January console sales

These are U.S. figures.

1. Nintendo Wii, 436000
2. Sony PS2, 299000
3. MS Xbox 360, 294000
4. Sony PS3, 244000

Sources:
Bloomberg
Gamasutra


Funny, I seem to recall being scoffed at when I asserted that it would be a good thing for all gamers if the Wii was the top seller -- that' s impossible, they all said! Now we will start to see some pressure for price drops.

The wii selling well is good for all sorts of reasons.

#1 - It gets us more devs making more unique games for the Wii, which for me, will give me a reason to purchase one for games other than Mario, Zelda, and Metroid.

#2 - It might convince other console makers to drop the price on their units.

#3 - It could influence the next generation of consoles in a positive manner.

#4 - It gives Nintendo even more of a reason to keep adding titles to the Virtual Console network.

#5 - It gets even more MS fanboys to flame two consoles, making them look even stupider than before.

The list could go on, but I figure 5 is good enough for now. Feel free to add.

I dunno. If theres really been that many wiis sold, than why cant i find one yet?

Find one where? Like in stores? That would be due to the high demand.

The Wii is making the ps3 and Xbox360 launches look pretty sad. Then again, the gamecube didn' t fair all that well, so it' s nice to see the Wii redeem Nintendo a bit.

It gets even more MS fanboys to flame two consoles, making them look even stupider than before.

Oh my teh flamzorz. We MS fanboyzerzz love to teh flamzorz win a console is teh succesfulzerz.

Hmmm, PS3 which is widely available sold about the same as 360 did last January when it was almost impossible to find. Those are not impressive numbers.

As for Wii, well it' ll have healthy sales for another couple of months and then it' ll start to rapidly decline (i' m not including the summer drought) slowly, spiking in September and December.

In all honesty can you really see the Wii being popular come next Christmas, you have 3 or 4 killer apps for the PS3 and 360 and I can' t really see anything on the Wii making people want to shy away from those systems, don' t get me wrong the Wii does have it' s merits however after nearly pee' ing myself in a Game store yesterday when a 20 ish year old student was asking about the trade in value for a Wii as it wasn' t doing anything for his rep with the girls, I can' t see a long life for the system, well not with 20 ish male students.

as it wasn' t doing anything for his rep with the girls

That is why he bought a Wii?

Hey you know what these students are like!!!

2. Sony PS2, 299000

WoW, sony' s ps2 is doing quite well. Better sales than the Xbox360 and PS3

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

ORIGINAL: the_shadowwolf

2. Sony PS2, 299000

WoW, sony' s ps2 is doing quite well. Better sales than the Xbox360 and PS3

He-he, I was wondering if anybody was going to point that out. People are quick to jump on Sony' s case because the PS3 has been moving slower than expected. Those same people seem to forget that of the three, only Sony has the PS2 comfort zone to rely on when it comes to sales. A lackluster launch doesn' t affect them nearly as much as it would have affected the other two. They can wait.

...actually, in terms of overall worldwide sales, isn' t the PS2 outselling all the other consoles by quite a wide margin?...

...anyway, the wii could prove unstoppable as i can see how more casual gamers would find it far more logical to progress in a PS2 --> Wii fashion, than a PS2 --> PS3 one...


....not that i care weather rich conglomerate A, B or C makes the most money, of course...

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In all honesty can you really see the Wii being popular come next Christmas, you have 3 or 4 killer apps for the PS3 and 360 and I can' t really see anything on the Wii making people want to shy away from those systems

Isn' t that around the time when we' re expecting to see Super Mario Galaxy, and perhaps the next Metroid? I haven' t been checking their release dates but I seriously doubt Nintendo is gonna release those in some empty summer month and have nothing to bring to the table during the holidays. So I would say yes, the Wii is going to have strong appeal for a while yet. That will all be out the window, though, if Nintendo fails to get consistent 3rd party support.

WoW, sony' s ps2 is doing quite well. Better sales than the Xbox360 and PS3

Yeah, I imagine there are a lot of people like me who never got one and who are waiting for more games to show up on the next-gen consoles who see this as a great time to pick up some fantastic games that they haven' t tried yet, for a low, low price! (pardon the lapse into used-car-salesman-voice)

He-he, I was wondering if anybody was going to point that out. People are quick to jump on Sony' s case because the PS3 has been moving slower than expected. Those same people seem to forget that of the three, only Sony has the PS2 comfort zone to rely on when it comes to sales.

Here' s the big question: does the profit margin on the PS2 exceed the loss margin on the PS3?

ORIGINAL: Zoy

Here' s the big question: does the profit margin on the PS2 exceed the loss margin on the PS3?

While they' ve sold 106 million PS2' s since 2000, their games division is a financial mess at the moment. Virtually all profits made in the past 4 1/2 years have been spent on CELL and Blu-Ray development.

558 million in, 446 million out. 112 million " profit"

It' s only fortunate that their consumer electronics divisions are rebounding and coming back strong. Bravia, Vaio and Cyber-shot have kept them form serious problems, and with some luck PS3 sales in the US will pick up soon and they can re-take some marketshare in the MP3 player market too.

It' s pretty obvious that price sells. When the PS3 and 360 see a decent price drop they will both pick up a lot more momentum. Especially once we' re approaching later this year and a lot more games are out highlighting the muscle of these two consoles over Wii.

It' s pretty obvious that price sells. When the PS3 and 360 see a decent price drop they will both pick up a lot more momentum. Especially once we' re approaching later this year and a lot more games are out highlighting the muscle of these two consoles over Wii.

Just throwing my opinion out, but isnt sony losing enough money when selling the console($250 to $350ish last i saw it) much less droping the price. And 360 if they were to drop price of premium and get rid of core and get a bigger 360 wouldnt people buy it and forget about premium?

Just throwing my opinion out, but isnt sony losing enough money when selling the console($250 to $350ish last i saw it) much less droping the price. And 360 if they were to drop price of premium and get rid of core and get a bigger 360 wouldnt people buy it and forget about premium?

Expect manufacturing costs to drop drastically now that they' ve introduced 65nm chipsets into their PS3s. They' ll run cheaper & cooler, and that' s good for all parties concerned.

Comparing Core>Premium to Premium>Zephyr is complicated. On one hand, you need a HDD to really use Microsoft' s biggest selling point, so an update to premium status is almost assured. However as an average consumer, you' re not going to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p, which kills Zephyr' s biggest advantage. The majority of 360' s sales are going to continue to fall on the Premium package, while those who want a digital scaler and a bigger HDD have the opportunity to get one.

Just throwing my opinion out, but isnt sony losing enough money when selling the console($250 to $350ish last i saw it) much less droping the price. And 360 if they were to drop price of premium and get rid of core and get a bigger 360 wouldnt people buy it and forget about premium?

Just like MS lost money on their Xbox' s and Xbox360' s, the same goes for the ps3. People are talking about an eventual decrease in price, and as Eddie said, the fact that they have changed chipsets and now done with the initial production hiccups, things will start to cool down, and the consoles will become cheaper just like all the big consoles in the past have.

As far as people buying the Zephyr instead of the premium, I don' t think it will be as drastic as you might think. A lot of people are casual gamers, and don' t like forking over that extra bit of cash for things they don' t quite understand. Not to mention, a lot of consumers don' t care about down-loadable movies and games.

*smirk*

Sony invested $2 Billion in CELL' s development. Each machine costs $800+ to make at the moment and so while reducing CELL' s die size by 40% will have long term benefits for Sony as far as manufacturing costs go, it won' t be instantaneous and it certainly won' t be passed on the the end consumer in the form of a price cut.

ps3 seeing ' drastic' price drops? I only see that out of desperation (ie severe lack of sales, 360 price reduction etc) more then due to reduction in manufacturing costs . As everyone probably already knows the ps3 eats a US$200 hole in sonys wallet for every console sold. SHould manufacturing cost fall those savings will be used to minimise the losses &/or help recoup the losses already accumulated. Consider that the only thing earning money for ps3 are games, and with a low games attach rate of only 2.6 thats not exactly awe inspiring considering the ps3 current user base (around 2 million). The game sales certainly aren' t covering the losses, not by a long shot. Sony at the moment don' t have the deep pockets like microsoft so it is unlikely they can continue to absorb the US$200 hit per console for a prolonged period of time. No i expect the ps3 to remain at that price for as long as 2 more years.