UK Xbox 360 sales up 40%

[Reasonable]

Mistershine said:

Reasonable said:

As for 360 I personally don't judge it as having a true lead on PS3 at all.  It just released first... but time adjusted they're tracking the same.

You don't say hey, that Panasonic sells way better than that Samsung if it released a year earlier and time adjusted their sales are equal - you normally decide they have same sales profile and expect the Samsung to track the Panasonic

 

That doesn't make sense. A lead is a lead, regardless of how it came about. The Panasonic/Samsung analogy is not really the same. The number of TVs/DVD players sold to consumers is not really as important as the number of consoles sold, as it has no affect on DVD releases for each system. Warner for instance can't say that they will only release a movie for Panasonic DVD players and not Samsung as both are interchangable from a consumer point of view. The same cannot be said of consoles.

Actually I can assure you it does make sense - which is why you're seeing analysts, etc. taking issue with 360 sales for just this point.  For 360 to be seen as beating PS3 it needs to be tracking ahead of it in actual growth terms not because it released earlier.  Look at it this way - you leave for a destination 1 hour before me and take 4 hours to get there.  I also take 4 hours.  If we're being measured on how long it took to get to the destination we drew.  PS3 is selling essentially the same as 360 but one year behind.  Unless things change then they're seen as even in terms of rate of sale, etc.

I work in retail demand forecasting.  Trust me, you take the WW sales and time adjust and they are identical.  Wii is actually selling more and pulling ahead.

This is also why the expectation from 360 fans that developers would abandon PS3 was crazy.  Developers track rate of sale against lifetime of console and they could also see that PS3 was selling the same as 360 and there was no reason to expect it not to sell games just as well - as COD4, AC, DMC4, etc. have all proven. 

If 360 had sold 20 M consoles after 24 months and PS3 8 M after 12 then 360 would be judged to be outperforming it.  When they both sold approx the same in their first 12 months then there is no 'true' lead as I stated.

Or maybe you think its a coincidence that analysts, retailers and other observers are making same comments as me regarding 360 not really making the most of its earlier launch (and with no competition from PS3 or Wii either)?