Someone had posted a chart here about this. It's debatable. It looks as though second Christmas sales for the 360 will be better than original box sales second Christmas, by a little. The main difference was the launch. Original box sold like 1.5, 1.6 million consoles in NA first 2 months, 360 due to limited production only sold 600k in NA, first 2 months. (According to NPD) Also consider, most people who are box supporters have an Original Xbox. And when you throw a new console at them 4 years later, people that bought your first product tend to get pissed. Console lifes are usually 5 years at least, and Sony has always made theirs 6 year life cycle. I think M$ was actually being greedy by doing this to customers with a short product cycle. It's not very fair IMO.

As an owner of the original Xbox, I can tell you that the Xbox 360 was much needed. Microsoft can now start off on a good foot with hardware they actually have the rights for and can now ride through a 5 or possible even 6 year lifecyle like Sony.

I'd say there's a number of reasons why: 1) The first Xbox had a marked difference in graphical capabilities and additional features like hardrive which was new at the time. Not to mention an FPS that many found ground-breaking. The 360 doesn't really have that ground breaking title yet. 2) The first Xbox had a price slash to $350 in Australia very soon after launch. The 360 is still about $600 for a premium if you buy smart. 3)The handheld market has grown in popularity taking away from sales. 4) The Wii is a far more competitive console than Gamecube was so you're finding a lot of N64 fans who switched to Xbox are now flocking back to Nintendo. Some arguments I think are a little invalid: 1) The fanbase has already bought the 360:I think Halo 3 and a significant price drop still have the opportunity to accelerate 360 sales dramatically. 2)Xbox 360's game range is too narrow: While true the console has only been out a year and I don't think I'd say the PS2's game range was very diverse after a year either. It was only much later that all this crazy non-gamer stuff came to PS2 and notably so because that stuff sells more when the console is much cheaper. Also its worth noting the game range on Wii and PS3 are much weaker than 360 due to the year's head start Microsoft had. One Microsoft release a large range of 360 classics that should aid them well.

I can tell you why as an Original Box owner I didn't like it. They pretty much decided to abandon their console after just 4 years. There is no thru game support at all. You can't and should not run product cycles so short. How was it needed? The only reason they made the 360 early was to get a head start in the HD market. To the poster just above. Actually original box price dropped to 200 dollars (in US) in May 2002 just 6 months after our launch. Because PS2 price dropped. ___________________________ I do agree, the price of 400 is holding a lot of people back, because it's been out over a year and still no price drop. But the main reason is simply that there were millions more original Boxes available in that launch than 360 launch had. It created a really large seperation between the two right away.

Stromprophet said: DigitalHero said: Stromprophet said: Console lifes are usually 5 years at least, and Sony has always made theirs 6 year life cycle. I think M$ was actually being greedy by doing this to customers with a short product cycle. It's not very fair IMO. As an owner of the original Xbox, I can tell you that the Xbox 360 was much needed. Microsoft can now start off on a good foot with hardware they actually have the rights for and can now ride through a 5 or possible even 6 year lifecyle like Sony. I can tell you why as an Original Box owner I didn't like it. They pretty much decided to abandon their console after just 4 years. There is no thru game support at all. You can't and should not run product cycles so short. How was it needed? The only reason they made the 360 early was to get a head start in the HD market. To the poster just above. Actually original box price dropped to 200 dollars (in US) in May 2002 just 6 months after our launch. Because PS2 price dropped. ___________________________ I do agree, the price of 400 is holding a lot of people back, because it's been out over a year and still no price drop. But the main reason is simply that there were millions more original Boxes available in that launch than 360 launch had. It created a really large seperation between the two right away.

 The price is high but I bought one and now I don't have my moneys.