Azzanation said:
Come now Cerebral, if you are going to make claims of RROD increasing 360 sales, can you prove it rather than just randonly make up numbers? RROD was covered by warranty, so any one buying a new console while still under warranty sounds alittle unbelievable. Also dont act like the PS3 had a clean bill of health, they also had there fair share of issues like the Yellow Light problems and the firmware update that bricked systems. Those PS2 owners went on to buy a Wii or 360 at launch, not all of them waited for PS3, another speculation of yours. I knew many gamers who jumped from PS2 to 360 just like i know many gamers who jumped from 360 to PS4. Whoever holds the markering strenghts wins the audience. Also you forgot to add that the 360 was also making billions off Live Subs which the PS3 didnt have including the fact it sold more software and accessories etc. |
MS Spent 1.15 billion on the RROD issue. That 1.15 billion was split between fixing broken units, and fixing machines already in stock. https://www.computerworld.com/article/2542455/xbox-360--red-ring-of-death--costs-microsoft-more-than--1b.html
"To pay for the anticipated warranty repairs, as well as evaluate and fix machines still in inventory, Microsoft said it would take a $1.05 billion to $1.15 billion charge against earnings for the quarter that ended June 30. Liddell said the charge would be equally split between repairs of already-sold systems and fixes to those still in stock."
The RROD was an issue until the launch of the S in June 2010. https://www.businessinsider.com/when-all-the-xbox-360s-broke-2015-8
"It wasn't until the release of the remodeled Xbox 360 "S" model in 2010 that the console was finally really fixed, despite years of attempts with behind-the-scenes chip changes."
By April 2010 MS had sold over 40 million 360's.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-360-sales-top-40-million/1100-6259832/
1.15 billion divided by two is 575 million. That's the cost MS spent to fix every 360 that was sent in.
At a failure rate of 50% that means MS had to repair 20 million 360's at a cost of $45-$50 each. If all 20 million broken 360's had been sent in that would have amounted to 900 million dollars at $45 per repair. Far above the 575 million that was allocated to it. It gets even worse when you remember that after being repaired a 360 could still RROD. This means that a single 360 could have been sent in two or three times for a repair at $45 per repair cost to MS. From these numbers it's obvious that not everybody sent in their busted 360's. Otherwise the repair costs would have ballooned well past one billion. But as we've seen MS didn't allocate a billion to fixing the 360's sent in.
Once the S model launched in June 2010 many people simply opted to buy a 2nd 360, rather than go through the hassle of sending in their bricked console. Lots of people like myself, sold their 360 to Gamestop before it could RROD on them, and bought an S model.
Between the money gap, and many people opting to buy a 2nd 360 in order to avoid the RROD it's not hard to see 10-20 million extra sales appearing.
Those PS2 owners went on to buy a Wii or 360 at launch, not all of them waited for PS3, another speculation of yours.
I see you didn't follow my link. If you had, you would see that this claim of yours had already been refuted.
Also dont act like the PS3 had a clean bill of health, they also had there fair share of issues like the Yellow Light problems and the firmware update that bricked systems.
Yeah it was something like a 10% failure rate, which is pretty good. The bulk of PS3 sales came after the slim model launched in 2009, which like the 360 S didn't have the failure rate of the launch model. PS3 was sitting somewhere around 25-35 million units sold before the slim launched.
Also you forgot to add that the 360 was also making billions off Live Subs which the PS3 didnt have including the fact it sold more software and accessories etc.
I didn't forget, I just didn't feel like mentioning that. But thanks for helping my case that MS's profitability didn't come directly from software sales, but rather indirectly from console royalty fees, XBL subs, and sales of accessories. That refutes your claim that the bulk of a console manufacturer's money comes directly from software sales.