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[reilo]

There was? I live in Dallas, and I didn't notice a shortage.

...

So, where are all the PIE CHARTS, GAF?

I come to these threads for the motherf***ing PIE CHARTS!

The smart people that make pie-charts post in the Media-Create threads.

 

[Basch]

Even Amazon.com is sold out of 360s

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000W91YTA/ref=dp_olp_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1203060216&sr=8-1

Resellers are even getting a premium over the $349 RRp

PS3 80 Gig is biting the dust as well.

Amazon is not the best source to judge by. I'm sure there are plenty of 80 Gigs still out there. :lol

well... what Im wondering is why no one speaks of the psp shortages... I kid you not they have been selling really well... I believe from november through most of January there were selling as fast as Wiis DSs and Guitar hero in my area I honestly don't think they will stick to the psp shrink plan... the thing is my store and a few around here usually gets that info first. Also we tend to get changes to the store before other regions do because we are the "testing" grounds. Crisis core will be pretty big, I need to check the reserve count.

Thats awesome. I hope the PSP does better all over the nation. Crisis Core I think will do it. Come to think of it, I should preorder mine. I don't think this is a time to be messing around. Hopefully the PSP takes off this year, and, when it does, hopefully more PSP games will sell.

This discussion about 'shortages' probably won't get resolved until next month. Till then it'll just be a yes-no contest.

People looking to debate the matter should really listen to this piece of advice. We need more info before we can conclude anything. And that may take awhile.

 

[fernoca]

After a fairly boring holiday season, we finally have some interesting numbers. In fact there haven’t been numbers this surprising since August. As a quick overview, the January NPD retail month covers a four week period starting on Sunday, January 6th and extends through Saturday, February 2nd. December was a five week month, so as usual I’ll stick with weekly averages to make the numbers line up. As a quick reminder, here are the December numbers, with weekly averages in parenthesis:

DS: 2,470,000 (494,000)
Wii: 1,350,000 (270,000)
360: 1,260,000 (252,000)
PS2: 1,100,000 (220,000)
PSP: 1,060,000 (212,000)
PS3: 797,600 (159,520)

Also, we’re now far enough past the launches of the Wii and PS3 that numbers from last year are becoming relevant as well, so we can compare this year’s numbers to last year’s and see what changes have arisen. It’s important to note, however, that the NPD retailer calendar is 52 weeks and a year is slightly longer than that, so to compensate last year’s January included an extra “leap week” and was a five week month. Here are the January 2007 numbers, again with weekly averages in parenthesis and systems no longer being sold removed:

Wii: 435,503 (87,100)
PS2: 299,352 (59,870)
360: 293,774 (58,755)
PS3: 243,554 (48,711)
DS: 238,869 (47,774)
PSP: 210,719 (42,144)

So now that we finally have the prelimaries out of the way, let’s look at the January 2008 numbers. As usual, we’ll start at the top of the charts and work our way down.

Wii: 274,000 (68,500): It’s obviously down quite a bit from December, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone. The year-over-year drop, however, is somewhat more surprising at first glance. However, Nintendo was kind enough to clear up this discrepancy for us in their quarterly briefing held towards the end of January. To ship as many Wiis as they did in Q4 calendar 2007, they not only raided their stockpile of Wiis but also air-freighted a number of systems originally scheduled to ship in January. By pushing shipments ahead of schedule rather than taking the normal course they were able to boost supplies in November and December, but the consequences of this move are that they simply didn’t have as many Wiis to ship out in January. Expect sale to again rise above 350,000 in February, if not 400,000 once shipments resume their normal schedule. This month’s drop has nothing to do with demand but rather is simply the result of Nintendo getting as many systems into retailers as they could over the holidays.

PS3: 269,000 (67,250): I don’t care if they’re being bought for games or movies as a result of BluRay apparently winning the HD format war, Sony has to be thrilled to see this number. For the very first time the PS3 has outsold the 360 in the US, which is a huge victory for Sony (even though MS helped them achieve it, but more on that later). It even nearly tied the Wii (and theoretically could have beaten it, since 5,000 may well be within the margin of error for NPD’s algorithms, although I’m not sure about this). The year-over-year numbers are also up nearly 40% when you account for the extra week in January 2007, which is a very nice boost as well. Although not a spectacular month in the larger historical picture, relative to the PS3’s past performance and its current competition this is without a doubt the best month the PS3 has ever had. It remains to be seen if they can hold this momentum into February, but 2008 is off to a far better start than 2007.

PS2: 264,000 (66,000): Insert comment about the PS2 never dying and continuing to sell amazing numbers here.

DS: 251,000 (62,750) Like the Wii, Nintendo pretty much emptied the cupboard on the DS over the holidays, so what you’re seeing here is the re-equilibration of a totally empty channel. Also, whereas the Wii is notably more popular in the US than the rest of the world (still selling at record-setting numbers everywhere, just even more so in the US), the DS’ popularity is more evenly divided, so Nintendo doesn’t favor the US as heavily like they do with the Wii, hence the US getting a lower proportion of shipments. It’s still a decent number with a nice year-over-year rise, but it’s not indicative of actual demand. Like the Wii, expect sales of the DS to rise drastically in February as the channel begins to refill.

360: 230,000 (57,500): MS apparently took a page out of Nintendo’s book. Whereas shortages on the 360 were anecdotal in December, they became obvious in January as stores went weeks without shipments of new hardware and MS eventually sent out a press release saying that an increase in demand was causing severe shortages. However, unlike Nintendo, part of MS’ problem lies in an apparent drastic mishandling of 360 SKU distributions. Elites and Premiums have been nearly as scarce as the Wii over the last 6-8 weeks, while Arcades and Halo Editions have been readily available, but nobody wants them. The net result is that the 360 joins the Wii as the only system to show a decline in year-over-year sales even when accounting for the extra week in January of 2007 (although admittedly the 360’s decline was much smaller than the Wiis at only 1,000 vs. nearly 20,000). Again I question the wisdom of trying to balance multiple SKUs. Put one system on the market (or at most one configuration with multiple colors like the DS) and watch the 360’s shortages either cut down drastically or vanish altogether. MS has nobody to blame but themselves for this situation, as it’s entirely of their own creation.

PSP 230,000 (57,500): The PSP shows a decent improvement in sales compared to last year, but without software selling in any sort of substantial numbers it’s more and more questionable if the system really even counts as a gaming machine. The installed base is pretty good (although not amazing), but that doesn’t mean a thing without software sales. The goal of the market is to move the most software, whether through an enormous installed base (like the Wii) or through crazy high tie ratios (like the 360), but the PSP isn’t doing either. It just keeps moving along without any real direction. Sony really needs to figure out what they want the PSP platform to represent and do a better job of focusing its successor if they don’t want it

Finally, a few brief thoughts of the top 10 software titles. I’m amazed by the continuing legs shown by Call of Duty 4 on the 360. I honestly expected that it would have dropped off by now. Wii Play will never die as long as the Wii keeps moving hardware. Guitar Hero 3 on the Wii also retakes the lead in monthly sales over the 360 version (in total sales the 360 version leads by a good margin, although the attach rate is higher on the Wii). Rock Band making the top 10 is extremely impressive given its own supply issues as well as its very high selling price. Super Mario Galaxy continues to sell well, although it’s dropping off a bit quicker than I expected, but it will continue to sell over the life of the Wii. Burnout Paradise’ debut on the 360 is rather disappoint in light of the titles ahead of it, although not knowing historical numbers for the series I freely admit this could simply be the result of my own misguided expectations. CoD4 on the PS3 also is showing great legs, giving the PS3 what I believe is its first million-seller in the US alone. Finally Mario Party DS is selling well, although not as well as Mario Party 8, but again you can expect huge legs on this one. Mario & Sonic at the Olympics on the DS wraps up the top 10 with a decent but unimpressive debut. Expect this one (and its Wii counterpart) to get a substantial boost during the Olympic Games this summer. Otherwise, I can’t really comment on the software situation. As December demonstrated very clearly, the top 10 is nowhere near adequate to get an adequate view of the full picture.

Great post/summary.
Quoting because there's a new page now..

 

[abacab driver]

Gaf never disappoints. :lol

This thread needs more perma-ban bets on Feb results.

 

[Mithos Yggdrasill]

What's up with the 360 shortage?

Pretty "blah" NPD numbers this month...

Agreed. These numbers are depressing.

 

[Arthas]

Re-quoted for maximum penetration.

After a fairly boring holiday season, we finally have some interesting numbers. In fact there haven’t been numbers this surprising since August. As a quick overview, the January NPD retail month covers a four week period starting on Sunday, January 6th and extends through Saturday, February 2nd. December was a five week month, so as usual I’ll stick with weekly averages to make the numbers line up. As a quick reminder, here are the December numbers, with weekly averages in parenthesis:

DS: 2,470,000 (494,000)
Wii: 1,350,000 (270,000)
360: 1,260,000 (252,000)
PS2: 1,100,000 (220,000)
PSP: 1,060,000 (212,000)
PS3: 797,600 (159,520)

Also, we’re now far enough past the launches of the Wii and PS3 that numbers from last year are becoming relevant as well, so we can compare this year’s numbers to last year’s and see what changes have arisen. It’s important to note, however, that the NPD retailer calendar is 52 weeks and a year is slightly longer than that, so to compensate last year’s January included an extra “leap week” and was a five week month. Here are the January 2007 numbers, again with weekly averages in parenthesis and systems no longer being sold removed:

Wii: 435,503 (87,100)
PS2: 299,352 (59,870)
360: 293,774 (58,755)
PS3: 243,554 (48,711)
DS: 238,869 (47,774)
PSP: 210,719 (42,144)

So now that we finally have the prelimaries out of the way, let’s look at the January 2008 numbers. As usual, we’ll start at the top of the charts and work our way down.

Wii: 274,000 (68,500): It’s obviously down quite a bit from December, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone. The year-over-year drop, however, is somewhat more surprising at first glance. However, Nintendo was kind enough to clear up this discrepancy for us in their quarterly briefing held towards the end of January. To ship as many Wiis as they did in Q4 calendar 2007, they not only raided their stockpile of Wiis but also air-freighted a number of systems originally scheduled to ship in January. By pushing shipments ahead of schedule rather than taking the normal course they were able to boost supplies in November and December, but the consequences of this move are that they simply didn’t have as many Wiis to ship out in January. Expect sale to again rise above 350,000 in February, if not 400,000 once shipments resume their normal schedule. This month’s drop has nothing to do with demand but rather is simply the result of Nintendo getting as many systems into retailers as they could over the holidays.

PS3: 269,000 (67,250): I don’t care if they’re being bought for games or movies as a result of BluRay apparently winning the HD format war, Sony has to be thrilled to see this number. For the very first time the PS3 has outsold the 360 in the US, which is a huge victory for Sony (even though MS helped them achieve it, but more on that later). It even nearly tied the Wii (and theoretically could have beaten it, since 5,000 may well be within the margin of error for NPD’s algorithms, although I’m not sure about this). The year-over-year numbers are also up nearly 40% when you account for the extra week in January 2007, which is a very nice boost as well. Although not a spectacular month in the larger historical picture, relative to the PS3’s past performance and its current competition this is without a doubt the best month the PS3 has ever had. It remains to be seen if they can hold this momentum into February, but 2008 is off to a far better start than 2007.

PS2: 264,000 (66,000): Insert comment about the PS2 never dying and continuing to sell amazing numbers here.

DS: 251,000 (62,750) Like the Wii, Nintendo pretty much emptied the cupboard on the DS over the holidays, so what you’re seeing here is the re-equilibration of a totally empty channel. Also, whereas the Wii is notably more popular in the US than the rest of the world (still selling at record-setting numbers everywhere, just even more so in the US), the DS’ popularity is more evenly divided, so Nintendo doesn’t favor the US as heavily like they do with the Wii, hence the US getting a lower proportion of shipments. It’s still a decent number with a nice year-over-year rise, but it’s not indicative of actual demand. Like the Wii, expect sales of the DS to rise drastically in February as the channel begins to refill.

360: 230,000 (57,500): MS apparently took a page out of Nintendo’s book. Whereas shortages on the 360 were anecdotal in December, they became obvious in January as stores went weeks without shipments of new hardware and MS eventually sent out a press release saying that an increase in demand was causing severe shortages. However, unlike Nintendo, part of MS’ problem lies in an apparent drastic mishandling of 360 SKU distributions. Elites and Premiums have been nearly as scarce as the Wii over the last 6-8 weeks, while Arcades and Halo Editions have been readily available, but nobody wants them. The net result is that the 360 joins the Wii as the only system to show a decline in year-over-year sales even when accounting for the extra week in January of 2007 (although admittedly the 360’s decline was much smaller than the Wiis at only 1,000 vs. nearly 20,000). Again I question the wisdom of trying to balance multiple SKUs. Put one system on the market (or at most one configuration with multiple colors like the DS) and watch the 360’s shortages either cut down drastically or vanish altogether. MS has nobody to blame but themselves for this situation, as it’s entirely of their own creation.

PSP 230,000 (57,500): The PSP shows a decent improvement in sales compared to last year, but without software selling in any sort of substantial numbers it’s more and more questionable if the system really even counts as a gaming machine. The installed base is pretty good (although not amazing), but that doesn’t mean a thing without software sales. The goal of the market is to move the most software, whether through an enormous installed base (like the Wii) or through crazy high tie ratios (like the 360), but the PSP isn’t doing either. It just keeps moving along without any real direction. Sony really needs to figure out what they want the PSP platform to represent and do a better job of focusing its successor if they don’t want it

Finally, a few brief thoughts of the top 10 software titles. I’m amazed by the continuing legs shown by Call of Duty 4 on the 360. I honestly expected that it would have dropped off by now. Wii Play will never die as long as the Wii keeps moving hardware. Guitar Hero 3 on the Wii also retakes the lead in monthly sales over the 360 version (in total sales the 360 version leads by a good margin, although the attach rate is higher on the Wii). Rock Band making the top 10 is extremely impressive given its own supply issues as well as its very high selling price. Super Mario Galaxy continues to sell well, although it’s dropping off a bit quicker than I expected, but it will continue to sell over the life of the Wii. Burnout Paradise’ debut on the 360 is rather disappoint in light of the titles ahead of it, although not knowing historical numbers for the series I freely admit this could simply be the result of my own misguided expectations. CoD4 on the PS3 also is showing great legs, giving the PS3 what I believe is its first million-seller in the US alone. Finally Mario Party DS is selling well, although not as well as Mario Party 8, but again you can expect huge legs on this one. Mario & Sonic at the Olympics on the DS wraps up the top 10 with a decent but unimpressive debut. Expect this one (and its Wii counterpart) to get a substantial boost during the Olympic Games this summer. Otherwise, I can’t really comment on the software situation. As December demonstrated very clearly, the top 10 is nowhere near adequate to get an adequate view of the full picture.

 

[Oblivion]

Sorry, out of nowhere question, but anyone know what NPD stands for?

 

[Pristine_Condition]

The smart people that make pie-charts post in the Media-Create threads.

Well then, I'm walking out of these vastly-inferior NPD threads...in a huff. (A HUFF, I tell you!)

 

[Jirotrom]

There was? I live in Dallas, and I didn't notice a shortage. I was out at a bunch of game stores this month too, with all the stuff coming out and some pre-ordering to do...

...

So, where are all the PIE CHARTS, GAF?

I come to these threads for the motherf***ing PIE CHARTS!

I didn't say february...I stated January

 

[_Alkaline_]

Sorry, out of nowhere question, but anyone know what NPD stands for?

National Purchase Diary.

I think.

 

[Mithos Yggdrasill]

After a fairly boring holiday season, we finally have some interesting numbers. In fact there haven’t been numbers this surprising since August. As a quick overview, the January NPD retail month covers a four week period starting on Sunday, January 6th and extends through Saturday, February 2nd. December was a five week month, so as usual I’ll stick with weekly averages to make the numbers line up. As a quick reminder, here are the December numbers, with weekly averages in parenthesis:

DS: 2,470,000 (494,000)
Wii: 1,350,000 (270,000)
360: 1,260,000 (252,000)
PS2: 1,100,000 (220,000)
PSP: 1,060,000 (212,000)
PS3: 797,600 (159,520)

Also, we’re now far enough past the launches of the Wii and PS3 that numbers from last year are becoming relevant as well, so we can compare this year’s numbers to last year’s and see what changes have arisen. It’s important to note, however, that the NPD retailer calendar is 52 weeks and a year is slightly longer than that, so to compensate last year’s January included an extra “leap week” and was a five week month. Here are the January 2007 numbers, again with weekly averages in parenthesis and systems no longer being sold removed:

Wii: 435,503 (87,100)
PS2: 299,352 (59,870)
360: 293,774 (58,755)
PS3: 243,554 (48,711)
DS: 238,869 (47,774)
PSP: 210,719 (42,144)

So now that we finally have the prelimaries out of the way, let’s look at the January 2008 numbers. As usual, we’ll start at the top of the charts and work our way down.

Wii: 274,000 (68,500): It’s obviously down quite a bit from December, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone. The year-over-year drop, however, is somewhat more surprising at first glance. However, Nintendo was kind enough to clear up this discrepancy for us in their quarterly briefing held towards the end of January. To ship as many Wiis as they did in Q4 calendar 2007, they not only raided their stockpile of Wiis but also air-freighted a number of systems originally scheduled to ship in January. By pushing shipments ahead of schedule rather than taking the normal course they were able to boost supplies in November and December, but the consequences of this move are that they simply didn’t have as many Wiis to ship out in January. Expect sale to again rise above 350,000 in February, if not 400,000 once shipments resume their normal schedule. This month’s drop has nothing to do with demand but rather is simply the result of Nintendo getting as many systems into retailers as they could over the holidays.

PS3: 269,000 (67,250): I don’t care if they’re being bought for games or movies as a result of BluRay apparently winning the HD format war, Sony has to be thrilled to see this number. For the very first time the PS3 has outsold the 360 in the US, which is a huge victory for Sony (even though MS helped them achieve it, but more on that later). It even nearly tied the Wii (and theoretically could have beaten it, since 5,000 may well be within the margin of error for NPD’s algorithms, although I’m not sure about this). The year-over-year numbers are also up nearly 40% when you account for the extra week in January 2007, which is a very nice boost as well. Although not a spectacular month in the larger historical picture, relative to the PS3’s past performance and its current competition this is without a doubt the best month the PS3 has ever had. It remains to be seen if they can hold this momentum into February, but 2008 is off to a far better start than 2007.

PS2: 264,000 (66,000): Insert comment about the PS2 never dying and continuing to sell amazing numbers here.

DS: 251,000 (62,750) Like the Wii, Nintendo pretty much emptied the cupboard on the DS over the holidays, so what you’re seeing here is the re-equilibration of a totally empty channel. Also, whereas the Wii is notably more popular in the US than the rest of the world (still selling at record-setting numbers everywhere, just even more so in the US), the DS’ popularity is more evenly divided, so Nintendo doesn’t favor the US as heavily like they do with the Wii, hence the US getting a lower proportion of shipments. It’s still a decent number with a nice year-over-year rise, but it’s not indicative of actual demand. Like the Wii, expect sales of the DS to rise drastically in February as the channel begins to refill.

360: 230,000 (57,500): MS apparently took a page out of Nintendo’s book. Whereas shortages on the 360 were anecdotal in December, they became obvious in January as stores went weeks without shipments of new hardware and MS eventually sent out a press release saying that an increase in demand was causing severe shortages. However, unlike Nintendo, part of MS’ problem lies in an apparent drastic mishandling of 360 SKU distributions. Elites and Premiums have been nearly as scarce as the Wii over the last 6-8 weeks, while Arcades and Halo Editions have been readily available, but nobody wants them. The net result is that the 360 joins the Wii as the only system to show a decline in year-over-year sales even when accounting for the extra week in January of 2007 (although admittedly the 360’s decline was much smaller than the Wiis at only 1,000 vs. nearly 20,000). Again I question the wisdom of trying to balance multiple SKUs. Put one system on the market (or at most one configuration with multiple colors like the DS) and watch the 360’s shortages either cut down drastically or vanish altogether. MS has nobody to blame but themselves for this situation, as it’s entirely of their own creation.

PSP 230,000 (57,500): The PSP shows a decent improvement in sales compared to last year, but without software selling in any sort of substantial numbers it’s more and more questionable if the system really even counts as a gaming machine. The installed base is pretty good (although not amazing), but that doesn’t mean a thing without software sales. The goal of the market is to move the most software, whether through an enormous installed base (like the Wii) or through crazy high tie ratios (like the 360), but the PSP isn’t doing either. It just keeps moving along without any real direction. Sony really needs to figure out what they want the PSP platform to represent and do a better job of focusing its successor if they don’t want it

Finally, a few brief thoughts of the top 10 software titles. I’m amazed by the continuing legs shown by Call of Duty 4 on the 360. I honestly expected that it would have dropped off by now. Wii Play will never die as long as the Wii keeps moving hardware. Guitar Hero 3 on the Wii also retakes the lead in monthly sales over the 360 version (in total sales the 360 version leads by a good margin, although the attach rate is higher on the Wii). Rock Band making the top 10 is extremely impressive given its own supply issues as well as its very high selling price. Super Mario Galaxy continues to sell well, although it’s dropping off a bit quicker than I expected, but it will continue to sell over the life of the Wii. Burnout Paradise’ debut on the 360 is rather disappoint in light of the titles ahead of it, although not knowing historical numbers for the series I freely admit this could simply be the result of my own misguided expectations. CoD4 on the PS3 also is showing great legs, giving the PS3 what I believe is its first million-seller in the US alone. Finally Mario Party DS is selling well, although not as well as Mario Party 8, but again you can expect huge legs on this one. Mario & Sonic at the Olympics on the DS wraps up the top 10 with a decent but unimpressive debut. Expect this one (and its Wii counterpart) to get a substantial boost during the Olympic Games this summer. Otherwise, I can’t really comment on the software situation. As December demonstrated very clearly, the top 10 is nowhere near adequate to get an adequate view of the full picture.

Nice post. Overall, I agree.

 

[MonkeyLicker]

Next month probably won't settle the debate either. MS has already said they expect the shortages to last for a while.
If MS hasn't done something by March then they deserve to be humiliated, regardless of the reason.

 

[reilo]

National Purchase Diary.

I think.

Wiki says the same thing. Sonycowboy?

 

[Elbrain]

Next month probably won't settle the debate either. MS has already said they expect the shortages to last for a while.
If MS hasn't done something by March then they deserve to be humiliated, regardless of the reason.

I smell price drop for the 360 around March/April oh they will do it! GTA4.

 

[Pristine_Condition]

I didn't say february...I stated January

I was talking about January too. I've not noticed a great shortage of any systems but the Wii in Dallas. The Wii is in a constant state of shortage here. (I live in the city center, you mileage may vary in the 'burbs, but I get out to N. Dallas and the mid cities pretty often as well and didn't recall seeing any sell-out.)

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Next month probably won't settle the debate either. MS has already said they expect the shortages to last for a while.
If MS hasn't done something by March then they deserve to be humiliated, regardless of the reason.

Next month is going to be a massive victory, potentially, for MS, however, if Lost Odyssey can pull off big numbers. It would single handedly vindicate all the drubbing they've taken for their position in Japan and their investment in Mistwalker.

It would really be lovely to see such a dope game shatter the misconceptions about the 360 userbase once and for all.

 

[WinFonda]

The last time I remember hearing about 360 shortages was about 2 years ago, shortly after it launched.

I think it's a cop out to say that shortages really impacted their performance. They were down 5k from last year. That doesn't sound like shortage issues to me. Truth be told, 230k seems like a solid January performance -- it's in line with how the 360's performed in the past. How much would it have sold if it wasn't constrained? Who wants to take a stab at that?

I think the PS3 simply had a good month. It outsold the much cheaper PSP and PS2 and no one has called "shortage foul" on those platforms, even though it's still completely uncharacteristic for PS3 to best those two platforms in NPDs. Taking it a step further, it surpassed the DS, and again, shortage or not, thats really strong performance indicator for the PS3.

People are looking for reasons to explain it, but the answer seems pretty obvious. There weren't any huge software releases in Jan., and there weren't any price drops. So what's left? Let's chalk it up to the "Blu-Ray Bump" shall we? Warner Bros. announcement effectively making Blu-Ray the HD format victor clearly impacted PS3 sales for January.

 

[AlteredBeast]

If it means anything to you, I had a lot of people asking about it at my work when it came out, Ben. I hope it breaks (shatters, even) 200k, but will be somewhat relieved with 150k

PS3 is not in competition with PSP or PS2. It is in competition with the 360. Personally, if I were a casual gamer and had buddies talking about how great Call of Duty 4, Assassins Creed, Guitar Hero III, and Rock Band were and wanted to play those myself, but couldn't get a hold of a 360 for over a month, I would definitely pick up a ps3 at a comparable price. Why not? After all, you get the bonus of a bluray player and a free movie (or game) with the system. It makes perfect sense, especially considering that multi-platform games have been the biggest sellers this past year across all systems barring SMG and Halo 3.

 

[goldenticket]

excellent post Chris FOM

 

[Sir Alemeth]

Wii fad over? Nintendo doomed???
I said "wow".

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

If it means anything to you, I had a lot of people asking about it at my work when it came out, Ben. I hope it breaks (shatters, even) 200k, but will be somewhat relieved with 150k

*fingers crossed*

It's dropping at a pretty great spot in the calendar, it's got a good ad campaign, it's got some slick appeal...

Man I hope it can rock out some solid sales. Honestly, I just want to be able to rely on a solid stream of North American Gooch for the rest of the gen.

 

[Wollan]

The standard X360 model is pretty much guaranteed to drop to $299 before GTA4 and I expect it to happen next week. I believe there's a very likely chance we will see a new model (remodeling) revealed at GDC.
I also believe you will see Sony drop the PS3 price to $349 as I don't think they will want to loose the price ground they gained last fall (I'm expecting this a bit later though but before GT3P, not this month due to a very likely PS2 pricecut).

 

[Jirotrom]

I was talking about January too. I've not noticed a great shortage of any systems but the Wii in Dallas. The Wii is in a constant state of shortage here. (I live in the city center, you mileage may vary in the 'burbs, but I get out to N. Dallas and the mid cities pretty often as well and didn't recall seeing any sell-out.)

were you looking...Thats pretty damn surprising considering we got calls nearly everyday for premiums and elites, arcades existed yes but far and few between.

 

[TJ Spyke]

Wii fad over? Nintendo doomed???
I said "wow".

Yes, they should be concerned that the amount they beat their competition this month wasn't as big as it was last month. :lol

The Wii still won January.

 

[monkeylite]

Super numbers for the PS2. Imagine what another price drop will do.

 

[Pristine_Condition]

The standard X360 model is pretty much guaranteed to drop to $299 before GTA4 and I expect it to happen next week. I believe there's a very likely chance we will see a new model (remodeling) revealed at GDC.
I also believe you will see Sony drop the PS3 price to $349 as I don't think they will want to loose the price ground they gained last fall (I'm expecting this a bit later though, not this month due to a very likely PS2 pricecut).

I still maintain they shouldn't drop the price until after GTA4 comes out, (which I believe should give them a huge bump) and they should only drop the price AFTER they see that bump start to fade. Microsoft is smart. You don't give away cash when you've got a game bringing in the sales at your current price, and GTA4 is that kind of title.

There's no need for Microsoft to panic yet. They still have a great back-catalog library that anyone would be happy to have, GTA4 will be big, and if the Blu-ray thing really becomes an issue, they can always release a Blu-ray add-on.

The smartest suggestion I've heard in this thread is for them to streamline their lineup. There really are too many SKUs, if this is affecting their ability to deliver the SKUs that people actually want, that's easily fixed.

 

[squatingyeti]

Super numbers for the PS2. Imagine what another price drop will do.

How many more can people buy?

*has shamelessly purchased 4*

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

I still maintain they shouldn't drop the price until after GTA4 comes out, (which I believe should give them a huge bump) and they should only drop the price AFTER they see that bump start to fade. Microsoft is smart. You don't give away cash when you've got a game bringing in the sales at your current price, and GTA4 is that kind of title.

There's no need for Microsoft to panic yet. They still have a great back-catalog library that anyone would be happy to have, GTA4 will be big, and if the Blu-ray thing really becomes an issue, they can always release a Blu-ray add-on.

The smartest suggestion I've heard in this thread is for them to streamline their lineup. There really are too many SKUs, if this is affecting their ability to deliver the SKUs that people actually want, that's easily fixed.

Didn't they price drop before Halo? I can't remember.

 

[TJ Spyke]

First week of August, so about 1 1/2 months before Halo.

 

[Wollan]

Didn't they price drop before Halo? I can't remember.

$50

 

[AlteredBeast]

They dropped before Halo 3 and if they are smart, they will do it again...soon, like next week. That would make TWO bumps in two months One on the Price Drop (and hopefully widespread shipments across the country of all SKUs) and one for GTA IV, which is sure to sell the best where the game has the best and most amount of content.

Drop 50 bones across all SKUs. That would make the arcade cheaper than the Wii, Pro 100 dollars cheaper than the 40GB PS3, and the Elite 70 dollars cheaper than the phased out 80GB/ PS3 Next SKU. If I were MS, I would design the Arcade pack to focus on children and young teens. Throwing in Scene it! or Viva Pinata in the Arcade would be an amazing idea, but unlikely, as MS are greedy bastards.

 

[Rhindle]

Why on earth would they drop price now when they have no supply to sell?

It was legitimate to speculate about a price drop ahead of GTA4, but even that seems doubtful given what they said today about the supply problem continuing.

 

[Pristine_Condition]

Didn't they price drop before Halo? I can't remember.

Yeah. That was pretty stupid, if you ask me, but I suppose they felt justified because they were making so much extra cash on pre-orders for the Halo: Cat Helmet Edition. I would hope that MS would have learned from that flub. A AAA aoftware release will bump sales, you don't need a price drop until after a big title drops, not before.

Why on earth would they drop price now when the have no supply to sell?

This too is a good reason. If the supply problem is real, and you really can't stock enough at the current price, why drop it?

 

[bluheim]

I SPECIFICALLY said the isuppli prediction had the Wii DECREASING in LTD.

That's my point, you said that shitty nonsense and still don't care about changing your mind even when someone points to you that this is complete bullshit :

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9129&Itemid=2

iSuppli said that in 2011, PS3 will reach an installed base of 38.4 million units, edging out Wii’s 37.7 million units and Xbox 360’s 32.3 million units in the same time frame.

Talk about decreasing LTD numbers, rrrrrriiiiiiight ?

Now, we'll talk again about your "PS3 will outsell the 360 by only 1 million in 2008" before the end of the year. This will be epic, believe me.

 

[Tyrannical]

Gaf never disappoints. :lol

This thread needs more perma-ban bets on Feb results.

Nope, April GTA:4 release month. That'll be the first great meltdown of '08. Obviously with a higher install base, the 360 version will have higher sales. But if 360 hw > PS3 hw sales it'll probably stay that way.

 

[AlteredBeast]

yeah, it would really have to be in conjunction with widespread shipments across all SKUs to all retailers nationwide. Doing it without shipments would be suicide for any noticeable effect, obviously.

I think MS would also be smart to revamp their Platinum Hits 360 lineup. They need about 10-15 more games in there and quick, also, dropping the price of the older Platinum Hits would be smart, 30 bucks is too much for most people to spend on games they have barely heard about, but I know tons of people that have purchased Thrillville (the XBox game), tons of PS2 greatest hits, etc. for 20 bucks because 20 dollars doesn't hurt that much and when a game is considered a "best seller" it usually merits a looksee.

 

[Wollan]

Well they could be stacking up on a new model they will release alongside the price drop.

 

[Crimmy]

i suspect a massive ghosting next month

 

[DrXym]

I have to wonder if Microsoft / Toshiba were planning to launch a HD DVD enabled 360 at CES and what effect that might have had on supplies. Maybe MS were going to sales dry up a bit because a new model was about to appear. Except of course it never did.

 

[bluheim]

I have to wonder if Microsoft / Toshiba were planning to launch a HD DVD enabled 360 at CES and what effect that might have had on supplies. Maybe MS were going to sales dry up a bit because a new model was about to appear. Except of course it never did.

That's one of the few explanations that I find credible to explain the 360 shortages. Good point !

 

[Rhindle]

Well they could be stacking up on a new model they will release alongside the price drop.

They could, in theory. But Microsoft doesn't have a history of doing mid-generation console redesigns. Plus, this being Microsoft, they wouldn't have been able to keep it secret.

If you're talking about a motherboard/internal redesign, that's unlikely as well since they did one only a few months ago.

 

[AlteredBeast]

Well they could be stacking up on a new model they will release alongside the price drop.

They could also stealth-ship a few hundred thousand systems, a la Sega Saturn. At GDC, for example, they could show off the XBox 360 Enhanced, and announce that it will be available at retailers everywhere by the end of the week. The press on it would be huge.


Obviously highly unlikely, though.

 

[Wollan]

It doesn't have to be a massive upgrade or something that looks different but maybe Wifi could be built in and possibly a smaller (or god forbid a internal) power brick.

 

[B-Rad Lascelle]

Why on earth would they drop price now when they have no supply to sell?

Eureka, we have logic! Sort of makes you wonder what kind of Kool-Aid Wollan's been drinking to even suggest the idea.

 

[duk]

Amazing mishap by MS. Someone needs to get fired. Too much damn emphasis on Halo/Arcade sku. They have had months to rectify this by now. WTF seriously.

J Bell, get your act together man!

 

[Death Dealer]

But if 360 hw > PS3 hw sales it'll probably stay that way.

If MS announces a pre-GTA4 price cut, they will dominate Sony's April/May sales. But I don't see why that would "stay that way". It won't sell Halo numbers, but if things are close, I could see MGS4 tipping another month to PS3. I expect NPD sales to split fairly even this year. Not 50-50 but I doubt Jan and Feb will be the only months Sony beats MS in 2008.

 

[Mithos Yggdrasill]

MP3: Corruption LTD 626,000

Edit: NMH sales slightly above 100,000

Not bad.

 

[squatingyeti]

That's my point, you said that shitty nonsense and still don't care about changing your mind even when someone points to you that this is complete bullshit :

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9129&Itemid=2



Talk about decreasing LTD numbers, rrrrrriiiiiiight ?

Notice the Wii graph. Notice the Wii graph DECREASE. Notice how that would be decreasing LTD.

Now, we'll talk again about your "PS3 will outsell the 360 by only 1 million in 2008" before the end of the year. This will be epic, believe me.

Go back and read again (like you should everything before you post because you always make yourself look mildly challenged) it was a HYPOTHETICAL situation. How come you ignored the other two examples of you opening your mouth when you don't have a clue? That's right, because they made you look foolish. Should I get some more, because I've got a whole load of them. In fact, every time you've said something to me, you've not had a clue what the fuck you're commenting about.

 

[Lobster]

Not bad.

RE:UC sold 120k first month. 100k for NMH is OMGWTFBBQTHISSHITISFUCKINGAWESOME!

Im waiting for Sonycowboys confirmation though.

 

[_Alkaline_]

Not bad.

Unfortunately, not real either.