Bonus Round - Analyze This, Part 2: X360 price cut, PS3 sales and more

Michael Pachter and Billy Pidgeon give us their analysis for the big three and what they need to do to end the final quarter on a high note.

- What impact of X360 price cut will have on Microsoft?
- Will Sony have a problem selling PS3 in this holiday season?
- Why is there so much demand for Nintendo's products?

[hotshot1237]

owned an xbox and are MOSTLY still from the xbox crowd. (most not all)
i wonder how much farther 360 will get then xbox.

im guessing alittle farther considering it has more games now. but by the time people really start to pick up the next gen consoles. ps3 price will be down so i wonder what will happen then. what do you guys think?

edit: heroman thats true. but sony has the best devs in the world. and ps3 is selling better then 360 with no games........YET and a higher price point. so eventually games will come so what are people gonna say then. at the same price point i honestly think it would be pretty much a rap for the 360

[nasim]

x360 sales have plummetted all over the world

BTW x360 have dropped out of the top 10 at amazon.

www.amazon.com

ps3 is at no 5 and x360 at no 14.

PS3 is outselling x360 all around thw wrold including NA

www.vgcharts.org
x360 could nt even hold on for 2 days in the top spot

in JAPAN ps3 beats x360 10:1

in EU 3:1 and in NA by 10--15k units per week

[heroman711]

what you really have to consider is that when ps3 and and 360 are the same price it will all come down to games

[achira]

when they are the same price, the ps3 will destroy the xbox360. it outsells it although it costs 100$ more.

[power of Green]

What i think is the 360 will be in mass market range before PS3 figures out what hit it.

All that crap you post has nothing to do with the MS's/ 360's radiclly different stradigy.

I also think companies buying 360's straight from MS to sell the Home entertainment system(360) as Set-top boxes
in Europe etc will Hurt PS3 bad.

[TheMART]

" 1 - 360 is only selling at the pace of the xbox. im assuming that since most people that liked halo
owned an xbox and are MOSTLY still from the xbox crowd. (most not all)
i wonder how much farther 360 will get then xbox. "

You forgot a few very important factors.

The original XBOX 1 sold @ 199 Euro/dollar after 6 months already. It started at what, 299 or so?

The 360 is selling @ 399 Euro/dollar. Double the price. And it sells about on par, or bit over par. As they say. That's huge in volume/price! Imagine what it does after the pricedrop now and the future pricedrops.

360 owners aren't mostly from XBOX crowd. I know many 360 owners, many former PS2 owners that didn't want to wait for the PS3 or don't want to pay that much with less gaming experience then the 360.

I bet many of that XBOX 1 crowd/Halo fanatics could be waiting untill Halo 3 launches, especially with a Halo 3 special 360 edition.

I foresee a massive rise in 360 sales with the AAA Bioshock this month, the former XBOX 1/Halo fanatics that are waiting for Halo 3 and/or special Halo 3 edition 360, plus Christmas with all those titles of the coming months.

@ Achira

"when they are the same price, the ps3 will destroy the xbox360. it outsells it although it costs 100$ more."

Yeah. That's why the 360 sold double the PS3 numbers in april/may/june and sold more the whole first half year of 2007. Only July 2007 was good on sales for the PS3. And now we go back to the normal business. The 360 on top:

Premium 360 for 349 dollar/euro
PS3 last pricedrop models 499 Dollar/599 EUro (superpackage)
And after they sold out, back to 600 dollar again.

Pricedifference now: 150 dollar and 250 Euro. PS3 back to 600 dollar... Well you figure that out.

Plus, the 360 will always stay ahead in the lower pricing compared to the PS3

[Anego Montoya FTMFW]

back to normal business.

well NORMAL business is SONY being the household name for gaming.

so i agree, its going back to normal business, July was the beginning.

thanks for clearing that up.

[Gil]

Dear God, what is wrong with you? First you misspell your screen name Anego Monotya, a clear rip off of the character "Inigo Montoya" from "The Princess Bride". Now you misspell it again. You are funny.

[DJ]

Shut the f*ck up.

[Gil]

Sticking up for your boyfriend? AAAWWWW, that's sweet.

[Marty8370]

PS3 is out selling 360 everwhere including US,Europe,UK & Japan. 360 reliabilty problems isn't helping sales. Expect 360 sales to get worse before they get better.

[power of Green]

http://www.360-gamer.com/ne...

This could hurt any competitor in a major way(Gaming) if the Xbox is used in a way were it provided this type of service to people that have no other options when its far better then its competitors in the same market(Cable).

This is just UK talk there will be millions looking to take advantage of HD content due to the lack of it on traditional services.

EDIT:

Yet your buddies claim people buy PS3 as a DVD player!?. lol Lots or PS3 fanboys out and about with a level of rabid savagery not seen one this site in 2 or 3 months I wonder if BioShock has anything to do with this.

[Kyur4ThePain]

I thought y'all just wanted a gaming console.
Weren't all these extra media capabilities just diluting the essence of a console?

[beavis4play]

the more you talk, the bigger fool you make of yourself. even if these made-up, psychotic visions you have are true; do you believe that there will be no competition in this market and that people will automatically buy an xbox? thats so stupid.....do us all a favor and shut up.

[felidae]

the ps3 will sell much better than the 360.

[Fighter]

How long will the 360 last before MS decides to pull the plug and focus on the Xbox 720? In my opinion, once PS3 has a big lead over the 360 (in 2008-2009) then MS will betray their followers once again and pull the plug.

[COCK]

THE PS3 WILL BEAT THE XBOX THE XBOX DOSENT HAV ENY SYTEM SELLERS LIKE TNHE PS3 ENYMORE ACCEPT GEARS OFF WAR 2 WHILE THE PS3 WILL HAV MAny final fantasy metal gear n many more but the ps3 will fall 2 the god off curent gaming consoles the nintendo wii

[STICKzophrenic]

...but I'm tired of reading sh*t from Pachter, whether it's pro-Sony, anti-Sony, pro-360, anti-360, pro-Nintendo, or anti-Nintendo.

This includes videos of him as well.

[power of Green]

The 360 sales are already at ther worst because of it and this is all the PS3 can do against it with a $100 clearance?. Holliday line-up and the warrenty and the new 360's will have already taken care of your so called hard times.

* Huxley

* Fable 2

* Splinter Cell

* Lost Oddyessy

* Halo Wars

* APB

* Postal III:

* Elveon

* Thesis

* Alan Wake

* Banjo-Kazooie

* Kingdom Under fire COD

* Too Human

You're an idiot. Go back where you came from. IPTV has sh*t loads of HD content and people are buying HDTV's. lol If people are getting Direct TV for HD they'll do the same with IPTV.

[beavis4play]

again, your stupidity. name 3 exclusive,or first party games coming for the 360 in 2008? the hard times will only get harder if halo, mass effect, and bioshock is all they got.

[DEADEND]

Look the 360 will only out sell the PS3 this holiday session because of HALO3 and thats only to the people who were already XBOX fans. By the end of the year and the start of next year thats when the PS3 will make its real mark.

By the time GTA4 comes out they will have another price cut(and i'm not talking about the 80Gb being 500, that will happen at the holiday session)and it will be priced at 450 to 399. And we all know by that time there will be more AAA titles for the PS3 then the 360. people will want the PS3 alot more then the 360 by that time, simply because theres a ton of PS2 owners still waiting to buy the PS3. And once they see another price cut(which we all know and saw what happened with the one last month sells went through the roof)and more games.

After all these things happen it will be clear that SONY will win over the 360 by the summer of 2008. As for the WII that will take a while simply because it cost so little, SONY will have to drop the PS3 to 250 to 199 to grab the attention of the whole mass market so they can out sell the WII(the WII at that time can't do anything about its price because it won't be able to drop its price pass 180 to 150 so that puts them in a disavantage), that should happen around holiday session of 2009 or spring of 2010.

Look these are what most analysis are saying, its just a matter of time till this really does happen. Yes once this console war has ended for this gen MS will be in a whole lot better postion then it was before but they won't win, I'm really sorry to break it to you guys(I know every 360 fanboy is going to hate hearing the truth and they'll call me a PS3 fanboy when I don't even own one and I own a 360, plus they'll just joke and say i'm wrong and every other analysis out there are wrong too) but MS is not winning this gen war. Leave i want people to comment and tell me what they think with out acting like a fanboy.

[Sayai jin]

Hmmm. PS3 was not selling well after launch do to the high price tag, mainly the hardcore gamer /Sony loyal brought it. Then with the drop in price for the PS3 people who were on the fence decided to go. That price will only sale for so long before they will have to drop it again. Sony needs to concentrate on putting quality games on the system. This is why a lot of people still are not buying the system. Sony was smart by displaying games for the system for the next 2 to 3 years. It gave PS3 owners (potential owners as well) a little bit of faith that good games and more games are on the horizon. The Xbox 360 will continue to sell well too. They will boost sales tremendously with the upcoming high prfile game titles. A lot of people thought that MS had a bad E3 showing, but they are dead wrong. MS did exactly what they shoud have done, they showed the consumer what was in the near future for the console. It is already an established system with a lot of games and sveral good ones too. The system is still selling well even with ll of the reliability issues (deserved or not). Imagine when they prove t the consumer that the system is safe. MS needs to oncentrate on building consumer cofindenc on the reliability.

Most games will be multi platform this gen. So those that say that MGS or Bioshock will not be multi platform, you may be right, but look for big titles on your favorite system to be on other console. Game companies do not make games just becuase they love to do it or to crush another game or console. They do it to mke money, you know to get rich. If you think o it in this manner, you will come to see and understand.

Edit: Beavis (Below me) - I did not say that MS would have an advantage with the games. I simply stated what I think ech company has done and needs to do. Customers can go out and by a PS3, they have been readibaly available for some time, but there is still one problem, not enough games. No I did not say what games are coming out, I talking about now. You never know what games will be delayed.

Hmmm.... 4 diagrees: at least have the courtesy to say wh you diagree.

[beavis4play]

why would potential buyers have to worry about trusting microsoft. they can pick up a solid, well built ps3 anytime they want. also, you say big games will give microsoft an advantage but seem to discount sonys' big releases.

[power of Green]

You're a moron.

" halo, mass effect, and bioshock is all they got.", ?. lol Do us a favor STFU.

[beavis4play]

again, name 3 FIRST PARTY OR EXCLUSIVE GAMES IN 2008 for 360(or didn't you understand the question the first time?) yea, after they shoot those games out this year, i don't hear ms talking about squat. like i said, i can run off an impressive list for the ps3 that is for this year and most of '08. and that makes you the moron!.......oh, and bioshock may be coming to ps3, so that ms list just dwindled to halo and mass effect.

[power of Green]

* Huxley

* Fable 2

* Splinter Cell

* Lost Oddyessy

* Halo Wars

* APB

* Postal III:

* Elveon

* Thesis

* Alan Wake

* Banjo-Kazooie

* Kingdom Under fire COD

* Too Human
The list is much bigger but i did not post them due to not knowing enough about them.

I did not post in here to fight Idiots and rabid morons

[DJ]

they still managed to forget about inflation. Yeah, the Xbox was at half the price of the 360, but with inflation taken into account the price difference is more like $100. The Xbox also had no previous userbase; everything was built from scratch. The 360 on the other hand is mainly comprised of previous Xbox Owners (this is from Microsoft's own figures).

PS3 will definitely dominate this holiday season, and continue to grow exponentially throughout 2008. The Wii will likely get a sales boost once the games start to trickle in this fall, and the 360 will continue to slip. If things continue the way they are, don't expect Microsoft to sell hardware for very long; they may go with software-only support for the remaining Xbox 360 audience.

[masterg]

Could not have said it better myself.
Bubble for you :)

[DEADEND]

Look the 360 will only out sell the PS3 this holiday session because of HALO3 and thats only to the people who were already XBOX fans. By the end of the year and the start of next year thats when the PS3 will make its real mark.

By the time GTA4 comes out they will have another price cut(and i'm not talking about the 80Gb being 500, that will happen at the holiday session)and it will be priced at 450 to 399. And we all know by that time there will be more AAA titles for the PS3 then the 360. people will want the PS3 alot more then the 360 by that time, simply because theres a ton of PS2 owners still waiting to buy the PS3. And once they see another price cut(which we all know and saw what happened with the one last month sells went through the roof)and more games.

After all these things happen it will be clear that SONY will win over the 360 by the summer of 2008. As for the WII that will take a while simply because it cost so little, SONY will have to drop the PS3 to 250 to 199 to grab the attention of the whole mass market so they can out sell the WII(the WII at that time can't do anything about its price because it won't be able to drop its price pass 180 to 150 so that puts them in a disavantage), that should happen around holiday session of 2009 or spring of 2010.

Look these are what most analysis are saying, its just a matter of time till this really does happen. Yes once this console war has ended for this gen MS will be in a whole lot better position then it was before but they won't win, I'm really sorry to break it to you guys(I know every 360 fanboy is going to hate hearing the truth and they'll call me a PS3 fanboy when I don't even own one and I own a 360, plus they'll just joke and say i'm wrong and every other analysis out there are wrong too) but MS is not winning this gen war. Leave i want people to comment and tell me what they think with out acting like a fanboy.

[kingboy]

Enjoy the lead while it last cause the Wii`s taking over in 2 months followed by the ps3 next year

[IRONMAN457]

halo is a joke because only 4.5million preorders which means the game is only going to sell 4.5mill, PS3 is outselling it with little games yet they are all fun, HOME will dominate XBL, and next year or even around the holdays, when ps3 will drop to 399, OOOOMMMMMMGGGGG it will be an ultimate domination over wii wii and 360

Wii: 11million
xbox:10million (really it 8.1 because of all of the defectives)
PS3: 120 million

PS3 equals pwnage

[360_Rules]

The PS3 is not outselling the 360 in the US. All you Sony fanboy trolls didn't see the paper today! LMAO Haahahhahahahahhaa the 360 is going to beat the POS3 this month for sure!

[mikeslemonade]

Since PS3's price drop, the PS3 has been outselling 360. Remember, it was $100 more with less content game wise and then 360 after price drop was cheaper by $150 and then it had a discount of $20 making it $170 on Amazon. At $170 cheaper it was only able to stay ahead of the PS3 for 3 days than the PS3 on Amazon. 360 is now on the 15th position. On August 1-7th the PS3 was either #1-3. 360 is not going to outsell the PS3 this month, and it doesn't really matter because by next year the PS3's price will be even close to the 360's price like within $100 again. And the PS3 will probably be the same price as the 360 elite. People have said that if PS3 is the same price as 360 then they will get PS3.

[CrazzyMan]

havent listened it yeat, but =)
what can i say, time will show. =)

but i probably going to get Falcon x360 premium with hdmi (i wanted elite just for hdmi, now i don`t need elite:) ) for 299$.
And that is because, this time x360 probably will have more worth exclusive games, then xbox had..
though i am not sure.. because i don`t know how many really good exclusive games coming in 2008..
like banjo3, ng2, cry on and that`s all.
well i still have time. =)

ps3 is must have because of GT5, KZ2, FFXIII, FFFXIII:v, MGS4, LBP.
will x360 be a must have console.. time will show, but till then, ps3 FTW.
pc is must have because of crysis, starcraft2, and other "pc only" games. =)

[Bloodmask]

never catch the 360 or Wii.

Sony fanboys live in an alternate reality where one good month of sales bc of a price cut leads to world domination.

That is the problem with immature naive 13 year old fanboys.

They believe things like supercomputer, 4D, 120 fps, cell+RSX+Bluray= the future of gaming. What they fail to realize is that this is all marketing BS. They are just incapable of rational thought.

You don't see Microsoft saying things like Triple Core CPU+Xenos= a supercomputer. Or Nintendo saying Wiimote is the future of gaming. Sony fanboys minds are always way off in the distant future when gaming is now. That is the difference. Other companies base things off of the games and they show the public reality. Sony always overpromises and underdelivers. Show me one game that you have "already" played on PS3 that looks better than the 360 games.
The fact is you can't and it will be the same way until PS4.

I'm still waiting for those Toy Story quality graphics out of my PS2. How quickly the feeble mind forgets.

[mikeslemonade]

I agree that the 360 has basically the same demand as the xbox excluding Gears of War. Gears of War is the only high point that the xbox could not reach. There's probably the same amount of working 360s and Xboxs life to date. Michael Patcher also says xbox was $199.99 half the price of 360 in 6 months, but 360 also had a year head start.

[ALIEN]

360 will sell a lil bit more than PS3 this holiday season, because of HALO3. But 08 is all about PS3. PS3 games will look alot better than 360 games next year and 360fans know that. Ps3 will beat 360 by the summer of 08.

360fans! tell me what does 360 have for next year that can compete with MGS4, FF13, SOCCOM4 n the "BIG DADDY" KZ2. Yeah! that's what i thought! nothing. So don't be such a fanboy n get a PS3. Im a SONYFAN n i own a 360, and i play it all the time. PEACE OUT!

[DEADEND]

Their going to say GEARS 2!!!lol

[Deity01]

Thank you, saved me from typing as much as I was gonna. '08 is PS3's year, I've said this before. Microsoft's advantage with Halo 3 is undeniable this holiday. But, Mass Effect and Bioshock aren't going to do anything spectacular for the 360 sales.

Sorry but I'm going to spout a bunch of bull like powerofgreen and themart, if you seriously expect those 360 games to hold up against PS3's exclusives in '08 you're officially blinded by fanboyism.

360 has holiday '07, but PS3 is going to crush them afterwards. And yes, I already own a 360, but I don't expect it to last as long as PS3, it's just not going to happen.

[jmare]

MS got screwed by GTA4 being delayed. MS pushed Halo 3's release early to avoid competition with GTA4, with that much time between release and Christmas, much of Halo 3's sales are going to be in Sept-Oct. Yes it will sell at Christmas, but it's unrealistic to expect parents to listen to their kids b1tching for 3-4 months for a game, just to give it as a present.
Bioshock's getting good reviews. Fact is you can play it elswhere. And please don't anyone say that it's still exclusive because it's for Vista and Vista is MS. If they can crack Vista-only games for XP, then you should know damn well someone's working on a crack for Linux. Besides, there are rumors that Bioshock is coming to PS3. I know they are still unconfirmed, but if the MGS4 rumor won't die, why should this one?
All this aside, it will be an interesting holiday season.
I also heard in a podcast, that the main story in Mass Effect may only be 10-20 hrs long. 10-20 hrs for a mind-blowing RPG? DVD9 FTW! Sorry, couldn't help it.

[StupidTeenagersMust-]

MS spent the last year gloating about how they'd get GTA day and date as the PS3 version. It's still true, but about 4 or 5 months after the Holiday season ends, and MS really needed GTA in order to boost their poor sales.

We can always hope that the trio of Sci-Fi titles will do some good for the platform, but as far as I can tell the Wii and PS3 are going to slaughter Xbox 360 this Fall and Winter.

[Silver360]

Yet,they have one 15th of the information that analysts have and make such "great" predictions. Sony this, MS that, come on this isn't an arms race.If one console doesn't sell as much as the other who loses? Not me not you. Only the console maker. All third party games will still come out for both systems. The publishers want as much cash as possible. The PS2 was a fluke of a system. It was the right machine at the right price and time when DVD was just taking off. Just don't expect this cycle to be so cut and dry. There may not be a perceivable winner this time around. With the way Nintindo and MS covet the casual market there may be 300 million next machines sold this time. See the worst thing is with all these predictions, they only mean something if all other factors are held constant. You know like kids, job, mortage, car note, gas, and marriage. If everybody was as good as they seem to think they are the world would have more millionaires.

[Infernus]

2008 is the year of the PS3. Those waiting for the price to drop will get their wish, and the sales will rocket when the big games are released, MGS4 and GT5 for example. I know a lot of people that want a PS3 but say it's too pricey. Some have said they'll wait a year then get one. Some say they don't need a PS3 yet, they have their PS2 and PC until the price drops.

So I think next year if we see a global price drop (This time including Europe), I don't think we'll be seeing news posts on N4G of the 360 outselling anything anymore after mid-2008. It just can't keep up with the well-known software titles, other than Halo and Gears of War.

A lot of people I know that are looking for a next gen console only know of Halo and Gears for the 360 but know of Resistance, Motorstorm, GT5 and MGS4 for the PS3 as the immediate-to-recall game names when I ask them what they're looking foward to.

2008 will be the year of the PS3, but will the 360 get buried? I'm still not sure. It's all going to depend on how MS handle the price of the 360 in relation to the PS3.

[Kaneda]

I can't believe people still buy a wii... two of my friends bought it. They played it for a month, and haven't turn it on since.

I am not a hardcore gamer, and I bought PS3 a launch...wtf is wrong with me.

[Loudninja]

The PS3 will never catch the Wii or 360?Please,you are really underestimating the PS3.People said the same thing about the Wii.The PS3 will catch up,the 360 is not moving fast anymore,it sold down.

[Genki]

1. Probably better sales...I can't imagine a price cut doing anything else.

2. H-E-L-L no. I bet people started saving little by little for PS3s after last holiday season. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the PS3 is the hot entertainment gift this holiday season, bar none.

3. It's fun, different, and cheaper than the alternatives.

Broken link for w/e reason, so I can't view the article...