Analyst: Xbox 360 price cuts not harming PS3
The latest NPD data, showing the sales figures for September, were released last week, and they showed a massive increase in sales for the Xbox 360 and Wii, while the PS3 stayed around the same level. The increase in Xbox 360 sales was universally attributed to the recent price cuts, but are those same price cuts likely to adversely affect the PS3 this holiday season?
The recent round of price cuts definitely helped the Xbox 360 sell in larger amounts last month, not only in the U.S. but also in Europe and Asia. But interestingly, the Wii experienced an even bigger jump in sales despite being the same price it always has been, and the PS3 didn’t drop like a stone despite being considered too expensive.
EEDAR’s director of analytical services, Jesse Divnich, fellow a-list crystal ball gazer alongside Michael Pachter, has studied the data and concluded that while price cuts are guaranteed to help a console sell in larger numbers, they don’t actually affect sales of the competing consoles.
In a report on Gamasutra, he claims that the PS3 actually saw a slight increase (0.1%) in sales. While that doesn’t compare to the 42% increase that the Xbox 360 managed, it shows that sales of the Playstation 3 stayed constant despite the price cuts.
Backing his claims that price cuts have no effect on competing consoles is data from July 2007 when Sony cut the price of the PS3. While the Playstation 3 experienced a 100% increase in sales, the Xbox 360 still managed a rise of 7% in that same month.
As Divnich expounds, this could indicate that competitors’ price cuts aren’t enough to tempt people coveting one console to switch allegiance. The high price of the PS3 is instead likely to just mean people will wait until price cuts bring the costs down to within their budget.
This could, of course, mean that the PS3 continues to comfortably add to its user base this holiday season. While the Xbox 360 and Wii will sell in greater numbers due to their lower price points, people who want a PS3 will just sit on their hands and be patient for a few more months.
I think it’s a fair assessment of what the sales figures show, but people won’t wait forever. I still maintain that Sony needs to drop the price of the PS3 within a few months or risk losing a fair number of potential owners to rival systems. And as everyone and his nan already seem to own a Wii, the Xbox 360 is likely to be the big winner in that case.
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47 Responses to “Analyst: Xbox 360 price cuts not harming PS3”
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October 20th, 2008
Pretty interesting… We can assume that this trend will probably be similar through the holiday season. The PS3’s sales will see growth over the next few months, but will not be as large as the 360’s or the Wii.
It seems that the PS3 will continue to slowly increase sales. The PS3 was continually winning before the pricecut. The price cut spiked the Xbox’s sales, but how long will it last?
October 20th, 2008
I wonder if we’re sposed to be sorry he’s gone?
Oh well good riddens.
Perhaps this early price cut of the 360 means that come xmas, everyone who wants a 360 already has a 360, so PS3 will enjoy larger sales. Either way, Season sales only represent a fraction of the annual sales (albeit important) and can be made up in other quarters.
October 20th, 2008
Wow . . . it’s really strange to hear you PS3 guys so scared.
Everyone remembers why MS quit the original Xbox right? It was too difficult to get the price down due to the stupid Hard drive.
Wow . . . looks like Sony might be in the same situation and have to quit this trojan horse of a system lest they lose 5 bln dollars in the next three years similar to Xbox1 . . .
October 20th, 2008
All this makes me feel is annoyance that I didn’t purchase my 360 after they slashed the prices.
October 20th, 2008
Johnathon, I’m not scared at all. I feel its just a shame that people are missing out on a Wonderful system simply down to price. The 360 is selling like it is simply down to its price. People aren’t bothered about the games, graphics, how many pixels per frame, HDD, they’re bothered about the price. This console war is simply about price, because Microsoft can afford to drop the price. Its about Quantity rather than quality. I Feel sorry that people are being conned to buy the 360. Its just a gimmick.
October 20th, 2008
I own both systems.. well on my 4th 360 (red fking ring of death).. i paid 599 form my 60 gig ps3 way back when and let me tell you… who cares who is selling more? The ps3 is a tighter machine.. more reliable, in my opinion a better library of games as of this xmas.. you get what you pay for… I still like my gears of war, but thats about it.. Just because honda sells a million Civics (360) a second it will never be a Ferrari (ps3)… well im done ranting and now have to return to my bluray movies
October 20th, 2008
I’m not so sure Bourne.
The systems are so similar in terms of games, it pretty much does come down to price (in my opinion
). There are some great ps3 exclusives, but then the same can be said for the 360.
Sony needs to slash the price and I think that’s all there is to it.
October 20th, 2008
@ Bourne_PSP,
Conned into buying a 360? What’s there to be conned about? It’s a fraction of the price of a PS3, most multiplatform games look better on 360, and it has some incredible exclusives.
Justifying the extra $$$ needed for a PS3 for a blu-ray drive and a handful of exclusives is impossible.
October 20th, 2008
Skashing the price will definatly help PS3 and i believe with a price cut, it will sell more the then xbox 360 and maybe even the wii. There are so many people waiting for a price cut and so many people are getting one this holiday. Althought, i can argue that PS3 is woth the price and is actualy easier on the wallet, most people and parents dont do the math. They think like” O ps3 is $399 and xbox 360 $199.”They see it as almost the same console and end up getting the cheaper one. Untill the day they find that you have to buy so many add ons to enjoy there console, They have already spent so much money, even more they they would have spent on buying a PS3 at first. Xbox 360 isnt cheaper, it just that people would rather go home with a console the same day then wait a month to save up for the next one. Even if they cant use it, they will be happy to say they have one and their mentallyit y is telling them that it was so great. ANyways. PS3 should lower their price by maybe $50 so it doesnt look like a major diffrence and bundle the 80gb core with a game. Please, bundling a game helps so much, even a cheap game like resistance. Call it the resistance bundle or even a warhawk or call of duty bundle wouldnt be so bad. But if they would lower it buy $50 and bundle a free game, plus on christmas, stores usally slash the price buy $50 and offer 1 or 2 games too. Any person coming by this deal would be a fool not to take it. Even if they dont take out the $50off the price, bundling a game or two would help so much.
October 20th, 2008
@ jay
Too true, you sed all that needs to be sed!
October 20th, 2008
Comment #9 nailed it. That’s the “con”, poor souls who buy that $199 X360 and only find out later (too late to return?) how much they didn’t get.
October 20th, 2008
“Comment #9 nailed it. That’s the “con”, poor souls who buy that $199 X360 and only find out later (too late to return?) how much they didn’t get.”
That’s right you don’t get Blu-Ray, internet, multimedia functions. All you can do is play games. Who wants a game console that can only play games??
October 20th, 2008
are you people complete and utter idiots? the red ring of death issue has been sorted since late 2007. any xbox 360 bought now is the same if not more reliable then the ps3.
the 360 plays games just the same if not a little better then a ps3. the only reason you would buy a ps3 is if you wanted a blu ray player.
October 20th, 2008
Sorry to comment again but @me
“Who wants a game console that can only play games??”
Dude thats like asking who wants a oven that can only cook food. only an idiot buys a games console for its extra features a games console is for gaming multimedia, Internet or even watching Blu-Ray movies can be done easier and better on a PC.
October 20th, 2008
Menech:
The Xbox 360 RED RING OF DEATH hasn’t been fix yet. The Xbox 360 was not fully developed just rush. PLAYSTATION 3 is the must have gaming system this holiday because is going to have so many hot exclusives plus a low price Blu-ray player. People still fear buying an Xbox 360 because the quality of the console is terrible. Plus this holiday is almost empty with just Gears of war 2 aka EXPANSION PACK and FABLE II. PS3 is the winner.
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=6148914691233368166
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/29118/microsoft-hit-with-another-xbox-360-rrod-lawsuit/
October 20th, 2008
@me
“All you can do is play games. Who wants a game console that can only play games??”
I do.
Just as I wouldn’t want to take a trip to space in a shuttle that was also made to drill to the center of the Earth. Just as I wouldn’t want a toilet that doubles as a sink. Just as I wouldn’t want a football that can be used to play basketball. I don’t want a games console that can do everything.
If I want bluray, I’ll get a bluray player, not a PS3 (because I don’t want a bluray player that does everything, either). If I want all those multimedia functions, I’ll get a computer.
And if I don’t care about games, I won’t get a games console.
The price of bluray in the PS3 is too much for most consumers to swallow right now, at least the hardcore gamers that want a games console that plays games, not a multimedia piece for their TV so they can watch movies or listen to music.
Every Christmas that passes without a price cut is a Christmas of parents getting other consoles for their kids, is another Christmas of people treating themselves to something more expensive than others would get them, and mark my words, most of these people don’t care one little bit if their GAMES console only plays GAMES.
October 20th, 2008
@Menech, “the red ring of death issue has been sorted since late 2007″ try telling that to a work mate who is onto his second 360 since feb this year.
As for a “games machine is for games” and nothing more mentality, imo that is quite a narrowminded view of things.
October 20th, 2008
Poor PS3 fanboys, still beating the old ‘RRoD’ horse…..
October 21st, 2008
Because Microsoft still can’t learn how to fix the shit they created. That is why everyone including game developer publisher owner fanboy haters journalist all talk about how Microsoft created the worst gaming console with the less technology aka TRASH.
October 21st, 2008
Ivan,
Go away, idiot.
October 21st, 2008
Seriously now, why on earth do people keep buying the 360 if it RROD’S on them? If my PS3 broke down once it would put into question whether it was worth getting another one (depending on how it breaks down, obviously if its my fault i would buy another one). But after 4 consoles and 4 RROD’s you have to ask yourself : Why did i pay to watch my system to spend more time at Microsoft than playing games?
October 21st, 2008
Cheaply made.Cheap price.It’s definitely a must buy console!But the issue here is Will my Xbox 360 last for 4-5yrs!!!!?????Xbox 360 for $199?eat sh*t b*tch!~ I work hard just to buy my PS3-sure it freezes sometimes when i play over 11hrs of play time,so here is the catch: IT’S STILL RUNNING PERFECTLY! I’m a HARDCORE GAMER. I DON’T WANT TO WAIT 3-4weeks to get a refurbished Xbox360….
I AM NOT A SONY OR MICROSOFT FANBOT BUT I WILL BUY XBOX360 AFTER A NEW MODEL IS OUT!<<<PEACE OUT!Gtg play Dead Space now.
October 21st, 2008
@ Bourne_PSP,
It says a lot for the PS3 if people are buying the 360 over it even with these supposed reliability issues.
Anyway, as much as you hate to admit it, the RRoD problem has been addressed and is no longer the massive problem it used to be. But please, go ahead and keep beating that dead horse if it makes you feel any better about your purchase. You obviously have some sort of insecurity if you continue to bash the 360 in order to make yourself feel better.
October 21st, 2008
Hairy it still comes back to price. People cannot afford the PS3, its not that they aren’t buying it due to lack of games. I think its amazing that the PS3 sells very well despite being the highest priced Console, and actually sustained its sales in N.A despite competition from the cheap-box please fix me. When Sony dramatically reduce the price of the console then we’ll see whose laughing. I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again : this console war is dependent on price rather than quality.
October 21st, 2008
LMAO
The PS3 fanboys are trying so hard…..and failing.
I have friends with XBox 360s & PS3s & wiis.
The XBox & PS3 look and sound identical, except the XBox has (by a country mile) the better selection of games.
The Wii definitely has the better ‘pick up & play’ games to share with a group of pals after a night out.
Who cares about the RROD now anyways, MS stand by their kit for 3yrs
(and if you haven’t figured out how to make a failing XBox go RROD by now you deserve to pay out).
Pity the rest haven’t the confidence to offer 3yrs guarantees (they should be standard amongst all CE kit over $50).
Maybe we’ll start to see why soon (blue lasers have a fixed – and in the case of the 1st gen, relatively short, lifetime).
Perhaps using a single console for games & movies will turn out to be a really expensive idea.
Anyhoo, I prefer PCs for games.
I’d far rather even a $150 graphics card every year than be stuck with pre-historic console tech.
October 21st, 2008
Hmmm, PS3 has no games? Who’s beating a dead horse now?
When PS2 & Xbox were competing against the GameCube where were all you “hardcore gamers” that didn’t like the DVD drive being included? Oh right, you were criticizing Nintendo for not being able to even play CD’s.
If my console failed once I’d never get another one. But maybe some people can’t admit they made a poor purchase. You always get what you pay for.
October 21st, 2008
@Bourne: I have a friend that went through about 4 Xbox’s. The driver stopped working on his last one, and the “Extended Warranty” ran out. He is going to get yet another 360 because he is locked in at this point. He bought a ton of games, Hard Drive, Controllers, Wi-Fi Adaptor, and some connector to make it display in 1080P (?)…. That’s why people keep buying a console that’s put them through hell. I wouldn’t… but that’s why some people do.
October 21st, 2008
thats clinically insane Barabee, Tell your friend to get laid, or even better a brain. He could sell it all and get a PS3
October 21st, 2008
@ EVERYONE
. . . I know this guy – he’s gone through 37 Xboxes, had to repurchase all of them because each one was out of its “extended warranty.”
I have all 8 consoles myself, and the Xbox 360 has the worst everything, I don’t even play the other 7 consoles the PS3 is so much better.
It doesn’t sound believable when I say it guys . . . why do you think we believe you when you say these things?
PS3 = old and busted
October 21st, 2008
When PS2 & Xbox were competing against the GameCube where were all you “hardcore gamers” that didn’t like the DVD drive being included? Oh right, you were criticizing Nintendo for not being able to even play CD’s.
—
I was…playing Wind Waker?
Even back then, I had a DVD player, and CERTAINLY a CD player. I didn’t need to play movies on my games console.
Also, last gen, it was more like the GC and Xbox going toe to toe, both seeing about 25 million, with the PS2 running away.
October 21st, 2008
Matt,
whether you had a DVD player or not isn’t the point. Most people did not have a DVD player when PS2 arrived on the seen.
If the 360 had blu ray and PS3 didn’t you 360 boys would be talking trash about how good blu ray is. That’s the problem, 360 boys can’t admit when something is better than what they have.
Funny how you “hardcore gamers” think that DVD is fine on your HD TV’s but yet game graphics are so important to you. There are people who want the best picture they can get for their high end TV purchase!
October 21st, 2008
PLEASE HELP ME WYLIE.
Help me to understand the benefit of throwing away all my DVDs, and purchasing all BD DVDs, when I could just wait and rent these through Netflix and watch them in HD, and with a higher bit rate on my Xbox.
BD is old and busted . . . like VHS. The world . . . er, the USA is digital now, done with clunky obtuse 15 year old optical format. I’ll take a flash-based download kiosk over a blockbuster any day of the week. Oops . . another benefit of that type of interface is the ability for a higher bit-rate since you aren’t reliant on a slow old and busted optical format to get your information down.
So please help me out here . . . HTF is BD “better than what I have.”
The entire premise of your argument if flawed.
October 21st, 2008
Not to mention the fact that it reads slower than my normal DVD drive in my xbox . .
We all know that means I don’t have to install games to my hard drive just to get them to operate correctly.
Enjoy your 5GB install for Bioshock PS3 fanbois . . . I’ve already beat last year’s game.
October 21st, 2008
Johnathon you’re a fool to think the world is ready for all HD/SD downloads. It takes far too long and people are always going to want a physical copy. Look at Music downloads. Digital downloads are immensly popular, yet theres still high demand for cd’s. You cant say Digital movie downloads are a feasable option to hard copies because they take far too long to download, you get hardly any extra content, suffer less quality and if things go tits up on your HDD (whatever your HDD maybe attached to, computer, console etc) you will kiss it goodbye.
October 21st, 2008
oh also Johnathon who in gods name (who has a life) will notice higher bit rate? If i asked my mom or dad, who love watching movies what or how higher bit rate affects movies they would look at me like an illegal alien. It may matter to you about a higher bit rate, but to normal people it means squat
October 21st, 2008
@Wylie
I REALLY hope that wasn’t all targeting me.
If I had a DVD player or not IS the point. I do not need the ability to play a DVD with my games if I already have a DVD player. The big difference is that DVD 1) wasn’t in a format war, even with laserdisc, at the time the PS2 was released and 2) wasn’t an addition that would make the PS2 the most expensive console ever created.
BR was both, so the PS3 offers me the ability to spend thousands of dollars upgrading from DVD to BR, as DVD did, but as an extra bonus, it made people decide not just if they were ready for HD, but if BR or HDDVD would win, and jacked up the cost a huge amount.
Your second paragraph is what gets me. Was that seriously to me? Even the Sony loyalists won’t talk about the high attach rate for the 360 that looks like an end-of-lifecycle attach rate, rather than a healthy mid-life attach rate. I questioned if the 360 could reach 30 million sold when it was at 25 million.
And you haven’t seen me talk bad about BR. I’ll say it was a bad choice to put it in the PS3, but that doesn’t make BR a bad format. I dislike BR, but its not because its in a console. I don’t hate UMD because of the PSP, either.
And graphics important? Sure, to an extent. PS graphics were good enough, though. Better is fine, but its not the be all and end of a game. I’d rather have a good story, wonderful gameplay, and a lot of fun with a game about Blue Dot and his rival Red Dot, who plans to take over 2D land than a beautiful, perfectly realistic game about a pear rolling down some stairs.
I play my NES on my HD TV.
Talk to me like I’m a fanboy if you want, but I have good things to say about all the consoles on the market (except the PSP, which I never really tried, but I know most fanboys don’t care about handheld consoles), and I have bad things to say about every single one of them, as well.
I consider myself a much more hardcore gamer than someone that cares more about graphics than anything, or cares more about if their console wins than knowing about the consoles and companies as a whole.
Now, earlier today, I was reminded of the little gem of Yoshi’s Cookie, which I’m itching to play again.
October 22nd, 2008
Matt- understand where your coming from, but you are the one who took a comment directed at all hardcore gamers and singled yourself out. Also I believe that the PS2 was the most expensive console ever when it was released.
Jonathan- obviously you CAN”T BE HELPED!
Who said anything about throwing away your DVD collection. Blu ray players (including the PS3) come with DVD upscalers. You have fun with your downloads, millions of others including myself will enjoy our physical media. As companies start charging for the extra bandwidth that comes with dlc my blu ray/dvd player will be cheaper.
Oh by the way, on your 5gb download for Bioshock. I don’t worry about game space on my hard drive. I have plenty since movies aren’t using it all up. Plus, if space becomes an issue I can buy a larger hdd and not over pay unlike the 360.
October 22nd, 2008
http://kotaku.com/5065781/microsoft-this-is-how-you-blow-your-ps3-lead-in-japan
Nope, no more RROD issues at all.
October 22nd, 2008
wylie – the ps2 was NOT the most expensive console ever produced.
do you guys just make this crap up as you go?
geez…
btw; good luck with your d/l of SOCOM…lmao..
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081021.wgtsocom1021/BNStory/PersonalTech
October 22nd, 2008
I guess there’s one way for Sony to spin this; the spike in number of Xbox 360s sold could be directly proportional to the number of Xbox failures that have occurred while Microsoft customers are getting fed up with waiting for their replacement to arrive…
Xbox 360 is the most poorly designed console I’ve ever come across, ever. I own one, and am sick and tired of the loud fan noise that occurs when I’m playing a game on it. I would also say the fan whines. I don’t get any noise at all from my PS3. Guess which system I buy multiplatform titles for?
October 22nd, 2008
the nintendo ds
October 22nd, 2008
the Xbox 1?
October 22nd, 2008
Kev- nice for you to pop in. Just curious, if the PS2 was not the most expensive mainstream console at it’s time of release than what was? If you are referring to a Neo Geo, that wasn’t mainstream. Everything posted on this site pretty much is about mainstream gaming, so I would think you would read it as implied.
October 22nd, 2008
wylie – skip it. the fact is you ONLY will accept the parameters YOU choose to fit your “the ps2 was the most expensive at launch” rant.
the PSX was launched to the MAINSTREAM japanese gamers (remember them? the ones you think “own” the gaming industry…) at around $700 USD.
it flopped horribly…worse than the ps3… hard to imagine, i know…
October 22nd, 2008
@kev
On the topic of flopping in japan until 3 months ago Xbox 360 was the laughing stock of gaming in japan selling less than half than the ps3
October 22nd, 2008
Kev- I agree to disagree. It wasn’t the real point of my post anyway, so why argue with you.
Also, I know you don’t own a PS3 so you wouldn’t have caught the problem with the article you posted but, the writer included his firmware update in how much time he spent downloading the game. Those are two different things. Besides I downloaded the update in about 20 minutes, not sure why it took him an hour. I have also read posts where the Socom download takes about 10-15 min. Annoying yes, but not an hour, not that big of a deal. The real problem from what I hear are the servers. Now that’s are real downer, not the downloading aspect.
October 22nd, 2008
BWAHAHAHAHA
http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/17931/PlayStation-3-Mag-Fallout-3-Looks-Better-on-Xbox-360/
These PS3 guys can admit the PS3 sucks . . why can’t you guys???
WHY CAN’T YOU GUYS??
for the love of . . . WHY???