Shadow1980 said:
Oh, most definitely. Software almost never gives a boost longer than one month (the only exceptions I can think of are Smash and Mario Kart for the Wii back in 2008; FFVII for the PS1 back in 1997 probably counts, too). But like I said earlier, price cuts can and often do boost sales for months on end. The PS2's first price cut boosted sales by at least 40% for about a year. The PS3's first price cut gave an even bigger boost percentage-wise (though granted it was at a higher price point and it had really bad sales prior to that first $400 SKU). This is the first time a PlayStation system got only a $50 drop for its first price cut so the effects might not be as dramatic, but is should provide a solid boost to sales at least until next October, and by that point Sony may be ready to drop the PS4 to $300, which would be consistent with historical norms. The PS1, PS2, Xbox, GC, and 360 (and maybe also the SNES and Genesis, though I lack exact dates for their price cuts) all had their second price cuts about a year after the first; the Wii only had one price cut in its prime while the PS3 had a 22-month gap between the drop to $400 and the drop to $300 (which was when the Slim was introduced) and the N64 had a 17-month gap between its first and second price cuts. While the XBO will probably have a very good October showing, I still think we're a ways off from seeing it really hit its stride. Both the original Xbox and the 360 has a noticeable growth problem, taking multiple price cuts to get any decent growth to annual sales, and the XBO looks like it might follow suit. Even after a reduction from $500 to $350 after Kinect being unbundled and the core system getting a $50 price cut, it's still lagging behing the PS4. Even with Halo it's looking to be a close month. But I have a feeling that we'll see a $300 XBO Slim released in summer or fall next year, and if so the following year or so will probably be the XBO's best months sales-wise. By that point it'll probably have no hope of catching up to the PS4 in the U.S., but it should amass pretty good sales in its best market. |
I think the effects of a $50 price cut has been undervalued. PS3 had a $100 price cut and then went from 52k a week to almost 100k a week. Halo ODST helped 360 from 53k a week to 70k, a mainline Halo should make that 80k-90k imo. The Wii had a $50 price cut at the very end of September, going from 70k to 92k to 125k. It is definitely hard to predict with the PS4 though.
2009 Wii, 360, PS3, PS2, DS, PSP
| August | 277,400 | 215,400 | 210,000 | 105,900 | 552,900 | 140,300 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September | 462,800 | 352,600 | 491,800 | 146,000 | 524,200 | 190,400 |
| October | 506,900 | 249,700 | 320,600 | 117,800 | 457,600 | 174,600 |
| November | 1,260,000 | 819,500 | 710,400 | 203,100 | 1,700,000 | 293,900 |
| December | 3,810,000 | 1,310,000 | 1,360,000 | 333,200 | 3,310,000 |
654,700 |
