Support NeoGAF

[Riskbreaker23]

sony is in a very interesting position.

if, like they said, they are just worried about profitability this year, they will keep the PS3 at its current price and just do some more bundles this year (LBP and R2 or MS2)

However, seeing as how the have outsold the 360 almost every month this year, they could drop the price to $299 or make a special 40GB LBP bundle for $299 and try to press the advantage.

i guess it depends on whether they want to play it safe and wait for next year to do a price drop or go for broke and try to make up a lot of ground this year

 

[GashPrex]

Winning that HD format war was key to SONY bouncing back.

I know MS won't do it, but they need a Blu-Ray drive to compete.
Either that or a BIG price drop. None of this 50 dollar bullshit.

No, they really don't - the overall price drop will help move more units, but the 360 itself has already reached the critical numbers to sell massive amounts of software.

If PS3 was selling Wii like numbers then MS would be concerned, but as already pointed it would take 11 years at this rate to catch MS and the 3rd party software continues to sell massive amounts. And this is considering that the 360 has most of its "big guns" lined for the rest of the year (yes i know sony does too) while Sony already fired one it's biggest shots in MGS4.

The bottom line is always about software because that's where the money is made.

 

[Yes Boss!]

sony is in a very interesting position.

if, like they said, they are just worried about profitability this year, they will keep the PS3 at its current price and just do some more bundles this year (LBP and R2 or MS2)

However, seeing as how the have outsold the 360 almost every month this year, they could drop the price to $299 or make a special 40GB LBP bundle for $299 and try to press the advantage.

i guess it depends on whether they want to play it safe and wait for next year to do a price drop or go for broke and try to make up a lot of ground this year

They should keep the price at the $399 but then pack in the Dualshock 3 and include LBP installed on every harddrive. They need to make LBP part of the Playstation experience from day one for every user. The system has no identity and this would certainly help in that area.

 

[yurinka]

Valve don't put their hearts into PS3 games either.

Just sayin.

Yes, but EA helps non-experienced console developers porting their games to PS3. EA only wants more money and has severall not pc-only experienced

Spoiler

slaved porting

development studios.

There are severall Edge (the toolkit, not the magazine) stuff coming that will help a lot the developers, specially the PC-only (or PC/X360 only) experienced developers.

 

[nib95]

Priyanka Chopra?

 

[Yes Boss!]

Priyanka Chopra?

you got it!

 

[nib95]

you got it!

Great taste!

 

[yurinka]

They should keep the price at the $399 but then pack in the Dualshock 3 and include LBP installed on the every harddrive. They need to make LBP part of the Playstation experience from day one for every user. The system has no identity and this would certainly help in that area.

Something like that (a bundle) is coming. Sony is considering very seriously to have the Sackboy and LBP as the PS3 iconical reference. They want to push further Phil Harrison's Games 3.0 idea.

The game has a lot of potential, is so creative and could help to open the PS3 market but not in a ultra casual way like the Wii. Unlike the referenced Viva Piñata everybody likes it. I think it will perform a lot better than Viva Piñata, but the number is uncertain because is a disruptive product. It can bomb or it can have really huge sales.

I think LBP will perform great in Europe and Japan, and will have a limited success in USA (luckyly a million). Instead, I think Gears 2 will sell a lot in USA, and will have a limited success in Europe (in Japan the gaijin games don't sell).

I also think LBP will sell consoles, specially between gamers or ex-gamers. But it won't push the HW numbers as high as Sony expect. But sales from Christmas, other games and some other residual selling-points like Home will hide this "failure".

Instead, I think Gears 2 won't sale consoles. Every potential target fan already has the console with Gears 1, Halo 3 and so on. MS must fix the RROD because it could hurt them a lot with the price drops.

 

[SRG01]

They have yet to even bring over the non-brick version, right?

Maybe with the bundle planned for the fall...

I thought it was confirmed that the PS2 bundle had the non-brick version...?

 

[Link]

Who cares which HD console sells more at this point? They're both still getting way better support than the Wii. You guys are arguing over nothing.

 

[AndresON777]

NPD threads rock because you see into peoples inner fanboy and to which side they pledge allegiance

 

[Gaborn]

That's interesting. A very popular counter-argument in 'LBP sales threads' has been that PS3 doesn't have the right audience for it yet.

Anyways, Mama Robotnik wins this thread..well done!

The two points are not inconsistent. My contention is the hardcore PS3 fans have already adopted LBP as "their" game, but that they also hope that casuals will adopt it and therefore the PS3 because of it (which I have trouble seeing in current market conditions).

 

[cedric69]

I think what you are leaving out is that top flight studios don't really WANT to develop for the Wii, other than as a money grab, which does not satisfy their creative side, especially the artists. Honestly, can you see companies like Insomniac, Valve, etc. really putting all their heart into a Wii game? Neither can I.

.
This.

And more of this.

 

[jimbo]

360 NCAA FOOTBALL 09 ELECTRONIC ARTS JULY 2008 397.6K
PS3 NCAA FOOTBALL 09 ELECTRONIC ARTS JULY 2008 242.5K

360 SOUL CALIBUR IV NAMCO BANDAI GAMES OF AMERICA JULY 2008 218.9K
PS3 SOUL CALIBUR IV NAMCO BANDAI GAMES OF AMERICA JULY 2008 155.8K

This would probably be the most alarming numbers for MS to be looking at right now. Despite double the install base, the games are not selling at a similar rate anymore. MS loves to tout attach rates, and sales to publishers/devs, this is not going to win any long term favors if this trend continues. It looks like they're losing ground to Sony more than just on the hardware front. Gears 2 "should" put the 360 back in the lime light, if it doesn't then the future is rather bleak..

That's to be expected when both consoles are selling to the same user base. A lot of the people buying PS3's right now are the same hardcore gamers that own a 360, so naturally when a big game comes out some of the people that used to buy games on the 360 will now buy them on a PS3.

I also don't think the 360 has saturated its price point. It's not like it has been averaging 300k this whole generation and then all of a sudden it dropped. It's always been doing 200k a month in non holiday months. Does anyone have that YoY chart for the 360?

The fact that the PS3 is doing slightly better, doesn't have as much with the 360 slowing down as it has with the PS3 doing better, thanks to games like MGS4 and a better price this year than last year.

 

[CreatureX3]

360 SOUL CALIBUR IV NAMCO BANDAI GAMES OF AMERICA JULY 2008 218.9K
PS3 SOUL CALIBUR IV NAMCO BANDAI GAMES OF AMERICA JULY 2008 155.8K

A Wii version would have sold over 300K easily.

I think what you are leaving out is that top flight studios don't really WANT to develop for the Wii, other than as a money grab, which does not satisfy their creative side, especially the artists. Honestly, can you see companies like Insomniac, Valve, etc. really putting all their heart into a Wii game? Neither can I.

I think what you are leaving out is that the creative/artistic sides don't run these companies. The money side does. And with every passing month, the Wii looks more and more like the better money/developer investment.

 

[yurinka]

The two points are not inconsistent. My contention is the hardcore PS3 fans have already adopted LBP as "their" game, but that they also hope that casuals will adopt it and therefore the PS3 because of it (which I have trouble seeing in current market conditions).

Well, the Playstation brand always winned casuals users thanks to games like Eyetoy, Buzz or Singstar (every IP selled severall millions). I think LBP is highly well positioned between these games and the hardcore ones, something like Nintendo's 1st party "hardcore" Wii games like Mario Galaxy or Mario Kart. I think to can focus both casual and hardcore markets is so good.

 

[Gaborn]

Well, the Playstation brand always winned casuals users thanks to games like Eyetoy, Buzz or Singstar (every IP selled severall millions). I think LBP is highly well positioned between these games and the hardcore ones, something like Nintendo's 1st party "hardcore" Wii games like Mario Galaxy or Mario Kart. I think to can focus both casual and hardcore markets is so good.

It picked those users up at a much lower price point for the PS2 than the PS3 currently has, and PS2 also had the benefit of controlling mindshare in the public, that is, it had more positive coverage for it's games already than other systems. The casuals today barely know the PS3 exists at this point, it's simply not on their radar except as the "other" more expensive system.

 

[Saint Gregory]

I think what you are leaving out is that top flight studios don't really WANT to develop for the Wii, other than as a money grab, which does not satisfy their creative side, especially the artists. Honestly, can you see companies like Insomniac, Valve, etc. really putting all their heart into a Wii game? Neither can I.

Ha-ha, such bullshit. I love how all these developers are artists with principles now who rufuse to be held back by the medium. What were their excuses for not letting their creative juices fly last gen on the Cube?

Get it through your heads people - Nintemdo won't see HD twins level of support until the devs have no other options (which is likely never) and it's not because the Wii is underpowered or because the devs are fighting the good fight. Nintendo is not a third party partner like Sony and MS are, they're competition. Nintendo sees it that way and so do the devs which is why Nintendo's 3rd party support has sucked since Sony gave devs a level platform in the '90s.

 

[pr0cs]

At this point it's really obvious that the 360 is overpriced, there just isn't enough value vs the PS3 when you consider all the things the PS3 does/gives extra for the price.
The 360 has the better games library but is not priced appropriately when you consider that the PS3 is starting to come into it's own and has better value.
Dropping the price of the 20 and then launching the 60 causes confusion, even worse when there are very strong rumors of another price drop in September, I expect August to have similar numbers for the PS3 and 360, likely even worse for the 360.

 

[Deku]

The challenge now is that both Sony and Microsoft are being forced to ramp up internal publishing and development to 'guide' their platforms to their stratetic objectives. The hands off approach Sony was able to get away with in the past clearly is not working for them as developers will rather port a 360 game or split an exclusive between 2 consoles than really design something to drive the PS3.


When you have big 2nd or 1st party exclusives anchoring holiday lineups, it's really not much different from the Sega and Nintendo of old.


And to link banck to an earlier comment about 3 platforms in the market, it's quite clear it is not sustainable in its current configuration given the amount of subsidies that would have to go into these platforms to maintain support and pricing.

 

[vanguardian1]

Get it through your heads people - Nintendo won't see HD twins level of support until the devs have no other options (which is likely never) and it's not because the Wii is underpowered or because the devs are fighting the good fight. Nintendo is not a third party partner like Sony and MS are, they're competition. Nintendo sees it that way and so do the devs which is why Nintendo's 3rd party support has sucked since Sony gave devs a level platform in the '90s.

I disagree completely. If anything (since Iwata has taken charge) they have now become considerably more straightforward with their deals and, to the dismay of many here, far too open for what software is allowed on their platforms. And if they DID try to control the 3rd party offerings that was released on their systems, they would be given a FAR harsher perspective than Sony or MS. And yet also Nintendo is, from what we've seen, doing far less of the "under-the-table" deals with developers that we are used to seeing from Sony and MS.

 

[Brakara]

The fact that the PS3 is doing slightly better, doesn't have as much with the 360 slowing down as it has with the PS3 doing better, thanks to games like MGS4 and a better price this year than last year.

The 360 is in fact at this point tracking better than last year. Should be interesting to see if a proper price cut will maintain that trend. August NPD last year was when the 360 started to gain momentum for the rest of the year (and left the PS3 in the dust until January). That's not going to happen this year though.

 

[farnham]

A Wii version would have sold over 300K easily.

The GC version of SCII sold well

that did not help though

 

[Zombie James]

They should keep the price at the $399 but then pack in the Dualshock 3 and include LBP installed on every harddrive. They need to make LBP part of the Playstation experience from day one for every user. The system has no identity and this would certainly help in that area.

I don't think they'd do a hard drive pre-install, but having a LBP bundle would be the smartest and most obvious thing they could do. Also, not making it a limited edition.

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

Ha-ha, such bullshit. I love how all these developers are artists with principles now who rufuse to be held back by the medium. What were their excuses for not letting their creative juices fly last gen on the Cube?

Get it through your heads people - Nintemdo won't see HD twins level of support until the devs have no other options (which is likely never) and it's not because the Wii is underpowered or because the devs are fighting the good fight. Nintendo is not a third party partner like Sony and MS are, they're competition. Nintendo sees it that way and so do the devs which is why Nintendo's 3rd party support has sucked since Sony gave devs a level platform in the '90s.

I disagree completely.

The Wii is gaining steam, but not equally. We're starting to see shifts from Japan, and from larger American devs. It's a trickle down system.

(I was gonna type more, but i've said this so much I'm too lazy to bother again.)

 

[gofreak]

The two points are not inconsistent. My contention is the hardcore PS3 fans have already adopted LBP as "their" game, but that they also hope that casuals will adopt it and therefore the PS3 because of it (which I have trouble seeing in current market conditions).

Sure. We'll have to wait and see what LBP 'drive' is like beyond the existing base. But you're not going to grow userbase with software that only appeals to the existing base. I thought this was your contention, perhaps mistakenly, that LBP will only appeal to existing PS3 owners. LBP has the potential to have much broader appeal...I think it will. Question is one of conversion, I guess, converting appeal into the sale, which is not guaranteed.

 

[Revolver]

The battle between PS3 and 360 really reminds me of the 16-bit days. The 360 had the head start like the Genesis, and the previous gen market leader was late to the party like the SNES. The 360 even seems to sell to the same type of users that the Genny did. Sports gamers eat the thing up. Does anyone remember the lead Sega had at a similar point in it's lifespan? I don't know the numbers. Anyway, I expect the 360 to put up big software numbers this holiday with Gears 2. Who knows how LBP will do, it could be the PS3's DKC or it could just as easily bomb.

Meanwhile, Nintendo will continue printing money and sleeping on giant piles of cash.

 

[FrankT]

The 360 is in fact at this point tracking better than last year. Should be interesting to see if a proper price cut will maintain that trend. August NPD last year was when the 360 started to gain momentum for the rest of the year (and left the PS3 in the dust until January). That's not going to happen this year though.

If the rumored price points are correct save August after that I see it being the same if not an even bigger gap. The only dynamic that will change this is if the PS3 sees a price cut, which I highly doubt, even then before black Friday. Pack-ins are just not going to cut it with that much price point differential and being the same price point it was during the holidays of 07. The 800k more the 360 did last holiday season during Nov and Dec could be easily matched if not more.

 

[B-Rad Lascelle]

I also don't think the 360 has saturated its price point. It's not like it has been averaging 300k this whole generation and then all of a sudden it dropped. It's always been doing 200k a month in non holiday months. Does anyone have that YoY chart for the 360?

The fact that the PS3 is doing slightly better, doesn't have as much with the 360 slowing down as it has with the PS3 doing better, thanks to games like MGS4 and a better price this year than last year.

2007 Xbox 360 Sales (Jan-Jul) = 1,418,000
2008 Xbox 360 Sales (Jan-Jul) = 1,547,000

Hey look... MS is actually doing better this year than last. And with a system that's cheaper to produce as well. Imagine that.

Only on GAF can a company sell more of a product and make more money in a year and be considered "struggling" and on the downswing of momentum. The momentum shift is just as big of a lie as the cake in Portal.

Oh... and to cement my point from earlier...

2007 Xbox 360 Sales (Aug-Dec) = 3,201,000

69.3% of 2007's X360 sales occured in the last 5 months of the year.
They will do bigger numbers in 2008 with a $199 Xbox.

 

[Askia47]

A Wii version would have sold over 300K easily.

I think what you are leaving out is that the creative/artistic sides don't run these companies. The money side does. And with every passing month, the Wii looks more and more like the better money/developer investment.

So every game should be ported to Wii, just because the system sells better? Didnt Wii already get a spin off SC? How did that sell?

 

[felipeko]

So every game should be ported to Wii, just because the system sells better? Didnt Wii already get a spin off SC? How did that sell?

Wii version does not mean port or spin off...

 

[theBishop]

Isn't it about time Microsoft put out a 360 Slim model with wifi built-in?

 

[carlosp]

This is my 2 cents to the LPB discussion. I think LBP will indeed drive alot of Systems but if someone expect it to be similar to MGS or GTA IV he/she will be disappointed. LBP is a long term product will live from the viral effect of the game just like the way Singstar and Buzz did before. What Sony wants to do with LBP is build a strong community who will deliver a lot of quality content and it is more then clear, that sony will do everything possible to reach this goal. They are even planing to pay the community for this to make sure people will deliver quality content.

Well this means as longer as LBP is on the market, as more content will be available for the game which will then drive the viral train and hype people. We can only imagine how many great games and levels will be created and in long term and this will become a very strong argument for sony to sell the system the a very young and casual audience. Imagine people make a mario level with LBP and the videos arrive on youtube. This will probably the way sony will sell more and more systems throw the LBP viral marketing.

We can expect 5-6 mio. copies to be sold at a time frame of two to three years.

 

[Mithos Yggdrasill]

Wii Play two months away from passing GTAVC/GTASA and becoming best-selling single-SKU in the NPD full tracking era.

Wii Fit LTD: 1,430,000
Wii Play LTD: 6,409,000
Mario Kart LTD: 2,404,000 (Mario Kart GCN: 2,600,000--rounded because source material contains leaked data from pre-NPD ban; Mario Kart N64; 4,800,000 rounded same reason)

Uhm. I don't think that Mario kart Wii will ever reach Mario Kart 64.

Game of the generation my ass. Galaxy is THE game of the generation.

 

[Dirtbag]

Sure. We'll have to wait and see what LBP 'drive' is like beyond the existing base. But you're not going to grow userbase with software that only appeals to the existing base. I thought this was your contention, perhaps mistakenly, that LBP will only appeal to existing PS3 owners. LBP has the potential to have much broader appeal...I think it will. Question is one of conversion, I guess, converting appeal into the sale, which is not guaranteed.

I can see LBP moving somes units, but do you / and anyone else think it will be a bigger hit in japan then the U.S.?

I'm inclined to say Japan, just because I fear it's going to go over the heads of the American audience.

Isn't it about time Microsoft put out a 360 Slim model with wifi built-in?

It can only be as slim as the current harddrives if they want full compatibility.

 

[CoG]

This is my 2 cents to the LPB discussion. I think LBP will indeed drive alot of Systems but if someone expect it to be similar to MGS or GTA IV he/she will be disappointed. LBP is a long term product will live from the viral effect of the game just like the way Singstar and Buzz did before. What Sony wants to do with LBP is build a strong community who will deliver a lot of quality content and it is more then clear, that sony will do everything possible to reach this goal. They are even planing to pay the community for this to make sure people will deliver quality content.

I think LBP will have legs for sure, especially if the community grows and MM introduces more content.

I would not be surprised if first month sales are shy of 500k, depending on the level or marketing and the price of the cheapest PS3 at the time. Overtime I see it doing in the millions. All this hinges on whether or not the game sucks, or course.

 

[Dragon]

Game of the generation my ass. Galaxy is THE game of the generation.

This gen sucks. Therefore no game of the generation.

 

[v1cious]

The battle between PS3 and 360 really reminds me of the 16-bit days. The 360 had the head start like the Genesis, and the previous gen market leader was late to the party like the SNES. The 360 even seems to sell to the same type of users that the Genny did. Sports gamers eat the thing up. Does anyone remember the lead Sega had at a similar point in it's lifespan? I don't know the numbers. Anyway, I expect the 360 to put up big software numbers this holiday with Gears 2. Who knows how LBP will do, it could be the PS3's DKC or it could just as easily bomb.

Meanwhile, Nintendo will continue printing money and sleeping on giant piles of cash.

i think LittleBigPlanet's gonna do better than people think. not only will it be pushed frequently in the coming month, but if it's as good as it looks so far, the reviews will help the momentum. not to mention the diehards who were already intending to buy it. it's the Bioshock effect all over again.

 

[titiklabingapat]

Honestly, can you see companies like Insomniac, Valve, etc. really putting all their heart into a Wii game? Neither can I.

It's not Nintendo's problem but the studios'. If they can't wrap thier heads around the Wii, it's potentially a huge missed opportunity for those devs, especially going into the next gen with Nintendo as the leader.

 

[Opiate]

I think what you are leaving out is that top flight studios don't really WANT to develop for the Wii, other than as a money grab, which does not satisfy their creative side, especially the artists. Honestly, can you see companies like Insomniac, Valve, etc. really putting all their heart into a Wii game? Neither can I.

To an extent I agree: I think a game like Beyond Good and Evil was pushed on to PS3/360 because the developer preferred them.

But my PC-centric side revolts at this notion. Valve, for example, already makes compromises to put out inferior versions of their games on the 360, and let's EA make inferior versions on the PS3. It's also worth noting that Valve has been intensely critical of the PS3 and 360 and has had nothing but praise for the Wii.

Or, for example, Insomniac: why do they sacrifice their artistic vision by putting their game on the limited PS3 hardware? They could be making games beyond Crysis for today's 3000 dollar PCs.

The answer, of course, is sales. These people want to sell their games, and the market for 3000 dollar PCs is both small and pirate-heavy. In other words: these companies are already sacrificing their "artistic vision" (although I can recognize objections to that term). What you really mean is that you hope they don't sacrifice it any further.

They took one technological step down by pandering to the PS3/360 crowd. Apparently, you approve of that. But you do not want them to take another step down and pander to the Wii one. Seems fairly hypocritical, no? If not, please explain.

 

[sooperkool]

I never can seem to understand how LBP is supposed to "change the game" and potentially move consoles yet can't even keep a thread alive on the first page of this forum and there is massive love for it here.

I mean there are a hell of a lot of interested and really creative people here but the show your LBP planet ideas thread died pretty fast too.

 

[theBishop]

It can only be as slim as the current harddrives if they want full compatibility.

They should just go with 2.5" drives and stop selling a HDDless model. Maybe they continue selling the Arcade pack in poorer countries, but not in US/EU/JP.

 

[heliosRAzi]

The moms and dads of America are going to go into game stores and ask for LBP on the Wii.

 

[Dirtbag]

The battle between PS3 and 360 really reminds me of the 16-bit days. The 360 had the head start like the Genesis, and the previous gen market leader was late to the party like the SNES. The 360 even seems to sell to the same type of users that the Genny did. Sports gamers eat the thing up. Does anyone remember the lead Sega had at a similar point in it's lifespan? I don't know the numbers. Anyway, I expect the 360 to put up big software numbers this holiday with Gears 2. Who knows how LBP will do, it could be the PS3's DKC or it could just as easily bomb.

Meanwhile, Nintendo will continue printing money and sleeping on giant piles of cash.

I don't see this gen looking anything like the 16-bit gen.
You have a 3-way market split now with 3 fully supported companies, and both the 360 and ps3 are selling at such high price points that its hard to draw any fair comparisons yet. To say that the 360 mainly appeals to sports gamers, is going a bit far. As it stands presently, 360 has the jrpg's, and the biggest waves this gen so far being 360 landing FF13.

It's way too early to make a claim like this.

 

[Zoe]

They should just go with 2.5" drives and stop selling a HDDless model. Maybe they continue selling the Arcade pack in poorer countries, but not in US/EU/JP.

His point is the size of the caddy prevents the 360 from getting any slimmer in that dimension.

 

[Rolf NB]

They should just go with 2.5" drives and stop selling a HDDless model. Maybe they continue selling the Arcade pack in poorer countries, but not in US/EU/JP.

The XBox 360 harddrives are of the 2.5" conviction. I think the point was rather that the old HDD enclosures must fit with any revised XBox 360, since the ability to pop them off is kind of useful (besides enabling the sale of drive upgrades, not least to buyers of the Arcade SKU).

 

[mollipen]

Ha-ha, such bullshit. I love how all these developers are artists with principles now who rufuse to be held back by the medium. What were their excuses for not letting their creative juices fly last gen on the Cube?

Having a pretty much equal platform (PS2) with a waaaaaaay bigger install base?

His point is the size of the caddy prevents the 360 from getting any slimmer in that dimension.

Yeah, and people are being a bit short-sighted when it comes to "slimming" the Xbox 360. Can you do it width wise? No, but you can certainly do it height and length wise. Drop an inch or two from the length (the HDD would still work just fine), drop a few inches from the height, and voila.

 

[Metal Gear?!]

360 NCAA FOOTBALL 09 ELECTRONIC ARTS JULY 2008 397.6K
PS3 NCAA FOOTBALL 09 ELECTRONIC ARTS JULY 2008 242.5K

360 SOUL CALIBUR IV NAMCO BANDAI GAMES OF AMERICA JULY 2008 218.9K
PS3 SOUL CALIBUR IV NAMCO BANDAI GAMES OF AMERICA JULY 2008 155.8K

This would probably be the most alarming numbers for MS to be looking at right now. Despite double the install base, the games are not selling at a similar rate anymore. MS loves to tout attach rates, and sales to publishers/devs, this is not going to win any long term favors if this trend continues. It looks like they're losing ground to Sony more than just on the hardware front.

I wonder how much of that is due to free/pay online?

Who cares which HD console sells more at this point? They're both still getting way better support than the Wii. You guys are arguing over nothing.

Is it getting so bad that everyone has to team up against the Wii?

They took one technological step down by pandering to the PS3/360 crowd. Apparently, you approve of that. But you do not want them to take another step down and pander to the Wii one. Seems fairly hypocritical, no? If not, please explain.

Don't forget that they ported HL2 to the XBox and that was a much larger technological compromise than the Wii could ever be.

 

[JJConrad]

2007 Xbox 360 Sales (Jan-Jul) = 1,418,000
2008 Xbox 360 Sales (Jan-Jul) = 1,547,000

Hey look... MS is actually doing better this year than last. And with a system that's cheaper to produce as well. Imagine that.

Only on GAF can a company sell more of a product and make more money in a year and be considered "struggling" and on the downswing of momentum. The momentum shift is just as big of a lie as the cake in Portal.

Oh... and to cement my point from earlier...

2007 Xbox 360 Sales (Aug-Dec) = 3,201,000

69.3% of 2007's X360 sales occured in the last 5 months of the year.
They will do bigger numbers in 2008 with a $199 Xbox.

The first half of 2007 was really bad for the 360. The system was down about 200k y-o-y from 2006. 2008 is still 55k behind 2006 and unlike 2007 there is no Halo 3 to save its ass.

 

[Threi]

They took one technological step down by pandering to the PS3/360 crowd. Apparently, you approve of that. But you do not want them to take another step down and pander to the Wii one. Seems fairly hypocritical, no? If not, please explain.

I have said this a thousand times in a thousand threads. You never seem to get a clear answer.