October Console Sales Numbers...........

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

Well, there's no reason to ever go to gamespot.com again for reviews or anything really. It looks like long-time reviewer Jeff Gerstmann has been fired for his 6.0 review of Kane and Lynch after Eidos (the publisher) complained to CNET (which owns gamespot). Pathetic.

http://blog.wired.com/games/

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic

Gerstmann's video review of the game on Youtube

I think the Gamespot community made a statement. About 40 pages of 1.0 user review scores which drove the overall score down to 2.6.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/acti...hotslot;yousay

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Atocep

I think the Gamespot community made a statement. About 40 pages of 1.0 user review scores which drove the overall score down to 2.6.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/acti...hotslot;yousay

That's awesome. The Interwebs rule.

[sterlingice]

I just don't see that review as very bad. Oh well, I've always liked IGN more than Gamespot anyways. They actually seem to like video games rather than grading things on hype even if there is a lot of grade inflation.

SI

[dervack]

Some Toys R Us have been selling the Wii on Sunday mornings, so if you want one, that might be a good spot for you as well.

[Eaglesfan27]

Big news in the video game world as Activision and Vivendi have negotiated a merger that would make them the biggest 3rd party publisher out there, ahead of EA.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6183557...ewstop;title;2

[rjolley]

Isn't Take2 under the Vivendi umbrella?

Hmmm, looks like they aren't, but Sierra Games is. Anyone know anyone high up at Activision to talk them into starting up FBPro again?

[spleen1015]

As long as they don't fuck with Blizzard, everything will be okay.

[dawgfan]

Wow...that's huge news.

[Calis]

It will also give Activision's Guitar Hero franchise direct access to the library of Vivendi's Universal Music Group, the world's largest record label.

That news excites me the most out of this.

[SackAttack]

Where that might be even more impactful is if it locks Rock Band *out* of the UMG.

I can't imagine Vivendi would do that, revenue is revenue, but that would sure be a huge trump card for Guitar Hero.

[Calis]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Where that might be even more impactful is if it locks Rock Band *out* of the UMG.

I can't imagine Vivendi would do that, revenue is revenue, but that would sure be a huge trump card for Guitar Hero.

Oh yeah, complete brain dump there. I was assuming Rock Band was under that as well. I completely forgot that it was EA.

I take back some of my excitement.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Atocep

I think the Gamespot community made a statement. About 40 pages of 1.0 user review scores which drove the overall score down to 2.6.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/acti...hotslot;yousay

That's pretty fucking hilarious.

Kane and Lynch came out 2 months early and it really shows. I think if they took their time with it, it would have been a real fun game. The storyline is actually interesting but the gameplay is unpolished and the AI blows. The ending also is the worst ending I've ever seen in a video game.

They probably made good money on it pushing it for the Christmas rush. But I think if they had waited till early next year, this could have been a good game. Otherwise I'd say to just wait till it's in the bargain bin in a year.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

More sales numbers from last week as the holiday season kicks into gear.

Japan sales numbers for week starting November 25th:

Wii : 71K
PS3 : 41K
PS2 : 15K
360 : 5.2K

The Wii finally got back on track in Japan with the release of Wii Fit. The Wii numbers were boosted by about 30K units with the Wii Fit release. Interestingly enough, that's a bigger unit sales jump than the one created by the release of Super Mario Galaxy. The PS3 continues to sell above 40K units for the 4th straight week (well above the weekly average of 15K units/week before the price drop). The PS3 won the November sales battle in Japan despite falling behind the Wii in the weekly numbers last week. The PS2 and 360 had no change in sales numbers over previous weeks.

European sales numbers for week starting November 25th:

Wii : 244K
PS2 : 168K
PS3 : 159K
360 : 105K

The Wii continues to lead the pack in Europe. It appears that the Wii will sell around 900-950K units for November. The PS2 continues to sell extremely well in Europe people gobble up the cheap console. The PS3 sold slightly less than the PS2 this week, but did outsell the 360 by roughly 50%.

[MJ4H]

Japan has never been big on Mario games, oddly.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Wal-Mart will be having a 2 day special (December 7th and 8th) on the PS3. Wal-Mart is offering a free $50 gift card with the purchase of a 40 GB PS3. The 5 free BR movie deal also applies. An effective price of $350 seems like a pretty good deal.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by MattJones4Heisman

Japan has never been big on Mario games, oddly.

Yeah. Mario was always a much bigger icon over here than there. Heck, in an abstract way, Mario was what saved Nintendo over here and ultimately made them into an industry giant. I mean, yeah, technically, it was Donkey Kong, but that was Mario's first appearance, and his subsequent games were bigger than anything Donkey Kong has since done.

[Kang]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Wal-Mart will be having a 2 day special (December 7th and 8th) on the PS3. Wal-Mart is offering a free $50 gift card with the purchase of a 40 GB PS3. The 5 free BR movie deal also applies. An effective price of $350 seems like a pretty good deal.

Wish they'd apply that to the 60 GB model.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Kang

Wish they'd apply that to the 60 GB model.

They're becoming really hard to find anymore. Pretty sure Wal-Mart doesn't have enough in stock to do that nationwide. They'd have some 'bait and switch' issues if they did that sale because they have to guarantee a certain number in stock at each store by law.

[SackAttack]

We're effectively sold out of the 60 GB at work. We've had a few units keep peeking their heads up, but we were, for all intent and purposes, sold out as of Black Friday.

I'd imagine the free controller + Heavenly Sword/Lair we had running for a couple weeks up to that had a lot to do with it.

[Kang]

Bastards!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

We're effectively sold out of the 60 GB at work. We've had a few units keep peeking their heads up, but we were, for all intent and purposes, sold out as of Black Friday.

I'd imagine the free controller + Heavenly Sword/Lair we had running for a couple weeks up to that had a lot to do with it.

Probably the best place to get a 60 GB machine is used at a place like Gamestop. You'd have to do some hunting, but I'm sure some are around. For that matter, you can pick up used 20 GB machines for relatively cheap and just upgrade the HDD if you want more room. Those machines also have full BC.

[rjolley]

Speaking of upgrading HDs in consoles, can you upgrade the HDs in the 360s?

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by rjolley

Speaking of upgrading HDs in consoles, can you upgrade the HDs in the 360s?

The 360 hard drives are removable, so yes - you could buy a larger/different hard drive if you wanted (or add one to a core unit if you have that).

[SackAttack]

Worth pointing out that while dawgfan is correct in that you can upgrade the HDD, you cannot use just any old HDD. It's gotta be one of the proprietary 360 hard drives.

Little different from the way the PS3 is designed.

[Big Fo]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

More sales numbers from last week as the holiday season kicks into gear.

Japan sales numbers for week starting November 25th:

Wii : 71K
PS3 : 41K
PS2 : 15K
360 : 5.2K

The Wii finally got back on track in Japan with the release of Wii Fit. The Wii numbers were boosted by about 30K units with the Wii Fit release. Interestingly enough, that's a bigger unit sales jump than the one created by the release of Super Mario Galaxy. The PS3 continues to sell above 40K units for the 4th straight week (well above the weekly average of 15K units/week before the price drop). The PS3 won the November sales battle in Japan despite falling behind the Wii in the weekly numbers last week. The PS2 and 360 had no change in sales numbers over previous weeks.

Wii Fit sold an impressive 254k out of a shipment rumored to be around 300k. The few impressions I've read from people living in Japan are positive, the game sounds like it's actually pretty fun. Initially I was going to hope for an eventual 1080 Snowboarding or Super Punch-Out game (or some kind of more traditional game) utilizing the balance board before picking it up, but now I think I'll be too curious to not buy it when it comes out in the US.

Super Mario Galaxy had it's third straight week in the 35-40k range, it could be a sign that it could have New Super Mario Bros. or Mario Kart DS type legs.

[rjolley]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Worth pointing out that while dawgfan is correct in that you can upgrade the HDD, you cannot use just any old HDD. It's gotta be one of the proprietary 360 hard drives.

Little different from the way the PS3 is designed.

Yeah, that's what I thought. You can't just buy a 120G HD and put it in a 360 for $100, you have to buy the drive from Microsoft.

Bummer.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by rjolley

Yeah, that's what I thought. You can't just buy a 120G HD and put it in a 360 for $100, you have to buy the drive from Microsoft.

Bummer.

Yeah, sorry - I assumed you meant a 360 hard drive.

[rjolley]

Microsoft cuts the price of the HD-DVD player by 30% to $129.

edit: http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/04/x...stoops-to-129/

[stevew]

Hmmm, I guess I should probably buy one now. That's too low to pass up.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by rjolley

Microsoft cuts the price of the HD-DVD player by 30% to $129.

edit: http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/04/x...stoops-to-129/

They almost had to do that. Wal-Mart really screwed up that HD-DVD player market with their $99 clearance of the old model. As a result, any player over $99 since then has simply been gathering dust on retail shelves as consumers now have a new price that they feel comfortable spending for a HD-DVD player.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Looks like the replacement 360's that Microsoft is shipping out could be just as prone to the RROD as the old consoles. One of the guys over at Loot Ninja just had another console fail after only a month. This is now his 8th Xbox 360 to get the RROD since release.

http://loot-ninja.com/2007/12/05/fal...x-360-yes-8th/

The 4 writers over at Loot Ninja have now had 16 Xbox 360's lost to RROD failures since release.

In related news, reports are leaking out that Microsoft may be increasing the repair time on Xbox 360's to try to avoid revising upward the estimated cost for RROD failure replacements. Replacement times are between 4-6 weeks, when they only took 2 weeks as little as 6 months ago.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Sony has reinstituted the Sony Style PS3 deal. Sign up for a Sony Style credit card (can be cancelled immediately afterwards) and get $100 off a PS3. So you can pick up a 40 GB machine for $299 or a 80 GB machine for $399.

[Bee]

Let's revisit what David Reeves, president of SCEE had this to say 5 or 6 months ago:

“PlayStation 3, you will see, will be far and away the winner when you look at it by March ‘08. They really, really will,” he predicted. It’s something that is going to be a slow burner, and suddenly it’s like a tsunami; it will just overtake you.”

Did I miss the tsunami? Really, realy did I?

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

In related news, reports are leaking out that Microsoft may be increasing the repair time on Xbox 360's to try to avoid revising upward the estimated cost for RROD failure replacements. Replacement times are between 4-6 weeks, when they only took 2 weeks as little as 6 months ago.

From what I've read, the replacement times were only 2 weeks for a handful of customers. Mine took about 4 weeks, and that seems to be the standard time right now. I hope I don't have to go through that whole replacement process again. It sucked.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Bee

Let's revisit what David Reeves, president of SCEE had this to say 5 or 6 months ago:

Did I miss the tsunami? Really, realy did I?

Is he really that wrong? Note that he is the president of SCEE, which is the Sony Corp. division in Europe. The PS3 is currently outselling the Xbox 360 by roughly 50,000 units a week in Europe. Granted, we'll have to see whether they can keep the momentum going in PAL territories. Perhaps the 'tsunami' comparison was a bit dramatic, but given the good sales of the PS3 in Europe, it's far too early to say his comments are incorrect.

Also, it should be noted that he expected a March '08 release of MGS4. That portion of the 'tsunami' has been moved to the April/May timeframe. The boost will be there in that case, but just a month or two later than he anticipated.

[Bee]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Is he really that wrong? Note that he is the president of SCEE, which is the Sony Corp. division in Europe. The PS3 is currently outselling the Xbox 360 by roughly 50,000 units a week in Europe. Granted, we'll have to see whether they can keep the momentum going in PAL territories. Perhaps the 'tsunami' comparison was a bit dramatic, but given the good sales of the PS3 in Europe, it's far too early to say his comments are incorrect.

Also, it should be noted that he expected a March '08 release of MGS4. That portion of the 'tsunami' has been moved to the April/May timeframe. The boost will be there in that case, but just a month or two later than he anticipated.

You make me laugh. Thank you.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Bee

You make me laugh. Thank you.

Since you didn't explain your comment in any way, I'm assuming you believe that the trend will reverse and the 360 will retake the week-over-week lead in the near future? Just curious. I'd honestly be pretty surprised if that occurred. My thought is that it will be an even race or in the PS3's favor in Europe over the coming 6 month timeframe.

[Bee]

To clarify my statement for you. Everytime I read your spin it makes me laugh.

And btw the quote was concerning worldwide sales, not european sales although that wasn't clear in my snipped quote.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Bee

To clarify my statement for you. Everytime I read your spin it makes me laugh.

And btw the quote was concerning worldwide sales, not european sales although that wasn't clear in my snipped quote.

Worldwide isn't all that cut and dry anymore either. In November, the PS3 outsold the 360 by nearly 200K units in Japan. In Europe, the PS3 is going to end up outselling the 360 by around 100K units for the month. That's 300K units that the 360 needs to make up in North America just to break even. They did not have that big of a margin worldwide last month, even with a Halo-boosted sales figure. It's going to be very interesting to see how close the worldwide numbers have drawn this month. Losing a 200K margin in one month would not be the best of signs.

[Atocep]

PS3 is to tsunami as Wii is to ________

[Bee]

shhh...we don't talk about the Wii.

[Kang]

Originally Posted by Bee

shhh...we don't talk about the Wii.

Agreed. This is about Next Gen consoles!

[Bee]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Worldwide isn't all that cut and dry anymore either. In November, the PS3 outsold the 360 by nearly 200K units in Japan. In Europe, the PS3 is going to end up outselling the 360 by around 100K units for the month. That's 300K units that the 360 needs to make up in North America just to break even. They did not have that big of a margin worldwide last month, even with a Halo-boosted sales figure. It's going to be very interesting to see how close the worldwide numbers have drawn this month. Losing a 200K margin in one month would not be the best of signs.

Wii 15.56 Million
360 14.14 Million
PS3 6.73 Million

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Bee

Wii 15.56 Million
360 14.14 Million
PS3 6.73 Million

That's fine, but that has little to do with the current trend. As badly as the PS3 launched, the 360 should have this console war already won. The fact that they're already breaking even in sales on a monthly basis with the PS3 after only a year is very telling. Three months ago, I could have got 100-1 odds that the PS3 would have increased their sales to the level they have in 3 short months.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

That's fine, but that has little to do with the current trend. As badly as the PS3 launched, the 360 should have this console war already won. The fact that they're already breaking even in sales on a monthly basis with the PS3 after only a year is very telling. Three months ago, I could have got 100-1 odds that the PS3 would have increased their sales to the level they have in 3 short months.

And yet at the current world wide pace they won't ever catch the 360 or the Wii. That is one powerful Tsunami.

[Bee]

I don't know...they could catch up to the 360 in 6 or 7 years if they can keep the "tsunami" going.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

And yet at the current world wide pace they won't ever catch the 360 or the Wii. That is one powerful Tsunami.

I'm going to disagree with you on that point as well. I think it may take until sometime in 2009, but I do think the PS3 will surpass the 360 at that point. I think the major hurdle is obviously catching back up in North America. The PS3 will catch up in Europe sometime next year and will obviously win in Japan. If Sony can continue to win those two regions by somewhere between 150-300K units, it's going to put a lot of pressure on MS to keep a large margin going in North America. I'm not sure that MS will be able to keep that much of a lead in North America to offset those gains overseas.

The games in North America are coming next year, so that should resolve the gaming quantiy/quality problem. Another key for the PS3 in North America, like it or not, is the HD format war. Although the BR format holds a 2:1 movie sales lead, Sony really needs to finish off this format war by the end of the holidays next year. Any further than that could really hurt the PS3's growth potential.

[spleen1015]

Really, no one expected things to be the way they are now. Everyone thought that the PS3 would be the clear cut winner and the 360 would have just gained MS some ground. No one expected Nintendo to be in the picture at all.

So, regardless, this generation is a win for MS.

Yeah, you also said Lair was going to be a good game....

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

I'm going to disagree with you on that point as well. I think it may take until sometime in 2009, but I do think the PS3 will surpass the 360 at that point. I think the major hurdle is obviously catching back up in North America. The PS3 will catch up in Europe sometime next year and will obviously win in Japan. If Sony can continue to win those two regions by somewhere between 150-300K units, it's going to put a lot of pressure on MS to keep a large margin going in North America. I'm not sure that MS will be able to keep that much of a lead in North America to offset those gains overseas.

The games in North America are coming next year, so that should resolve the gaming quantiy/quality problem. Another key for the PS3 in North America, like it or not, is the HD format war. Although the BR format holds a 2:1 movie sales lead, Sony really needs to finish off this format war by the end of the holidays next year. Any further than that could really hurt the PS3's growth potential.

Maybe my math is off... but here goes:

If Sony outsells the 360 and Wii by 225k units a month in each of Europe and Japan... so that's 450k units a month of selling if we put the Wii and 360 just flat-out selling 0 units... it'll take a year and a half to get in the 15M units range world-wide... am I wrong here?

450,000 units*18 months = 8,100,000 units.
8,100,000 units + 6,730,000 units so far = 14,830,000 units.

Please someone tell me I'm not mathing properly.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

So, regardless, this generation is a win for MS.

Short-term win for MS? Yes, probably so. Long-term? Hard to tell. The quality control issues have caused some major PR hits for the 360. There's going to be lingering concerns on that for the rest of this console's lifecycle and most certainly questions when the new console comes along. With that said, I'm hoping that the RROD mess was a big wake-up call and that all companies in the console business avoid any issues like that in the future.

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Really, no one expected things to be the way they are now. Everyone thought that the PS3 would be the clear cut winner and the 360 would have just gained MS some ground. No one expected Nintendo to be in the picture at all.

Yeah, you also said Lair was going to be a good game....

Much like your first point in this post, most thought Lair would be a good game. With the library that the 360 has, I could point out plenty of bad games, but those games don't define the console, much like Lair doesn't define the PS3. There's plenty of good games on both consoles at this point. Bad games go ignored rather than define a console.