HEAD TO HEAD COMPARISON
I would like to compare Head to Head, how 3rd Party software sells on each system.
For the PS3 and Wii, this is simple, as the numbers from the above analysis clearly can be compared, due to the same launch period for both consoles.
However, for the X360, I would have to discount the fact that they had a year’s head start.
As you can see from the above table, before the launch quarter ending Dec 06, X360 has already sold 5.9 million consoles.
Basically, I would ONLY DISCOUNT 3rd Party Software sales made till the end of that Quarter (Sep 06).
The reasoning is simple: Gamers have either a limited time or budget to buy games. Therefore, one can not argue that the 1 year headstart will make those gamers purchase additional games above and beyond every other gamer who purchased the consoles at a later date.
To put it another way, if I was the “average” customer who purchased a X360 on November 05 and bought 1 game per quarter until the end of Sep 06 (total 4 games) – the games I would purchase from the Quarter ending Dec 06 to Jun 08 will not be more or less than a customer who purchased their console in Nov 06.
My total software purchase would be more, because of the earlier start date, but my purchase for the next 12 month (or whatever time period), would not be more or less than the average.
It is the same argument for the Wii and PS3. On average, those who purchased the consoles in Dec 06 will not necessarily buy more games than those who purchased in Dec 07 on a monthly or quarterly basis.
So the weekly, monthly or annual software sales going forward, should be fairly consistent, taking into account some seasonality and blockbuster releases.
Therefore, we can analyze on a quarter to quarter basis, how well 3rd party software (in total) sell for each platform.
