Microsoft is rapidly losing its year long head start to Nintendo and Sony

[Raptor]

From roughlydrafted.com:

Nintendo's Wii, while nearly impossible to find in retail stores, sold slightly above the company's second quarter June 2007 goal of 9 million units, reaching sales of 9,270,000.
Sony's PlayStation 3 also edged slightly above its 6 million goal for Q2 by shipping 6,210,000 units to stores. There is still significant inventory left unsold in stores, which prompted Sony to cut the PS3's price in July by $100, to $499 and $599 for the two PS3 models.
Microsoft had originally set a target of 15 million Xbox 360s by the middle of 2007, but dropped that target down to 12 million. Even with lowered expectations, the company was still unable to meet its goal, having only shipped 11,600,000 units by the end of June.
For the first half of 2007, while Nintendo sold 6 million units a quarter and Sony shipped 2 million per quarter, Microsoft was only about to push out 600,000 units a quarter, in large part because the retail channel is already full of unsold Xbox 360s.

When looking at actual worldwide sales reported by manufacturers, 360 unit sales are flattening out dramatically.
Microsoft has now had two quarters of sales well behind last year's sales.
In its second year, the Xbox 360 is slipping behind every quarter in year over year sales, and not by a little. This years' Xbox 360 sales are less than half those of 2006's.
While Windows Enthusiasts like to deride PS3 sales as low, Sony's relatively high priced console is selling at identical levels to Microsoft's 360 figures from last year after its initial stumble out of the gate.
In other words, the PS3 is matching the Xbox 360's first year sales while 360 itself isn't, allowing Sony to incrementally catch up while Microsoft languishes with static sales.
In just half a year, Sony is at half of Microsoft's sales, despite the Xbox 360 having been on sale for over a year and a half. Nintendo's Wii, however, is taking off in a way that leaves both of the HD consoles behind. It appears poised to pass total sales of the 360 next month at the end of the third quarter.

Full Story: roughlydrafted.com

[SgtBilko]

Does anyone think the banning has something to do with the drop in sales?

[inspectercoley]

That and the fact the 360 has very few standout exclusive games and that even the really old games still cost £20 which is about the same price as you could pay for the same thing on pc.

I don't think the 3 red lights helped either

[ant3b]

the xbox 360 has plenty of stand out games mate! may not be exclusive but still stand out games. Bioshock, gears. forza, stranglehold. medal of honour, all class games in my books at the moment 360 is my choice of any console. got to admint some ps3 games do appear to be intriguing. the little big world or whatever and mgs4 and gt5

[inspectercoley]

Yeah, I prefer the 360 to the PS any day of the week but I only bought mine for Halo 3.

Why get the 360 version of Stranglehold, Bioshock or medal of Honour when you can get the same thing on the PC for £25 or less? and it will probably have better gfx and mouse controls for better aim?

Forza and Gears are great tho

[willp2003]

well i'm about to boost their sales by a mighty ... 1

[kizroll]

Not till pro evo! ps3 sales will go up at xmas coz of pro def! no1 wants 2 play it on that wack excuse of a d pador use analouge

[ant3b]

erm ive always used analogue works fine for me pal

[inspectercoley]

Why is it so difficult to make a good dpad, The Saga Saturn one was ace, and the snes one worked fine as far as i remember. I can't think of any other one that has done it well.

[pezley]

the saturn d pad was aces, loose as hell but so sensitive, none of this punching the directions to get it working like the 360 pad.

i personally dont understand why anyone would choose the ps3 over the 360 as far as games go, having both ( + a wii ) i can safely say the 360 is the only one i use for games, ps3 has been reduced to a blu ray player exclusively and the wii is great for keeping nieces and nephews quiet, which is about all it does.

after working for game for 4 years it really is obvious the wii is mainly used by less than casual gamers and fat middle aged mums and the ps3 is for people who are so anti 360 its funny. oh and people who think hideo kajima still makes games that arent just 12 hour interactive cut scenes.

not to say i dislike either console love them both but for very different things.

[steve10574]

Not till pro evo! ps3 sales will go up at xmas coz of pro def! no1 wants 2 play it on that wack excuse of a d pador use analouge

can someone translate this even babelfish said WTF!

[{{909}}]

Does anyone think the banning has something to do with the drop in sales?

sales have been pretty much flat for the last year, if anything the bannings should have casued a spike in sales, i know 2 people personally who have bought a core after their 360 was banned and ive seen loads on forums saying they will do the same as soon as halo3 is out.


as for kizrol..ill have a go

Not till pro evo! ps3 sales will go up at xmas coz of pro def! no1 wants 2 play it on that wack excuse of a d pador use analouge

I dont think 360 sales will go up untill the release of pro evolution soccer 7, Ps3 sales will also go up becasue of pro evolution 7.
Nobody wants to play it on that terrible d-pad (on the 360), or use the analogue stick.

Still doesnt make much sense actually.

[ant3b]

lol 909. As i said before nothing wrong with analouge stick works a treat for me mind you im shit at the game online though i did score a free kick with pirlo once and the guy who i was playing quit straight away lol

[Fearless]

wii looses novelty in like a week.
ps3 will never catch the 360 in terms of titles available and number of gamers

360 all the way!!

as for these sites that seem to predict sales figures, they all contradict each other, i think what they publish should be taken with a pinch of salt.

one last week said 360 and elite is best selling console so far this quarter in UK, another says 360 is dead in the water.

see which console is leading when halo 3 comes out

[mysterym]

There was another MVC quote that said sales were up 260%. With the current batch of blockbusters out this year, the 360 is the console to own. The sales figures will go up for sure to reflect this.

[{{909}}]

sales figures will go up for the 360, no doubt, but just how many more gamers are there that want to play the games that the 360 offers?

The reason the PS1 and 2 did so well was that they offered a great experience in every genre, racing, platform, FPS, TPS, RPGs (all types), sports, party, girlie crap, kiddie crap and so on, as well as loads of bizarre rubbish that japan loves, The range of games available on the 360 is very limited in comparison, even if the games are fantastic as they are.

Untill MS fix that (which i doubt they ever will) sales will never get to any momentum. At the moment theres enough great games to satisy a certain gamer, but i think theres only so many of those certain gamers and most of them already have one. People seem to forget that the 360 isnt really doing much better than the first machine, which was basically a failure held up bu a bottomless pit of cash.

Games such as the darkness, bioshock, crackdown and so on were great games but there was no massive hardware sales increase when they were released and aside from halo 3, i doubt any of the other big games due will do any different.

Bioshock itself is a testament to my theory, its the highest rated game of the year, it sold very well on the 360 but virtually no extra hardware was sold around the same time.
When the PS3 gets FFXIII, GT5, R&C or MGS4 sales will go through the roof EACH TIME because theres millions of people waiting for those games before they buy a machine and they each appeal to a different person, the same could be said for games like SMG and SBM on the wii, and even bloody wiifit. The wii doesnt really need any help selling at the moment tho.

[SgtBilko]

It's time for a UK price cut.