| misterd said: *sigh* I see lots of people failed basic math. 1 data point tells you nothing. 2 data points gives you a line, but not a trend. 3 data points begins to reveal a pattern. Maybe. A few dozen data points confirms the pattern. I can't believe the number of people willing to write off the 360 after one bad week. |
Most people are suggesting that the 360 will not do as well as previously anticipated because of its sales in 2007. It sold *very* poorly started in January of 2007, and sales have slowed consistently all year. Sales are at their worst point world wide -- this isn't a one-week issue, this is a 7 month issue.
The bigger point, however, is that Microsoft is bound and determined to do nothing about it. The RROD warranty was about as poor of a response as they could afford to their hardware issues. It was a business decision and MS determined that 1 billion and admission of disappointing reliability was better than the like (and otherwise inevitable) class action lawsuit settlement.
Microsoft is determined to keep their price up or to drop it a minimal amount. If I want to get a new 360, or a nearly new 360, I can get one in my area for $300 with a game and the owner claims about 15 hours of total use. A lot of owners bought the 360 for gears, played it for 15-20 hours, and decided they want to sell them. I live in a smallish city, and there are tons and tons of 360s available for a fraction of retail on craigslist. There are a lot of Wiis available too, but they're all $75 over retail or more.
I don't see the Xbox 360 anywhere but firmly in last place at the end of this generation. There's no way in hell they'll outsell the Wii and it's very likely that the PS3 will gain some traction in Q3/Q4 2008.
