just certain properties you must have that're exclusive, owning a single HD console is totally fine.
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End of the console wars ends for me in approximately 1 week.
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For some reason I've always had this image in my mind that 360 is the console that a PC gamers wanting a console would buy, and PS3 is the one people who want care free console gaming and nothing else buy. At least in my circle of friends this really applies pretty well. Guess this piece of news would support that image, since if you've never been a PC gamer, you're not as likely to buy an ID game just because it's ID.
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Microsoft had the opportunity to really foster creativity by some solid PC developers, but they pretty much squandered any chance of that by Halo-ing then killing Ensemble. Freelancer 2 could've been incredible had they kept Digital Anvil alive. Bungie had to fight to maintain its own identity and culture within Microsoft, and although MS eventually did the right thing and let them go when they asked for their freedom, you have to look at the loss of Bungie as a massive failure for Microsoft (despite holding on to the Halo IP).
Sony seems more friendly in terms of treating its developers with proper creative freedom. Wipeout continues to exist despite being threatened financially in the recent past, Team ICO is still protected despite regular delays in their projects. They have good relationships with smaller but high quality producing teams like Naughty Dog. Microsoft tries to get there but they really seem to struggle with the artistic freedom side that Sony would appear to just get. -
I've always felt the opposite. If you have a gaming-ready PC, I've always felt like the 360 was kinda redundant, though I can't say exactly why save for a few 360 exclusives that made it to PC. But the PS3 has always felt to me like a much more Japanese and quirky-game friendly machine, making it the better companion to a larger Western-developed PC game library.
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I know this is the way most people seem to think about it when speaking strictly the selection of games, but I dunno, most people I know who play both PCs and consoles have the 360 if they don't have both. This is of course a very limited amount of people in a specific country with a specific kind of gaming culture, and that's why I said "this image in my mind", I've got nothing solid to base it on.
Spreaking personally, if I had to give up one of the two, I'd give up the 360, even if I play it 10 times more than the PS3. I don't want to give up on the PS3 exclusives which are awesome, and I'd be able to live with the worse pad for the multiplatform titles that don't come out on the PC. I'd only miss Halo and Gears of War that I can think of, and Uncharted is better than both of those combined.
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Who want a Bluray player you mean.
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Nah the 360 is a tight assed platform. Very controlling, but the quality of XBL makes up for most of that. Meanwhile Sony is very open with developers. They take risks and seem to be better with indie devs. Yet their whole online experience/patching etc. is as unwelcoming as it gets.
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Agreed, ever since the Xbox 1 and the developers who flocked to the platform when it was made, the console has felt like the PC gamers alternate machine.
Furthered more by a lot of their games coming to both systems, Gears, Halo, Mass Effect.
I love how the PS3 is proper unique shit, you can't get it elsewhere. That's why I love my PS3, mostly for the amazing exclusives it has. I just don't care for the Microsoft ones or can get them on my PC :/
PS3 is getting better lately too, some real nice shit nowadays. -
I've always thought of the Xbox as a console built for gaming first and entertainment centre second. The PS3 had it the other way around.
However, Sony has really stepped it up in the gaming department and Microsoft has been striving to get a bigger piece of the entertainment centre pie now. -
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The millions of disenfranchised Wii owners.
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You can get one for cheap now, the selection of games is huge as opposed to a new console, most of the games can be gotten for cheap and you're still going to get a good couple of years out of the console before the new ones are out and have games worth paying the transitional price for. One could easily twist your question right on its head: Who the hell buys these consoles when you cost 500 bucks+, have a few expensive games and the hardware is prone to failures? It's easily arguable that they are better value now than they ever were.
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My PS3 is a terrible media server. I love my 360 because it plays almost everything I throw at it over the server.
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I have to enable Media Sharing through WM7 on PS3 and it makes my processor idle around 70% on a quad core. 360 lets me stream via Zune and it doesn't make my processor go crazy. It idles around 10%.
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the PS3 has almost caught the 360 worldwid in sales with a year late start... in fact by age its outsold the 360.. but the WII spanked um both.. to bad MS likes to just talk US sales (if sony only talked sales in Japan it would look good too).. I wonder if thats why people in other countries have no love for them.. the "US matters" we wont talk about anybody else?
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I know NPD only state North America sales, but the 360 outsolde the PSE 100,000+ units last month. Has done so for the past 16 months. Wouldn't that average be closer to twice that number, say 24,000 more units a week? Anyway, I'm glad I don't have to get involved in the console war, I own both systems. I do know why Steve wrote this article, Garnnett is a PS3 fanboy. This new I'm sure broke his heart. lol
