The 360 a software monster? The Wii a software wimp? I don't think so...

[theRepublic]

WereKitten said:

@OP

The graphs show much more pronounced falls and fluctuations than what I would expect when dividing by an integrated quantity.

That's what the software "total sales" you mentioned are, right? The total sales of software for that console over its entire history.

Website-related question: where can I access the sales data in a spreadsheet-friendly format?

The software total is the total amount of software sold up to that point in time.  I'll give an example of part of my spreadsheet for the 360.

Date	Week	Weekly Hardware	TWO	Total Software	WBP
11/25/2005	1	352,952	352,952	1,450,984	0.24
12/2/2005	2	94,972	800,876	1,869,658	0.43
12/9/2005	3	333,422	1,582,222	2,145,203	0.74
12/16/2005	4	164,562	2,528,130	2,413,142	1.05
12/23/2005	5	133,939	3,607,977	2,725,795	1.32
12/30/2005	6	95,270	4,783,094	2,984,774	1.60

As you can see, both TWO and Total Software increase over time.  Most of the year, TWO increases faster than Total Software.  During the holidays, Total Software outpaces TWO.  That is why there is a rise and fall.

It does appear that the bumps are going to get smaller over time, but we won't know for some time.

I also expected a smooth graph that approached a limit over time, but I forgot that the holidays are such big time of the year for software.  The holidays also have a smaller effect on TWO, because those console are just bought, so they only add one week each to the TWO.  Older consoles are what really drive up TWO.

As for your last question, I don't think that exists.  It took me a lot of time to collect all the data for this analysis.

By the way, does anyone know how to post spreadsheet data into a post without having to reformat it?