Nidan said: Sony will have to outsell MS by 147,000 units per week for the next year to catch MS lead by the end of 2008, which means that if MS continues the same sales numbers during 08 as 07 they would have to be selling as much as the Wii. BINGO! And only the most diehard Sony fanboys could even conceive of this happening. At best Sony will catch up in late 2009, but by then there's a good chance people will be talking about the XBox 720 launch in 2010.
I would just say that this was a great BACK UP plan - their original plan produced an overpriced piece of hardware no one wanted.
While Australia is no more indicative of the whole market than my home town, the really telling number is the overall sales. Even with a $100 price drop, 2 new models, the BR advatage, and the strong branding of the PS name, Sony still couldn't beat out the 360. The sales of high ticket items tend to dry up fast after the holidays, and right now I don't think Sony has much more room to cut with the PS3.
Reports last year stated that MS would have either been in the black or come damn close were it not for the RROD issue. This year, they have cut the cost of the 360 with the new Falcon set (along with normal cost drops that occur with time), nearly doubled their user base, sold oodles of software AND don't have to deal with the RROD. The odds are very good that they'll be in the black this year, and wil have plenty of room to cut prices even further - maybe more than people are expecting.
At the moment, it doesn't appear that MS has as strong a lineup as Sony, but it's close enough that a curveball or two (like a delay or disppointment for a big Sony title, or a new 360 IP taking off) could change the balance.
Almost certain, and we should also start seeing some of those titles that have gone into development due to the bandwagon effect.
Agree with the first half, not sure of the second. I can see MS ending up between +5% over Sony, or -10% under it by the time MS switches to a new platform. Of course it is then possible for the PS3 to beat the 360 after the fact, as the SNES did to the Genesis.
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The price is stil going to be a big factor with the PS3. It simply puts a ceiling on their user base. Unless Sony is desperate, I think MS will hit the mass market prices more than a year ahead of them. That's going to make it hard for Sony to keep up and still maintain a profit.
I think what we will see is a NA market that is in MS's camp, and Europe/Japan in Sony's. I think this will encourage MS to write off Japan in the near future and play hardall in the EU, hoping to do there in the next gen what they did this time in NA.