thanks man

I doubt it just because it's not normal practice.  I work in retail - senior retail where major deals are agreed and executed, not stores.  The Walmart example is simply using something as a loss leader for a particular hot device.  That tends to be on an individual basis.  We're talking multiple same promotion deals across multiple retailers during the peak trading period for a lot of electronics- that's normally vendor funded in part.  I doubt MS would cover it all but it would be very odd for them to cover nothing.

Of course, unless it's made public we'll never know.  But I seriously doubt those deals were fronted fully by the retailers themselves.

The best post in the this thread... thanks dude.

HOLY Crap.... 500,000k gap... OMG... Did not expect that (2009 point of view)

so has that guy that asserted 100% (insider knowledge) that the xbox360 will sell 1 million more this year than ps3 said what his insider knowledge was yet?

Microsoft doesnt have infinite money.... They have a HUGE cash reserve though...

Agreed they are not 100% accurate but those 900k came from Sony's statement for NPD for the month of November. And I will keep coming into threads until the PS3 doesn't get matched when looked at Sony's statement or NPD numbers. I would do the same if the 360 or PS3 was undertracked or overtracked as well.

Well in PS3s defense, everywhere but in the united states 360 is actually cheaper (yes the 250gb non kinect model). Sure its cheaper in united states too if you count the other models, but we all know this is the main model.  Price is a huge factor, if 360 would lower price by $50 on all models the sales would skyrocket.

That said i think M$ has been doing the best job with their console throughout the hole generation, got the best games early and always kept the attach ratio high. Sure Wii has sold a lot more, but how many games have the Wii sold per unit?

Sony has better first party though, i give them that, but it is only really relevant at the start of the generation, if you haven't picked up a PS3 by now chances are 1 game is not gonna change your mind. Early when there are not many games to play this is a huge factor, in fact i bought PS3 only because of MGS4. In retrospect a huge mistake and since i already had 360 and the game was a dissapointment. Now there have been a few games i gotten on PS3 that was exclusive, but when there are about 20 games every year i want to play and i got time for maybe 10 i miss a lot of games. 9 out of 10 games i want are on both platforms so...

So pre adjustments the PS3 is gonna win. Good.

I think it's more deserving of getting a winning Year than 360 or Wii. Especially for 2011.

Interesting I took a look at last year December compared to this year. Last year the week before Christmas and the Week of Christmas both sold more than Black Friday week in the US. This year week before Christmas was short of Black Friday week by 200K.  If week of Christmas trends similiar to last year and this year VGC will have the 360 falling short by 150K.