Console Wars - the revenge

[asleepathewheel]

I believe GTAIV is now set for april 29, guaranteed to kill the finals grades of many a college student.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by vovan


Then again, it's doing pretty well in Europe, evidently.

Yeah, there's little doubt that eventually the ps3 will be ahead of the 360 in world wide sales, or at least a virtual tie.

Apparently the 80gb is being discontinued in the US, so looks like no BC for any new purchasers in the near future.

I was waiting for another price drop and the ds3 to be included (and more decent games released), so this change really blows, I hope they add it back in at some point. Seems like they release a new sku every 6 months.

[Kuciwalker]

Yeah, there's little doubt that eventually the ps3 will be ahead of the 360 in world wide sales, or at least a virtual tie.

What?

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker

Yeah, there's little doubt that eventually the ps3 will be ahead of the 360 in world wide sales, or at least a virtual tie.

What?

long term-2010 perhaps. World wide, of course, the ps3 may never top the 360 in the US itself.

[asleepathewheel]

Hmm. looks like that wii 10-1 december ratio is off, but still beat the 360.

http://wii.ign.com/articles/847/847472p1.html

Wii Tie Ratio at 8:1 in December
Players bought eight games for every Wii sold in December. That number is better than Xbox 360 and PS3.
by Matt Casamassina

January 24, 2008 - If you're still under the impression that consumers are only buying Nintendo's new console for Wii Sports, perhaps the latest software to hardware tie ratio numbers from the NPD Group will change your mind. According to the software data tracking service, consumers purchased 8.11 games for every Wii console sold in December. This relates to 7.76 games for every Xbox 360 sold during the month and 5.04 games for every PlayStation 3 purchased in the same time frame.

Very strong sales of titles like Super Mario Galaxy, Wii Play, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Guitar Hero III and more contributed to Wii's high tie ratio.

While Nintendo's console certainly flourished in December, perhaps signaling the beginning of solid tie ratios to come, it should be noted that Wii's life-to-date software to hardware tie ratio is at 4.64, compared to 4.26 on PlayStation 3 (despite a much smaller installed base) and 7.0 on Xbox 360, according to NPD data.

[Asher]

Heh. Those figures also include Wii Sports last I checked.

Wii Sports & Wii Play really should not count as a game sold.

Does Matt officially work for Nintendo PR now? I'm just curious.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by asleepathewheel


Yeah, there's little doubt that eventually the ps3 will be ahead of the 360 in world wide sales, or at least a virtual tie.

I have doubt.

[Asher]

Another reason for the high monthly Wii attach rate: Forced bundles by retailers, taking advantage of short supply.

Even with this, look at the overall attach rate. Subtract 1 or 2 from it to discount Wii Play / Wii Sports, and you got a funny number.

Anyway, MS financials are out for Oct-Dec 07.

Company-wide, profit increased from $2.63B in 06 Q4 to $4.71B in 07 Q4.
The Xbox 360 division had a loss of $302M in 06 Q4, and posted a $357M profit 07 Q4.

[Nikolai]

You know Asher, all consoles get bundled with at least one game, without exception.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Nikolai
You know Asher, all consoles get bundled with at least one game, without exception.

MS and NPD for 360 don't count their bundled games as units sold.

I'm referring to the bundles for the Wii where it's the Wii + 4 other games...

[Nikolai]

OK. Just curious, does that include the bundles with preset games in the bundle only, or also the bundles with 360 + game X + game of your choice? How do they remove the last game from the statistics then?

[Asher]

Originally posted by Nikolai
OK. Just curious, does that include the bundles with preset games in the bundle only, or also the bundles with 360 + game X + game of your choice? How do they remove the last game from the statistics then?

They don't include the games that come in the game box, in the US this is Marvel + Forza 2. They would count every other game in a new box that may or may not be bundled.

The point is since the Wii was more supply constrained, retailers used bundles far more than 360/PS3 games did. Bundles were available for them all, yes, but it was much harder to find Wiis without external bundles than 360s/PS3s.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Asher
Another reason for the high monthly Wii attach rate: Forced bundles by retailers, taking advantage of short supply.

So? Theyre still getting revenue beyond the $250 for the hardware from that (assuming first party SW). If youre not going to count those as SW sales, but count them as part of the HW sale, then while you can lower the attach rate, you can't call the HW so cheap, and can't attribute the high HW sales to cheapness.

[lord of the mark]

Is that the xbox divisions first quarterly profit?

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Asher
Forced bundles by retailers, taking advantage of short supply.

That's going to be a tiny tiny percentage of the total

Costco, Sams, and Frys I think are the main three that force some bundles.

Compare to Best Buy, CC, Walmart, Target, EB