Has it gone unnoticed that, not only has a 360 SKU dropped in price lately (something is pushing sales up), but that, just like last year, the release of major sports franchises (and upcoming American Football season in the USA) has coincided with the increase in 360 sales?

The 360 has, many times, been heralded as the best platform for these franchises (although the PS3 versions may finally catch up this year, as far as the reviews are concerned). Do sports titles move consoles, or is it just coincidence... several years running?

Is there an associated hike in HDTV sales this time of year (in the US) as well?  New TV season, Football season, etc.?

We Americans do love FOOtBALL.

So true. I can't even fathom the amount of money Americans dump into pro-sports clothing, etc. each year, let alone giant televisions to watch their heroes on. American Football is just as big in America as Football/Soccer is in the rest of the world -- I wouldn't be surprised if it drove people to purchase a giant TV and new HD console now and again.

Heck, people keep buying new copies of Madden, even though there are 10 zillion used copies, all decent games I might add, just a year or two old in the bargain bins at every game store. Sports fans are addicted to the latest team rosters, stats, and yep, the very best football watching/playing experience (read: HDTV and a HD console version of Madden or NCAA).

I doubt this particular issue has as much effect on the rest of the world as the American market -- and the charts seem to state exactly that. American console sales jump every year, for a good month, around this time -- always on the preferred sports console (currently the 360, it seems).

Price cuts also start to happen around this time of year -- I think the sales forum focus tends to be on the price cut, rather than the football, but I'm not really sure the price cut is all of it, or even a majority. Some folks will claim "Wii must have had shortages in America for those weeks!" -- I'm going to claim that the "shortage" is that the Wii's "Madden All-Play '09" isn't what football fans are into -- they want the real thing. And beer, and pretzels, and lots of HD blitzes and 4th-and-goal.

intresting, anyone know if FIFA and PES affect console sales here in Europe?

@groucho, it very well could be i am really surpised they dont try for a real port even of the ps2/original xbox version(last game for the original xbox by the way).

I pretty sure they did last time arround as PES08/FIF08 was the first versions of the game available on the PS3, this time around I'm not sure. Looking here the stats here, FIFA 08 caused a 19% increase on PS3 in Europe in the same week that Halo 3 was released. Byt the Time PES08 came out, the 40GB had arrived so sales had boosted loads for PS3 for that anyway.