Why Xbox 360 is losing appeal to new customers.

[loves2splooge]

Basically it comes down to this.
The PS3 is winning because

- More bang for your buck (more features for less price)

- PS3 and 360 have a lot of overlap anyway

- (and to a lesser extent) PS3 has more exclusives (this is only a slight advantage in the marketplace because there are a lot more console gamers than there are 'core' pc gamers. Most people prefer to be playing on their couch and don't feel like hauling their desktop to their living room (if they have one that can play these games to begin with). Many gamers don't feel like going through lots of troubleshooting to get a game to work. They just want to pop a disc in and play. This is why games like Left 4 Dead sell so well on the 360. If you count "console exclusives", the 360 has the advantage.)

And at this point, if you are in the market for a 360, it's because
- You want to play with your 360-owning friends online (360 install base is 80+% greater than the PS3 install base in Americas). Though if you still haven't got a 360, then either this isn't important to you or you are just financially strapped for cash or you just simply don't want to pay $300 + $35-50/year for it.

- They like the greater convenience of communication with their friends on Xbox Live (ie. universal cross game chat. I believe PSN doesn't have it at the moment right? It's coming in the future but the fact that it took this long has probably hurt the PS3's appeal.)

- You want to play the 360 exclusives

- You like the controller (I have seen this reason be used)


If I were to go "NextGen" now as opposed to early 2009 (I was swamped with assignments, exams, etc. so that's why I didn't get it immediately after the price cut to $300 like many people did.), I'd still go with the 360 for the install base advantage (I know more people with a 360 than a PS3) but the PS3 would have definitely looked more appealing at $300 than at $400. Absolutely.