By my calculations the cumulative launch sales are 369K made up of:

161K in Americas (which followed a 122K phat clearance sale week; which indicates a consumer split between the discounted old design and the normally priced new design)

201K in EMEAA (I know the official numbers say 198K, for WE 17 July, But 360s launched earlier in Aussie & NZ so that has to be taken into account, and the revised numbers for Aussie and NZ requires ~2000 consoles be added to the 198 for this week; can someone confirm 360s launch date in Aussie, in NZ it was 9 July, I think I read it was slightly earlier in July for Aussie)

17K in Japan (an impressive jump %wise, but in absolute numbers this is pretty low)

The major confounding variable is that no one (yet) knows how many of those launch week consoles are 360s and how many are discounted phats. Clearly in America there was a healthy apetite for clearance phats, and some of that must have carried forward into 360s launch week. I believe Japan cut the phat price the same week 360s launched (correct me if I'm wrong), so there's some "phat in the system there". I think phat dropped in price well before 360s came out in most EMEAA countries (it did here), and it didn't seem to spark a buying frenzy, so it's safe to assume that the vast majority of the EMEAA launch week sales was the 360s, most likely 100% of the WoW boost is because of the 360s; Iimagine some of the "left over" is also 360s.

So taking the phat out of the system I'm guessing that the 360s cumulative launch week sales is somewhere between 295K (20% phat sales) and 332K (10% phat sales). Even in the UK with probably the best 360s launch of any country in the world (relatively speaking) there were probably a few thousand phats sold that week.

How does that compare with PS3 Slim + price cut launch? WW launch week for PS3 Slim was 582K. We also had discounted phats on sale (but only in some markets, here the phats remained more expensive than the Slim), factoring in residual PS3 phat sales we get between 466K and 523K (using the same %ages given there's nothign else to go on AFAIK). Taking the best case scenario for both consoles the launch week difference comes in at 191K in favour of PS3. The VAST majority of that difference (about 130K) comes from Japan. PS3 Slim only did 4K better than 360s in Americas (well within the margin for error, so it's possible, even likely, that 360s launched better in Americas than PS3 Slim + pricecut). As always EMEAA splits the difference at around 60K)

I don't know if historically there ever have been launches of console redesigns without an associated pricecut. Mostly the redesigns have either removed features, or kept them the same, hence allowing for a price cut. 360s added stuff, which made cutting price less viable, despite the cost savings achived from the re-design of standard components.. So we don't really have much of a context in which to assess the WW numbers. We do know that in the UK, having outdone even the PS2 slim launch (this is much more impressive than outdoing the PS3 Slim launch IMO), 360s has been received with amazing support.

The reality for PS3 was that the price cut drove it's sales far more than the re-design. 360s not having a price cut (though arguably it was a virtual pricecut with the addition of WiFi, but that's hair splitting) what drove the sales was the sexy new design. If the EMEAA software numbers are to be believed then it's reasonable to assume that a lot of the 360s sales were to existing 360 owners. Interestingly PS3 slim experienced exactly the same thing in the Americas, in fact SW declined by more (10%) coming off the Batman AA launch, though the week previous was a huge boost for PS3 HW and SW (cheaper phats).

I think in the grand scheme of things the 360s launch week sales across the globe were on par, or even slightly better than PS3 Slim. And given the highly skewed nature of the Japan market (much more skewed than Americas, in fact Americas couldn't even be called skewed post PS3 Slim), taking that into account means 360s did quite a bit better than PS3 Slim, all things considered.

360 resurgent. 2010 peak year looking quite likely.

Nice post, but I think first week sales are too hard to measure given all the variables.

It's impressive as you say though, 360 essentially has 2 markets to sell to, PS3 had 3.

Like Seece said it's very difficult to tell how well the Slim has done in the long-term. Short-term it's been a tremendous success, but we'll have to wait and see where it levels off in the comming weeks.

Wow great read.

there saying about 180k sold in the last 2 weeks of june were new slims

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29477/In_Depth_The_Xbox_360_Slim_Effect.php

vgc has about 300k sold altogether in those 2 weeks

a month comparison in the future will be better to do for both though the advantage will be even greater for the ps3 when calculated this way

no i dont think 360 did better first week or 1st month once we get em for EU

b/c your also forgetting that 360

had 99 149 249 prices in NA with bundled games ps3 only had 299 thats it thats the cheapest it was

also in EU ps3slim was 250pound and 350euro thats it nothing else cheaper the 360S is 200 pound and 300 euro and among all the other skus that got cut way down

as for Japan thats not my or sonys problem if thats the "The VAST majority of that difference"

if 360s continue this legs till September than i dont think PS3 will match it this year. only if... price cut /

360 had something more than redesign, a clearance sales. arcade is below 150$ in some places.

Just to make sure I understand your argument, you are suggesting that a re-designed console with no price cut, and lowered prices on existing SKUs (360), should have sold better than a redesigned console with $100 dollar price across new and old SKUs (PS3)?

I absolutely disagree with you on that analysis, sorry.

@Op: well written and delivered posts - there are too few of these sadly (regardless of viewpoint) and I appreciate the time and effort (for what that is worth).

yes

1st old  250gb super elites were $350 and up in my area

2nd ps3 redesign was imo and others worst than the old, striped features ect., so i dont think ps3 slim plus $100 price cut is greater than a $50 price cut and in some case $100 on the older models that in some cases come bundled with 2 games, and a console redesign that is miles better than the old 360 skus and even the PS3s current sku, that was droped in price by $50 from the last 360 250gb model and in Eu which accounts to about 40-50% of sales is priced 50 pound and euro cheaper than the PS3 slim was and is

3rd im just pointing out the facts the OP missed

4th the OP states that 360 had  better 1st week relaunch sale numbers that PS3 which is false and PS3 should be given more credit than the OP gives b/c it achieved its numbers with only $300 skus old and new, its clear to the OP and the world that some of the 360s relaunch sales were the cheaper models

so if the 360 at 99 149 249 and 299 can sell on par or worst than the ps3 at 299 what will happen to this comparison once ps3 goes to 249 or 199?

In your original post, the line that stood out for me was, "as for Japan thats not my or sonys problem if thats the "The VAST majority of that difference"" implying that you had a team in the game, and it's not your problem if the other team has a handicap. I also noticed you allied yourself with Sony without shame. Furthermore, you've suggested a rediculious theory, the specifics of which don't really matter because it was formed in reverse. The end argument being that somehow the 360 slim launch was an underperforming failure which will continue to degrade. There were also some insignificant and obscure numbers thrown around to make it seem scientific. Ironically, this is the opposite of the truth, which is that the 360 launch was an obvious success and its future is unknown. I think your bias has jaded your logic. I know you hope for a failure of the 360 relative to the PS3, and I also hope you don't get it, because I'm a gamer.

As for the OP, nice article. Rock solid logic.