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MS: 360 Life-to-Date Sales Hit 28m
By Kris Graft
January 6, 2009
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"We absolutely expect the PS3 price drop to happen in the next couple of months."
Microsoft proclaimed Monday evening that Xbox 360 has sold 28 million units worldwide through 2008 since its launch in November 2005.
Microsoft director of product management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Aaron Greenberg told Edge in a phone interview that the company sold 10.3 million Xbox 360s throughout the year. According to Greenberg, this puts Microsoft's console more than 8 million units ahead of the PS3, a console that launched a year after Xbox 360.
"We actually reported our biggest year ever in Xbox history" in terms of hardware and software unit sales and dollar spend, Greenberg said, without revealing actual sales figures. Online sales grew 84 percent year-on-year, with over $1 billion spent since the launch of the console. Xbox Live membership grew to 17 million in 2008 from 10 million in 2007.
Although retailers have downplayed the rapid uptake of digital distribution, Greenberg said, "Online consumer spending is becoming the fastest-growing part of our business. ... Consumers are really transitioning to digital distribution, and it's happening at a very rapid pace, faster than retail growth. ... It exceeded our internal expectations."
Aside from game content such as add-ons and Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live also offers movies rentals, TV shows and streaming Netflix movies, which have proven extremely popular.
Last year, Microsoft launched the New Xbox Live Experience, an update that made the console's interface more appealing for the mainstream market.
Earlier today, Microsoft's European gaming arm said hardware sales surpassed 8 million units in the region. "That was a top priority market this year," said Greenberg.
On a PS3 Price Drop
With Wii sales standing at around 45 million units despite being launched a year after Xbox 360, Microsoft's focus has been primarily on high-def rival PS3, a console that retails for $399 for the standard 80GB model.
Analysts have been calling for a PS3 price drop so that Sony can move more consoles and stay competitive with Xbox 360. While Sony has denied it will be dropping the price of the PS3 any time soon, Greenberg offered, "We absolutely expect the PS3 price drop to happen in the next couple of months. We're frankly surprised it's taken this long. ... I would expect they'd have to move on price, sooner than later, for sure."
Top Online Content
A statement from Microsoft said the week between Christmas Day and New Year's Day was the busiest ever for Xbox Live, with 1.5 million concurrent members online. Below are the most popular titles across their respective categories:
Movies:
The Dark Knight
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (Unrated)
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Iron Man
Tropic Thunder
TV shows:
South Park
Family Guy
The Office
House
Heroes
Arcade Games:
A Kindgom for Keflings
Castle Crashers
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
Puzzle Arcade
Worms
Game Add-Ons:
Rock Band
Guitar Hero
Halo 3
Gears of War 2
Call of Duty 4
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wow...I would suggest a comments rating system.
http://www.crazypurchase.com
The reason for their failure is simple. Price. Sony made the big mistake of adding a blu-ray player that boosted the price out of most people's range (Sony has to maintain a pricepoint on blu-ray across all products). Because of low reach for the console, publishers could not justify the cost of making PS3 games. This had a snowball affect of making the console even less attractive to consumers and giving publishers more reason for not developing for the PS3.
Sony's solution is to simply lower their price dramatically to attract consumers. Blu-ray is not meeting the drop in DVD sales (because digital distributed movies are picking up a lot of that slack), so Sony should also drop the price of blu-ray in general. The blu-ray is killing the PS3 because the price has to stay up so not to canibalize (sp?) the pricing of other, cartel controlled, blu-ray player pricing (electronic companies do set price controls on technology).
The Playstation unit is in a little pickle. They want to lower the price but parent Sony has to protect its other properties too. Redesigning and manufacturing a blu-ray less console may be too much of a cost.
Blu-ray will be the death of PS3.
A question.
Is there an option to flag a user (e.g. Kim Naroz) for doing massive corporate propaganda on the site? From now on, I will flag his posts as 'offensive', until he's banned, because yeah, it's offensive in a way. I know, freedom of speech blah blah, and I think we tolerated him fairly well. Now I've had enough of him.
Who's with me?
Sometimes Kim's posts are ok and not so PR-ish, but other times it's terrible. He could tone down what he says, and stop constantly exaggerating and claiming things that are subjective are fact (i.e the 360 has the BEST games in ever genre and the BEST JRPGs the the Japanese LOVE!). if he cut that crap out and the exaggerations I'd have no problem with him. Yeah, but that's 70-85% of his posts...
Problem is, the way he posts is equal to trolling.
He's not only subjective (it's everyone's right to sound as stupid as they please), but he won't enter any dialogue too. It's a "fire and forget" job for him as a MS employee (and I presume he does the very same at other forums under different nicks).
From now on I'll flag every bumb*ss comments from Kim as corporate propaganda, hence 'offensive'.
Yeah, I have so much time nowadays. ^^
Hmmm... always thought Kim was a girl. He's only going to set up another account even if he gets banned though isn't he? I would suggest a comments rating system but I fear it would only fan the fanboy flames (can't beat a bit of alliteration late in the day).
I'm with you.
OK, so Xbox 360 has sold some 50% more than PS3. It has been on the market 50% longer. And its price is currently about half of what PS3 costs.
Yes, PS3 is certainly doomed.
I understand you MAY be trying to be objective, but you're wrong. Not defending the 360, but just stating facts. The 360 came out 1 year prior to the PS3 and has since only increased their lead over the PS3. The 360's US lead was about 2.5 millon consoles, its lead now stands at over 6 million. Again, just facts bro. I'm not saying the PS3 is doomed as I don't think it is, I'm just correcting your mistake.
Here's some facts for you if you want to talk numbers.
http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/NPD_Seventh_generation
ps. reading back over your statement which I thought was sarcasm, it kinda reads as if you were being literal.
man wtf is wrong with you kim? you just go around saying how ps3 is dead at every chance you get? look at your past comments. its a joke. its pretty funny that you think they "lost" but the reality is they are making money, end of story. half the BS you even say is just pulled straight out the terdchopper. im really surprised consumers even give a crap about who is winning or losing. bottom line is none of them are going anywhere. not this generation or next or most likely even the gen after that. re-evaluate your righteous mission because competition between companies means the consumer wins. anyway, in the future, how about a good objective perspective on the topic at hand? all your lame posts are getting old and tired.
Wow Kim your sad everything Kim has said was highly exaggerated and mostly untrue like most of Kims posts the problems w firmware 2.4 were definitely not widespread and easily fixable while something like RROD has gone down in history as one of the biggest technical blunders and not to mention by many reports Microsoft knew this was a problem b4 launch. The success of the Xbox is definitely impressive but to count out Sonys console this early in its cycle is ridiculous 8 million consoles ahead w a year lead is not that big of a gap exspecially givin the PS3s price point that fact alone definitely says something about the PS3. The fact that it is twice as expensive but still able to be competitive w the 360 should worry Microsoft about the coming price drop, remember when Microsoft first announced the price drop many reports were saying it was due to desperation bc the PS3 was drastically outselling the Xbox month to month so sorry to you Xbox fanboys but before the price drop 2008 WAS the year of the PS3 and 2009 will be also w the coming price drop and excellent 09 line up Microsoft is in trouble.
My, my... It will be year of PS3, it will be year of PS3, it will be year of PS3 and then suddenly it WAS the year of PS3. I probably mist something on the way. ;)
Out of desperation as you say, MS had outplayed Sony in every possible way. To say that Microsoft is in trouble is a bit childish at best. Have yo noticed that most of the top Japanese developers are trying to break in too the western market? Yeap, not enough PS3 there to justify the development costs let alone making good profits. Whether you're like it or not, XBOX 360 is the mainstream platform right now and with financial crisis it will stay like this at least for the next year.
Sales of PS3 will pick up and the gap between them will get smaller (or not?). What most of the people are always forgetting is that the software sales of XBOX 360 are way, way better then those of PS3. LBP and Resistance 2 any one? Baggy, baggy SOCOM outsold both of them together in it's first week.
In the end, chill out. It's al about the games. I really like Mass effect, Gears 2 and Halo 1. You can't play those games on PS and this is the main reason why I don't have it. I'll get one when they release some games that I like, but till then it will be HORDE to lv. 50 for me.
P.S. The fact that MS has so many faulty consoles and still outselling PS should worry SONY as well.
@whisky:
The thing is MS still haven't perfected its Xbox 360 manufacturing process. The yield on Xbox 360 production is currently 92 percent i.e. Jasper model. Therefore the console still has some surprises in manufacturing that Microsoft have to fix.
Personally, i wouldn't touch the system with a barge pole.
http://venturebeat.com/2008/09/05/xbox-360-defects-an-inside-history-of-...
The improved consoles use a new motherboard, dubbed Jasper.
Firmware Update 2.4 for the Playstation 3 clearly showed that hundreds-of-thousands of PS3 systems had hardware problems with big defects.
Sony proved that they still place the blame on consumers for mistakes made by Sony's engineers! Whenever anyone had a problem with Firmware Update 2.4, Sony told people to reformat their hard drive. This took dozens of hours to do, and then reinstall the files again and again.
When Sony's useless technical support eventually told people to send their PS3 systems in for repair, it was the consumers who were forced to pay for the shipping and for the repair.
Sony needs to take lessons from Microsoft on how to handle a big problem like that. Microsoft paid $1 Billion in order to extend the warranty of the Xbox 360 to an absolutely unprecedented three years! Microsoft always pays the shipping and always pays the repair cost whenever anything happens with an Xbox 360. Sony never did anything like that with the PS1, PS2, or PS3...and there were FAR more defective PS1 and PS2 systems than any other system.
...The reason the Playstation 3 failed is because of disappointing software: Playstation 3 receives very few third-party exclusive games, and the multi-platform games virtually always end up being either "noticably" or "significantly" inferior on the Playstation 3. In other words, even though the PS3 versions are released up to a year later than the Xbox 360 versions (Lost Planet, Rainbow Six Vegas, Orange Box) the Playstation 3 versions STILL are NOT as good, and they STILL cost more money! Why pay $60 for a PS3 version of a game when it is released when you could buy the Platinim Hit version on the Xbox 360 for $29 or $19, and the Xbox 360 version is BETTER!
You do have one good point, the ps1 and ps2 were very very unreliable and sony's customer service is terrible, people often forget that.
SHUT UP ALREADY DUDE! Stop wasting HTML code... and space on this site...
totally agree, the price would be irrelevant if the games were there, they are not. People looking for gaming on the cheap have the wrong hobby, the ps3 is failing because its games are weak in my view.
I disagree. it's still the price of the ps3 that causes it's lesser performance.
You both have a point, it costs a lot and the games library is weak. Thats why ps3 is a failure.
The 360 is cheap but it costs a lot in the long run (it tends to broke, it lacks some major components if it's cheap, you know the rest). Oh and the games library is weak, weak, weak. That's why it's a failure. See what I did there?
Trolling aside, the "PS3's games library is weak" propaganda is soooo old and it doesn't make any sense at this point. See the editor's note in the 2009 January issue of EDGE about a "tired and cynically propagated myth". It's illuminating.
Interesting kind of failure, given that PS3 has sold more than X360 had after two years.
I don't own any next gen system, but i did have a 360 a few month ago. Due to many failures (i was on my 3rd system) i sold the console. I'd never buy MS hardware again, ever.
28m, one can only guess how many of those were defective. It amazes me the amount of idiots who defend them (MS) on here.
Worst console ever.
The idiots that amaze me are the ones that think when a 360 breaks down, ppl go out and buy a brand new one without getting it replaced, which seems to be where the 'numbers buffed by replacements' argument seems to rest. Are you seriously suggesting people that are on their 4th or more 360, have actually paid full price each and every time? wake up.
MilesMayhem said
Are you seriously suggesting people that are on their 4th or more 360, have actually paid full price each and every time?
________
Go and read my post again, dumb-dumb.
We're not defending it. It's just you, who has a very outspoken PERSONAL opinion can't acknowledge different ones. Try to amaze yourself with MS's software selling numbers.
Sony was so desperately trying to win the format war and deliver the best hardware that they truly became ahead of it's time... perhaps to far.
Your story hits it on the head for me. Hence the reason i'd never buy MS hardware.
Whisky a Go Go away
No point in lying about numbers when NPD (and other independent tracking companies worldwide) will confirm or deny the numbers when they release their report.
I can picture the MS guys having grand ol' parties... they have kicked SONY arse in every department, Marketing, sales, you name it. I would love to see what those bonuses look like.
Business is business and you have to actually admire the way MS has handled things... I still prefer my PS3 but so far the public has sent a clear message.
@Gyak
it does look like a preemptive strike, "Hey dont buy the PS3 they are going to drop the price!"
we all know manufacturers dont pre-announce price drops for that very reason... deferred sales, which may not materialize.
No doubt Sony has dropped the ball my friend. 8 million lead is the largest to date and even larger than what it was when the PS3 hit the market. Pretty amazing to say the least and moreoever it's going even tougher now for Sony to claw back. I've stated this before, but I really do not see this generation changing much before the next. The respective consoles are pretty much in lock and step now.
Sony most certainly dropped the ball with no WW cut this holiday season, and likely will have further years of losses ahead for the division.
The Hardware still has legs and Sony are quite happy doing their thing over in a Japan! In my opinion, I don't see Sony feeling threatened or concerned by this news. I have both systems and in my opinion the Xbox has done very well by offering a cheaper high quality alternative to the Sony hardware, having said that. I don't think Sony really need to drop the price of their hardware, still lots of life left in the PS3 although I do wonder whether the same can be said about the Xbox360.
The Xbox is a stunning system and what has played to its advantage is that games are a lot easier to develop for than it's Sony Counterpart. Not only that, from a consumer point of view, what's the point in spending more money on hardware to play the same games that are available on the cheaper Xbox. Although personally I preffer the Sony system more because the front end is much easier to use and you don't have to pay a subscription to use PSN or it's features in games.
Microsoft to their strength have done some awesome deals making sure that decent titles come to their box first. But this is of course, to the detriment of the owners of other hardware, would be fairer if titles and dlc could be more inclusive of other formats.
When we start seeing studio's putting some decent time and investment into more exclusive Sony titles that you'll see the scales balance. But in terms of pure success with the generation Xbox360 has really proved worthy of gamers attention and has certainly given Sony something to think about.
I worked at EB when the original Xbox launched. I couldn't believe it had a foothold, and still can't believe it's come this far. I chalk it up completley to sony dropping the ball on the ps3.
Boohoo the 360 is laying waste to the PS3. Haters can naysay the 360's success singing the same RRoD tune until they're blue in the face but that won't change the fact that the 360 continues to distance itself from the PS3. Facts are facts no matter how Sony loyalists try to spin them.
Nick, the numbers are impressive, indeed.
However, the PS3 has a lot more (probably) good exclusives this year than the competition. As you said, facts are facts. I think with those games and with a price drop Sony will turn a lot more people this year than they did before. We'll see, of course. /paste random "2009, the year of the PS3lol" joke here. ^^
Let's talk about this at the end of 2009 right?
On topic: apart from the usual chestbanging from MS's part... It sounds like a preventive strike to me. You know, before those Sony exclusives will pour in.
gyak, people were saying the same thing this time last year. Do you recall that 2008 was touted as "The Year of the PS3" and that MS supposedly didn't have any great exclusives? Instead, Fable II, Gears of War 2 and Left4Dead each outsold all Sony exclusives this year. MS is funny about pushing games too early and has often been criticized after E3 for talking about that years games rather than things farther down the pike, which Sony prefers to do.
This was not a pre-emptive strike by MS. Following that logic, the two press releases Sony put out the last two days ("we'll be profitable in 2009", "PS3 sales increased 140%") are pre-emptive strikes from what will likely be embarrassing NPD figures next week for Sony. In reality, all companies start issuing these guidance press releases this time of the year.
This generation is already set in stone - Sony and it's die-hard fans just won't accept or admit it. Wii ran away with it, MS came in a healthy second and Sony finds itself in an unfamiliar position - last place. 2008 was the last chance for PS3 to begin catching up to 360 and, instead, it fell further behind by an appreciable amount. The last games to be released for this generation are being funded/green-lighted now and they're using numbers on the state of the industry as of the end of the 08 Holiday Season to make those decisions (which system to lead on and come out for). 360/PS3 games take 2-3 years to develop and this gen will be over in 2-3 years. Look for more and more third-party titles to go 360 exclusive or simply put out a quick port to PS3 starting in 2010.
"The last games to be released for this generation are being funded/green-lighted now and they're using numbers on the state of the industry as of the end of the 08 Holiday Season to make those decisions (which system to lead on and come out for). 360/PS3 games take 2-3 years to develop and this gen will be over in 2-3 years. Look for more and more third-party titles to go 360 exclusive or simply put out a quick port to PS3 starting in 2010."
Now that is the part I can't agree with. I'm not sure about these so-called generation leaps, but I hardly believe that either MS or Sony will announce their next console in this year, not in this ecological climate (maybe they won't announce anything in two years). I think this gen will last a bit longer than you might think -- it definitely won't be over in 2-3 years, mark my word.
The other thing is that I'd be perfectly happy if the PS3 would only get its 1st and 2nd party games, seriously. I'm looking forward those titles only (more or less), so even if you're right, I will be fine with the former and upcoming SCE titles.
Nothing wrong with that, gyak. To Sony's credit, they still have very strong first and second party studios cranking out quality games (Uncharted 2 is one of my most anticipated games this year).
They could help themselves by improving their SDK's and tech support to third-parties though. It's hard for third-party studios to justify spending more time and money developing for the platform with the smallest install base. I do suspect that Sony may lose some of those second party studios in this climate. In fact, Ted Price of Insomniac has already indicated he is receptive to going multiplatform moving forward.
We'll just have to wait 2-3 years to find out which of us was correct about when the next gen starts! :)
You're right, we'll see at the end of 2009. I think the exclusives may or may not be better this year on Sony's machine (better obviously is subjective) but I don't think it's the exclusives that are going to push hardware as much as a significant price drop will. Sony had a modest lead over the 360 in '08 prior to 360's price cut, if Sony can match at least the $299 price of the 60gig 360 then I think Sony has a good chance at beating the 360's '09 sales. It’s bound to happen. The 360 has been out a year longer, at some point 360 sales SHOULD slow down, and the PS3 should have been hitting its stride by now and may in '09 if they decide to cut the price (my guess maybe they'll announce it at CES?).
I'm obviously a 360 loyalist, but I'm not delusional enough to think the PS3 doesn't have a chance at beating the 360 in '09 or beyond. But I do have to speak up when people complain about the 360's success or argue they shouldn't be successful because THEY don't want one. Kinda like how we 360 owners have complained that the Wii isn't for us so why should it sell well? Makes no sense (I can see that now, maybe PS3 owners should do the same).
"I'm obviously a 360 loyalist, but I'm not delusional enough to think the PS3 doesn't have a chance at beating the 360 in '09 or beyond. But I do have to speak up when people complain about the 360's success or argue they shouldn't be successful because THEY don't want one. Kinda like how we 360 owners have complained that the Wii isn't for us so why should it sell well? Makes no sense (I can see that now, maybe PS3 owners should do the same)."
What should I say. Amen to that.
EXCLUSIVE games are still taste dependable. In the very first place Sony needs to cut the price so they would be more affordable to average costumer and younger kids who are still needing their parents money to satisfy their gaming needs.
You're right. With a well placed price cut those exclusives will be even more convincing for the fence-sitters.
MS should be putting all their efforts into getting a stable 360 out there, rather than pissing out fictional sales figures.
In case you weren't aware, MS is a publically owned company meaning that it's illegal for them to put out fictional numbers. No, these numbers are real whether you like them or not.
Fictional sales figures aside, it does appear that Microsoft is working to stabilize their hardware with their incremental release of improved chipsets in the newer 360s every several months. And for the early adopters they wisely implemented their 3-year RRoD repair policy. It took them a while to get that ready but better late than never. MS would've enjoyed even more dramatic sales figures, buttered up or not, if the RRoD was never a factor in the first place.
Actually they do and you know it. Funny think those, 8 years ago every one was screaming their longs off about how XBOX is a sinking ship... I wonder where are the now? =)