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HappySqurriel on 20 August 2009
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Max King of the Wild said:
HappySqurriel said:

Over 100 Million consoles have been sold so far this generation representing roughly 60% of the console sales that were achieved last generation and it is pretty safe to say that we're close to (or have passed) the point where half of all consoles sold this generation will have been sold. Being that 80% of consoles sold last generation cost $200 or less, and the PS3 lacks the exclusive content or popularity of the PS2 to drive sales at $300, I think it is fair to say that reporters and analysts have overstated the impact that the slim will have.

 


I'm willing to bet there is a greater increase of console sales this gen than there was last gen from the gen before. Also, only one console so far is at the price sweet spot... and it ain't doing too hot. I'd like to see how a PS3 and Wii can sell at the same price. Also, only one console last gen went for longer then 5 (?) years... This gen all three will be doing that... basically what I'm saying is, last gen means shit in this situation.

 

There is no question that there has been a lot of growth this generation, but by the end of this year 70% as many consoles will have been sold this generation as compared to the previous generation; and most of the dedicated gamers who are the most likely to spend more than the "mass market" price will own one or more consoles. What this means is that most of the remaining sales this generation will come from traditional late adopters, new gamers, and from multi-console owners. Now, Sony doesn't have much to really attract attention from any of these market segments because late-adopters may not have the set-up to support the PS3, new gamers have different values than the dedicated group of conventional gamers the PS3 currently targets, and the similarity between the library and features of the PS3 and XBox 360 hurt multi-console sales potential; and (on top of that) late adopters, new gamers, and multi-console owners are potentially more price sensitive because they don't value the system to the extent that a traditional early adopter would.

This isn't to say that the PS3 will not benefit from the price reduction, it most certainly will, but the benefit will mostly come from attracting people away from buying an XBox 360 rather than attracting people who have no intention of buying a console anyways.

To put it another way, if you look at the sales of the systems from January to March of 2010 you will certainly see the PS3 taking a bigger share of the market but it will probably not be the drastic shift as expected by some people.