Xbox outsells PS in US July NPD (Is Pachter ever right about anything?)

[Dodece]

Pachter being right would be news. You can basically guess where the market is going by taking the opposite tact of what that supposed expert says will happen. Pachter is just doing par for the coarse another bad prediction.

That said the numbers are really interesting. Microsoft did not get unseated, and more importantly increased the margin of units on the market against Sony. More units in homes is more units in homes. The only thing Sony did in North America was not lose as badly as it had been.

The really tragic part of this equation was that North America is the strongest market for the PS3. That is where the most market sales have been. Microsoft has a two million lead in other regions, and Sony has almost slipped down to parity there. The almost certain conclusion is Nintendo will achieve total market dominance in Japan. Sony really needed to prove that the PS3 had the chops to overcome Microsoft in the key market for both companies. With a hundred dollar slash not doing it they probably will not come close for the rest of the year. Microsofts holiday lineup is just too strong. With the further price reduction the sales margin will probably grow.

Enter the Wii in the picture and the situation becomes dire. Nintendo is becoming so dominant that there might not be room in the market for a third major console. Microsoft has secured the second place, and shows no signs of giving it up. Sony gave it their best and it was not good enough even for a month. Factor in massive Nintendo dominance, and Microsoft being able to fend off Sony in North America and you have a PS3 disaster in the brewing.

This is a very important statistic, and it is actually quite damaging to Sony. They needed to do this and they could not. They either need Nintendo sales to soften, or Microsoft to blow this holiday season both highly unlikely. Without that they could spend this generation in a chronic third place or worse get muscled out entirely.