How well is the 360 selling, really?

[Ryanwb]

Would you believe it is being outsold by the Playstation 2?

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060611-7030.html

Maybe Sony's demise has been exagerated and Microsoft's spin doctors have done their job well

 

[Chaplin]

Why is that surprising? With the way the economy is going (gas, etc.), why is it unusual that the system that has more software and still has good graphics is outselling the new system that is more than twice the price?

 

[vince56]

I'm a huge video game addict and would totally buy the X360 if they made a few games for it I was interested in. FPS games, medival RPGs, & sports games just don't cut it for me. There's barely any games for it & most fall into those three categories.

 

[D-Dogg]

I'm a huge video game addict and would totally buy the X360 if they made a few games for it I was interested in. FPS games, medival RPGs, & sports games just don't cut it for me. There's barely any games for it & most fall into those three categories.

What kind of games do you like? A few examples please...

 

[Shane]

Would you believe it is being outsold by the Playstation 2?

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060611-7030.html

Maybe Sony's demise has been exagerated and Microsoft's spin doctors have done their job well

Sony's demise will start at the release of teh PS3 IMO. No way is that thing going to sell like the 2 or the 360 IMO with a freaking price tag of 600.00 Thats unreal for a gaming only machine. Especially one that is lkely to be no better than the 360 which can be had for 200.00 less.

 

[vince56]

What kind of games do you like? A few examples please...

Ninja Gaiden (when the sequel comes out, it'll be on the X360 and then I'll probably have to buy one )
Crimson Skies
God of War
Katamari Damacy
Ace Combat
Soul Calibur
GTA
Knights of the Old Republic
the Jedi Knight series
X-men Legends
Prince of Persia
NFL2k5 (madden doesn't even come close, we've discussed this ad nauseam )

I'm a big fan of 3rd person action games. The only one I've seen so far on the X360 is the new tomb raider, and I could get the same game on PC or current gen Xbox.

 

[Evil Ash]

Sony's demise will start at the release of teh PS3 IMO. No way is that thing going to sell like the 2 or the 360 IMO with a freaking price tag of 600.00 Thats unreal for a gaming only machine. Especially one that is lkely to be no better than the 360 which can be had for 200.00 less.

The $600 price tag isn't going to be around for all that long. The 1st 2 runs for any videogame system people are going to be buying the product no matter the cost (i.e. people buying the 360 on eBay for $3000). They'll drop it after that time.

There are waiting lists already for preorders in stores selling it.

Not to mention you have new technology involved (unlike the 360 which even though I have one will admit using DVDs was a mistake). Like all technology it will go down in time.

The smartest thing sony is doing is to continue making games for the PS2

 

[Evil Ash]

Ninja Gaiden (when the sequel comes out, it'll be on the X360 and then I'll probably have to buy one )
Crimson Skies
God of War
Katamari Damacy
Ace Combat
Soul Calibur
GTA
Knights of the Old Republic
the Jedi Knight series
X-men Legends
Prince of Persia
NFL2k5 (madden doesn't even come close, we've discussed this ad nauseam )

I'm a big fan of 3rd person action games. The only one I've seen so far on the X360 is the new tomb raider, and I could get the same game on PC or current gen Xbox.

Dead Rising comes out in August that would fill into your preferences but yeah as of now there really isn't much out in that genre for the 360.

 

[Ryanwb]

Not to mention you have new technology involved (unlike the 360 which even though I have one will admit using DVDs was a mistake). Like all technology it will go down in time.

I disagree..... they released it before the technology had been perfected (agreed upon) and they have already announced they will release the new hardware later this year for another $100.00. (it's a USB connection). This basically will force everyone to purchase one to play the new games. From a marketing standpoint it's brilliant, you basically sold a $600.00 unit to the public (The Premium Console at $499.00 plus the $100.00 HD-DVD unit) with nobody really making that connection. While Sony is putting their unit out with an all in one package at basically the same price.

Great Marketing by XBOX and from the rumors I've heard with Sony's system, they could have 2 years in the market before the PS3 even hits stores

 

[Evil Ash]

I disagree..... they released it before the technology had been perfected (agreed upon) and they have already announced they will release the new hardware later this year for another $100.00. (it's a USB connection). This basically will force everyone to purchase one to play the new games. From a marketing standpoint it's brilliant, you basically sold a $600.00 unit to the public (The Premium Console at $499.00 plus the $100.00 HD-DVD unit) with nobody really making that connection. While Sony is putting their unit out with an all in one package at basically the same price.

Great Marketing by XBOX and from the rumors I've heard with Sony's system, they could have 2 years in the market before the PS3 even hits stores

The main problem is they are running out of room on the disks.

The problem comes as a direct result of HD being so emphasized. Even games like God of War and Ninja Gaiden (both around 7 gigs) were pushing the amount of data compressed to the max on last generation systems. Now they want to add HD quality sound, picture, and CGI cutscenes onto the disk ... the only way that they would be able to do that is to massively compress files which leades to framerate issues, long loading times, etc. Imagine forcing people that already bought 360s to buy an HDDVD addon in order to play games like Ninja Gaiden 2, Halo 3, etc ... it would be a PR disaster

Is it risky to include a new media? Absolutely, Sony (like all game console creators) are losing a ton of money on this and if the Blu Ray doesn't catch on (although all signs point that it will) they could be in some serious trouble. Then again they tried it out with PS2 and it seemed to work out.

Of course we won't really know until it comes out in November

 

[Ryanwb]

Imagine forcing people that already bought 360s to buy an HDDVD addon in order to play games like Ninja Gaiden 2, Halo 3, etc ... it would be a PR disaster

This is exactly what they are going to do......

http://gear.ign.com/articles/705/705817p1.html

 

[Evil Ash]

This is exactly what they are going to do......

http://gear.ign.com/articles/705/705817p1.html

from that same article ...

Competition with the PS3 is an obvious reason, however, it is highly unlikely that the 360 HD-DVD will do anything more than movie-playback, as hardware add-ons have traditionally been dramatic failures when they are required for games.

 

[Krangodnzr]

Xbox isn't selling in Japan though...

Which a lot of Xbox enthusiasists seem to miss. Japan is a huge gaming market, and if a system flops in Japan, it will probably not make it very far.