Oh dear............

is this the price for such amazing holidays?

It could drop THIRD next week

When you consider the 360 is essentially throwing up a zero for sales in Japan, its numbers are amazing for the last quarter.  Simply amazing.

yous said the same shit in 2009 about MS following sony's price cut but it didn't happen and they got outsold.

I didn't really know much about Kinect at the time. So since late 2009 Sony sold 3M more than Microsoft however in that same period Microsoft made close to a billion dollars and managed to reverse the sales trend without a price cut. They didn't need to cut the price because it could be said that they managed to best Sony without one.

Can't the two things happen separately and add up in the total? XB360 has both a cheap unit without Kinect and a more expensive one that for the price of PS3 includes also Kinect. Obviously you can't have both ways at the same times, but both happen separately and each one helps boosting sales. Then add Halo: Reach, Black Ops, in USA Forza bundle too, then add 500M advertising for Kinect (that several weeks managed to sell more than XB360 itself, in fact), then add even more things I'm surely forgetting now. The end result is that XB360, and even more Kinect, did wonders, but it's quite obvious that PS3 got lower, but still very good results, even more considering that Sony kept a quite lower profile this Xmas, even about Move and GT5. Well, anyhow, it looks like you're right saying the reasons of current MS success are more than just two and more complex too, and also that Kinect played a bigger role than low entry price but IMVHO Skeeuk wished more to praise Sony results, rather than downplaying MS ones. And thinking about it, downplaying the opponent downplays a possible victory against it or makes a defeat against it a lot less honourable, I'd say that Ninty strong Xmas reaction against competing motion controls makes both MS and Sony results look better, and in return, at the same time MS' strong attack makes Ninty's victory look better too, despite the YoY decrease, but that Kinect sales and 360 YoY increase are the most noteworthy events is undeniable, Ninty resistance on the top comes second, Sony WW results come a honourable third and the only really sad major events are Balance Board and PS3 defeats (not as absolute numbers, but comparing them respectively to Kinect and XB360) in America and GT5 underperforming in Japan. While Kinect can record a relatively good performance in Japan too, if we compare it to 360 sales there. And if we want to talk about victories, we must not forget Black Ops, that counting all versions, has already beaten most 1st party exclusives and has some chaces to beat even Mario Kart Wii, not to mention that even just counting single platforms it could beat anyway most MS and Sony exclusives (but not Nintendo ones). And Black Ops victories too shine better if we give due credit to its opponents' worth.

About Sony's relatively low profile, I suspect that Sony chose not to attack frontally either MS or Nintendo this Xmas for more than one reason, it wished MS had least possible temptations to start next gen too early, it wasn't ready to fight a price war yet and, finally, it must be very happy about MS and Nintendo fighting each other now (Kinect is hitting directly Balance Board, and Ninty was forced for the first time to start regularly bundling it in some regions) and leaving it alone. Did it work? I think so, MS dealt just one blow below the belt to Sony during the last quarters, while Ninty fought very fairly, with Sony it looks like there's almost a truce, concentrating its might to defend itself from Kinect. And both PS Move and WiiMote Plus are so underutilized that a de facto cooperation could easily start between the two, as their similarities and their respective user bases adding up could boost 3rd party development for them, although multiplatform, not exclusive.

Pretty much sums up what happened this holiday. Sony's main goal was to stay profitable in sight of even worsening exchange rates, and reach the targeted 15mio units sold this fy (this is the only goal, it is completely irrelevant for the business plan whether another unnamed company sells more of the same or less). Looking, in Europe, at the complete lack of GT5 advertising, cheaply made commercials for the Move unit (downright horrible compared to US commercials), no price cuts or heavy bundling of software, and insufficient Move supplies, they might have probably gone a bit too far with cost savings..

Yep, I tried to be good towards Sony, but it's undeniable that while a low profile was justified in a lot of things this Xmas, it was really a tad too low for GT5 and Move.    And it's sadly true, Kevin Butler ads were amusing, why use crap in EMEAA, Sony's biggest market, instead? So it looks like some moves were played right, some others were almost totally wrong and just PS and GT brand names, coupled with Move and GT5 actual quality, managed to patch up the mistakes and grant at least in EMEAA and WW a result that is very satisfying for a low profile Xmas. But something more could have been done even without directly defying MS and Nintendo.

I have a theory about Sony: it suffers from ADHD. It's an intelligent and hyperactive company, it does a lot of things, it even manages to learn from a lot of its own mistakes and lessons received, but it NEVER manages to learn from each one of them. Even when they are under its nose, jumping, gesturing and screaming to be noticed.   

@alby da wolf - you keep talking about 500 million dollars ad budget, but I'll bet you microsoft made more money than sony last quarter.  

Also, ps3 had huge $100 discounts at walmart and Amazon that xbox did not benefit from.

Who paid for those promotions?

MS itself told it spent that money, if it considered it worthy to be mentioned it must mean it's a higher than average marketing expense for a single peripheral and in a short timespan.

XB360 had its offers too, and except those on 360 plus Kinect bundles, if they happened anywhere, they aren't included in those $500million, as they are explicitly referred to Kinect.

But did I ever say that those dollars weren't well spent? MS spent that money damn well, many expected good results, almost nobody expected them to be SO good.

It's weird, despite the vaunted $500m Kinect campaign, I saw just as many if not more tv ads for Move the past 3 month in America.  GT5 ad circulation has been heavy too, comparable to Reach... I dunno, is Sony putting all their budget into the American market?

The wierdest thing this fall/holiday was the relative lack of Nintendo ads.  There were some, but nothing really that heavily played except (bizarrely) Netflix on Wii and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. :/