Is the PS3 selling badly? Why do you think it is/isn't?

[Final-Fan]

WiteoutKing said:

Final-Fan said:

FishyJoe said:

Final-Fan said:

The PS3 shouldn't lose developers to the 360, for instance, because it is in fact selling better than the 360. It will probably lose developers to the Wii, though.

Developers could really care less about weekly sales. It's all about installed base. The Wii and 360 have 6+ million more potential customers each to sell games to.

Well, true they don't care about weekly sales. And, true, they care about installed base. But they also care about FUTURE install base. They want to know where sales will be a year or two from now, when the game they are going to make will actually hit shelves.

So they do, actually, care about sales, as an indicator of future install base. If the PS3 and 360 sales retain their proportions to one another, the PS3 will overtake the 360. And it will then have a larger install base. Which, as you say, developers care about.

If they retain their current (let's say, last three months) proportions to each other, the PS3 would be lucky to pass the 360 in four years, let alone ever. Four years is WAY too long for developers to sit on their thumbs waiting.

First off, the "let alone" item should be more extreme. "I don't want to spend $400 on a PS3, let alone $500!"

To address your argument: I said "proportions". Proportions =/= numbers. If sales quadrupled for Thanksgiving/Christmas, that 20K lead becomes 80K. Now it's not so long, is it? And sales are likely to go up over time as well. Also, even if the PS3 only had a 20K lead forever, that would still be less than 3 years.