Amazon US October monthly bestsellers and general Amazon based discussion

[binary solo]

SWORDF1SH said:
I think if the X1 wants to get back the US, it needs this holiday. It will be next year when the PS4 price cut will shine and will increase the gap during the "pre-season".

And we can be pretty certain there will be a remodel and further $50 price cut for PS4 around this time next year. With talk of PS4 possiblky doing a pulling New 3DS it could be that a new and improved PS4 will slot in at $399 to up-spec and be relatively on par with NX and the lower spec'd PS4 comes in at $299, or maybe even $250 depending on whether SOny wants to run with 2 grades of PS4 long term or if they just want to clear out the lower spec'd version and only sell the NPS4. I just hope they don;t fragment the PS4 market doing that. I want all games to run on any PS4, it's just the graphics / re / fps settings that get lowered if you have an early gen spec'd PS4. I'm not interested in re-buying PS4.

In terms of what MS does with Xb one I think they need to decide what the wider MS senior execs and board of directors need to see from Xb one in order to allow MS to stayin the console game. Do they need to see Xbox making a profit, or do they need to see Xbox managing to achieve a decent install base AND  strongly compete for number 1 position in the USA? If profitability for Xb one will ensure a 4th Xbox then I don't think dropping Xb one below break even for another year is going to fly. If install base is key, and profitabiloty can be pushed back to late gen and next gen then I think we'll see some strong measures taken to boost Xb one sales this holiday. If Halo 5 doesn't give Xb one a strong win for October NPD then I think there will be some furrowed brows. I can imagine assurances being given that Halo 5 is the magic bullet fo Xb one in the USA and that once Halo 5 hits the real turnaround in fortunes for Xb one in  North America would happen. 

The mistake in thinking with Halo though is that Halo's player based did not increase in the 7th gen in the USA in-line with the increased install base. Xbox 360 install base nearly quadrupled (probably tripled after taking RRoD into account) but Halo only increased by 20% or so. That means Halo was never going to be a magic bullet for Xb one in the USA because 80% of the Halo player base is contained within the 15.7 million people in North America who bought the original Xbox. MS must be aiming for a minimum 20 million in sales for North America, which means something other than Halo needs to drive those sales past the 15 million mark.