Why is Xbox so Strong in Americas ?

[psrock]

Squilliam said:

Well lets see:

Is it because the Xbox was dominant? No, the PS2 was dominant in America pretty much like everyone else. So therefore the sales of the Xbox 360 in America are the result of good actions taken by Microsoft. You can talk until you're blue in the face about how 'Sony screwed up' but even so someone else has to pick up the ball if the star player drops it and then do something with it.

Microsoft just did considerably better. I still remember talk of how PSN was broken pretty much at launch and required a patch to fix it. Price alone doesn't explain why the PS3 is behind because at the present time the average sale price is $266 vs 333 so 2/3rds of Xbox 360s and PS3s sold were at the same price. Eliminate the 1/3rd of Arcade sales and the Xbox 360 is still ahead.

So why?

Microsoft simply offered the services and features better sooner or not replicated at all. America is a large market and multiplayer is important whereas PSN updates come out of Japan which doesn't see such importance. This is why features which have topped the most wanted PSN improvement list 3 years running still haven't been added. Now when you want to play with friends, chances are you'll find them on Xbox Live so chances are you'll buy an Xbox 360 to play with them. If you mainly play Sony exclusive titles and are a PS lover (no shame if you are) it isn't as apparant because you notice only some general features missing. However if you play 2nd tier games online you'll notice the experience is considerably better throughout on Live.

The real question which should be asked is why the PS3 is so strong in America? Probably had people had perfect knowledge in 2006/2007 that games like GTA IV etc would all appear on the Xbox 360 as well we wouldn't be talking about the PS3 as a viable platform in America. The PS3 only survived on peoples assumptions. The assumption at the start that it would be another all destroying platform so the games were ported or developed exclusively on the PS3 on this assumption and systems were bought based on those assumptions.

 

 

The only problem is, when Sony messed up Nintendo became dominant in the US, not the 360. I will give it up for MS for being successful in America but they are far from being dominant.

On your second point to why PS3 survived, I guess you forgot RROD.

The 360 had the games, the online, the support while the PS3 was always too expensive and no support. The PS3 was called a major disaster from Times magazine, but MS allowed them to stay alive because they created some shady hardware so they can come out first. I could have bought a 360 in 2006, but waited because I was scared the 360 would break on me.