Microsoft Xbox 360 Sales Plunge 60% As Problems Mount

[davygee]

ckmlb said:
MS was actually rewarded for rushing a console out. Their one year lead which is most important against the PS3 is paying off. Even though MS has made a defective console it has still sold well enough...

 

I agree that MS have given themselves an advantage by releasing the 360 12 months earlier than the other 2 consoles, but their sales this year are suffering because of the rushed product IMHO.  The 360 should be seeing better sales this year than they have been.  As I fully expect the PS3 to have much better sales next year than this year and most of us expect the PS3 to sell similar to what the 360 did in it's first 12 months with approx. 7m units sold by the end of the year.

There are 2 major problems for the 360.  The first is the RROD problem which as rumours are going are an inherent problem with the motherboard in all of the first 12m units produced and shipped (the number may be higher) and this will come to haunt them for the next few years yet.  The second problem is the price of the console.  IMHO, they should have reduced the price of the 360 well before now.  They have had the console on the market WW for around 20 months now without a pricecut.  If they cut the price 6 months ago, they could have had a much large user base by now.  They are now relying on Halo 3 and a pricecut sometime before Xmas to get the sales up, but at the moment, they will be overtaken by the Wii in the next month and are still only a "ball hair" over 10m units sold (god only knows how many of these include recalled and replaced units).  This is the magical number that they said would be sold within the first 12 months of the 360 being sold.