NA Sales. May 17th

[Sullla]

ZenfoldorVGI said:
I guess we can write off that "3 month hardware increase" for the launch of GTAIV, which surprisingly has had a much smaller effect on consoles sales than anyone predicted.

I blame the hardcore gaming market becoming more niche.

Actually... I'm starting to think that there WAS a hardware increase, only it was so spread out and gradual that we didn't really notice it - and assumed that this was the normal sales pattern for the consoles. Remember how high 360 and PS3 sales were all throughout February, March, and April? Quick recap of worldwide averages:

Feb PS3 184k/week, 360 129k/week
Mar PS3 181k/week, 360 143k/week
Apr PS3 163k/week, 360 127k/week

These were both vastly higher than in 2007's early months of the year, remember. Perhaps now sales are simply falling back to their natural non-holiday sales levels. 50k weekly sales in America are probably normal for PS3 and 360, in periods with no big releases. (Sales are still elevated in Europe, and will likely continue to go down for some time.)

Obviously it's just a guess, but there may be some validity to it.