I agree with the sentiment of the increases in most years, but this is no typical year.
a) Nov PS3 price cut
b) Halo 3 driving 360 sales in Sept....before a 15%/week decline in Oct
c) Those increases cited in the article were based on cheaper consoles...(i.e. the avg cost per console on avg is like $250/$335/$450). Last generation you had $300/$300/$200, then $200/$200/$150 (I think this was in 2002, the comparable year to 2007), etc, very quickly. Not sure how many gamers are petty enough to buy a PS3 at $500 or $400 rather than $600 or $500 last year. If you're going to spend that much on a console, may as well buy it early to get the longest gaming time out of it. The trade off for waiting for price cuts is you lose out on time to play the early games....
I'm expecting more like (NPD USA):
| Time | 4 weeks | 5 weeks |
| Console | November | December |
| DS | 850,000 | 2,250,000 |
| Wii | 1,000,000 | 2,000,000 |
| Xbox 360 | 675,000 | 1,625,000 |
| PSP | 475,000 | 1,250,000 |
| PS2 | 376,000 | 1,000,000 |
| PS3 | 375,000 | 825,000 |
| GBA | 100,000 | 225,000 |
I may be overestimating PS2 and underestimating 360 a bit, but we'll see. PS3 will sell 300k to 425k in Nov or I'll eat my hat.
Nintendo's numbers could be higher if they keep facing less demand in Japan - even after Wii Fit.
People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge.
When there are more laws, there are more criminals.
- Lao Tzu
