your mother on 26 February 2007
DIAR said:
The 360 had half the supply the Wii had at launch, So THAT is why you can't compare launches, this is due to the Nintendo making almost twice as much systems as the 360! Jeez.
Of course you can. What Microsoft managed to (not) put out in terms of units isn't Nintendo's or Sony's concern, issue, fault, problem, however you want to put it. You can say the same about Nintendo and Sony. Or any company.
It's like saying you can't bash Sony for its poor PS3 sales because they were unable to ship units to retail in large enough numbers. What are Microsoft and Nintendo supposed to do? Play goody-goody two shoes and say, "Kutaragi and company, although we are running a business, which is all about profitability, and we are in the cutthroat industry of videogames, and we would rather your Sony curl up and rot in hell, we can see you are having problems with manufacturing enough PS3 units ready in time for your launch. We think your console launch will not go very smoothly the way things are. Tell you what: Let's make the playing field level and fair. We'll stop ramping up production until you can get your console production capability in gear".
Or:
PRESS RELEASE: Nintendo of Japan has today announced they are temporarily closing down factories in China and Malaysia in an attempt to lower the number of Wii consoles being manufactured. It has been reported that Mr Satoru Iwata made this bold decision due to the fact the Xbox360 and PS3 have encountered numerous unrelated manufacturing problems, hampering the availability of these next-generation consoles.
"We think in order to truly see which one of the console manufacturers really have the winning system, that their sales should be compared to a 1:1:1 basis. In other words, we will not make more than the number of consoles each manufacturer was able to muster in the three months following their respective console launches, and then we can see who really sells the most." He continued, "Of course, we anticipate that both Microsoft and Sony are able to sort out their manufacturing glitches very soon, because our shareholders are furious that we have taken such a move when in fact we can produce many more consoles and kick the living shit out of the other consoles in terms of sales (and make a fortune while at it)."
Or Microsoft: "As we were unable to produce so many consoles during the Xbox 360 launch, we would appreciate it if both Nintendo and Sony play nice with us and cut down the availability of consoles so we can be compared fairly and squarely when people want to see who REALLY sold the most, the fastest. Oh, and buy Vista - it ROXORS!!!111", exclaimed Steve Ballmer.
That is about the "most ridiculest" comment - "you can't compare these consoles during launch" - my left testicle you can't. As far as I'm (or Nintendo, or Sony, or Microsoft are) concerned, it's about who sells the most. Numbers don't lie. It's people twisting statistics left, right and center that skew these numbers and for all argument's sake, you CAN compare consoles during this, and every single launch.
"OMFG Sony's PoS4 is selling 4x the amount of Nintendo Puus while the X1080(to the umpteenth power) is outselling them all by a factor of 19!"
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if it's because of manufacturing glitches, or lack of availability or manufacturing hurdles. If it's out there and people buy it, it's a sale. There are no points or 1/2 points for no-shows, delayed launches or missing console numbers, or three-point conversions due to mysterious blue diodes being stolen by leprechauns, nor will two-point safeties be awarded for red-ring-o-ramas plaguing console X. At the end of the day it's all about how many consoles were sold during a predetermined period of time (for that, check VGCharts' db and console comparisons - they sure as hell aren't making any exceptions because companies couldn't get their ass in gear in time for their respective launches. You don't see any asterisks on these charts asking viewers to "* take the Xbox's low initial three months of sales with a grain of salt, because MS could've sold much more IF they had more consoles ready.")
To wit, some data from the North American market, courtesy of VGCharts:
http://www.vgcharts.org/aconscomps.php?name1=Wii&name2=X360&type=0&align=0
http://www.vgcharts.org/aconscomps.php?name1=PS3&name2=X360&type=0&align=0
http://www.vgcharts.org/aconscomps.php?name1=PS3&name2=Wii&type=0&align=0
Note the lack of asterisks leading to disclaimers in the charts.
And yes, if comparing by the first three months since launch, both the Wii and the PS3 outsell the Xbox360.
If counting this past November-January, then the Xbox360 outsells the Wii, which outsells the PS3.
That's all there is to it.
