T.Rexington said:
bouzane said:
T.Rexington said:
I think a more definitive answer can be had by the end of this year during the holiday season. I think Wii will be the only one to do it because it's near the end of the gen and I can't imagine the 360 or PS3 gaining around 30-50 million sold consoles in 2 years, which is probably what is left.As for the PS3 vs 360 war, I've seen the claims again and again but the fact is that the xbox 360 continues to sell ahead of the PS3 year every single year. With MS ready to unveil a new $99 console strategy, it's gonna be that much tougher for the PS3 to get ahead, especially since MS holds the title for biggest exclusives for the rest of the year. |
I take a couple of issues with your post Mr. Rexington. Firstly, 2 years remaining in the life-cycles for the PS3 and 360 would only give them until mid-2014. Seeing that we will most likely see their successors introduced in late 2013 I see no reason as to why they are guaranteed to be discontinued that soon. As I have stated previously, Sony never discontinues legacy hardware until the demand for the product completely dries up. Why on earth would Sony discontinue the PS3 a year after the PS2, especially considering the fact that the PS3 is finally a profitable system (in terms of total annual hardware and software sales)? Also, the PS3 has outsold the 360 what, 3 out of the last 4 years? The exception being 2011, the year of the PSN outage and Kinects dominance and even then it was basically a tie). The $99 360 comes with a two year, $360 contract. This probably would have been a very popular product early in the 360 lifespan but we can not guarantee it will be successful this late in the generation. How receptive will a casual gamer be to a system with a 2 year contract when the WiiU launches in a few months and (presumably) the PS4 and Trinity / Delta in 2013? Finally, exclusive games have little effect on the hardware sales of established consoles and I highly doubt many people will be swayed from purchasing a PS3 because of Halo 4 (although it looks like it's shaping up to be fantastic).
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I don't see a new console for either one in 2013 just because we still have big products coming out next year, too many as a matter of fact. Again, the 360 continues to sell enough to stay ahead. It continually creates a gap. The only way the PS3 can truly outsell the 360 is through MS discontinuing their console because of the next xbox, even then the 360 itself has just been so much more successful than the original xbox. I don't see MS just putting the 360 away like they did with the original xbox.
How will the casuals react to a $99 360 with a 2 year monthly fee when the Wii U release? If the Wii U is $99, no chance for that bundle, but I seriously doubt Nintendo will charge as cheap as they did with the original Wii, plus if the 360 sales really do get affected, you know the PS3 sales will take a dip as well, but customers will react to a cheap route to the 360. Especially during the holidays. Then you have limited edition consoles which may not have a great impact, but they manage to sell a bit and boost sales the month that they're out. Fans and collectors will be buying the Halo 4 console and boost 360 sales.
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When you say that the 360 "continually creates a gap" it's almost as if you're implying that the 360 has been outselling the PS3 on a regular basis. The PS3 has outsold the 360 by 1.2 million units so far this year and Sony really hasn't done anything yet. Again, the PS3 has more to gain from price cuts, Sony has a long history of supporting legacy consoles (unlike Microsoft which discontinued the Xbox despite healthy sales before the 360 launch), Sony also targets developing markets more strongly than Microsoft and they appear to be introducing a new Slim model later this year. About the $99 360 + contract. You do realize that in most markets you're going to have difficulty selling a cell phone with a two year contract, let alone a game system. I think the marginal savings, combined with a multi-year contract may drastically limit the appeal of the system. So to summarize:
- The gap is only 2 million
- The PS3 is currently outselling the 360
- The PS3 will likely receive a new model / price cut this year
- The PS3 stands to gain more from a new model / price cut
- Exclusive games have little impact on hardware sales to begin with, let alone this late in their life-cycles.
Finally, did you just insinuate that the WiiU may launch at $99 because the Wii did? You do realize that the Wii did not debut anywhere near $99 and the WiiU absolutely will not debut at a price even approaching $99? I really hope that was a typo.
