you should note the Gamecube did significantly better in the US than elsewhere, in fact comparing to the PS2 the GC ratio is just over 4:1 in America, unlike in Europe wher it is over 10:1, and Japan where it is over 6:1

In fact, even comparing X-box to GC ratio shows America was more interested in GC.... Xbox : GC for Europe was almost 2:1, wheras in America it hasn't managed 1.3:1

 Demand is not there? PS3 outsold the 360 for the past 4 weeks (yes, last week's numbers got adjusted and the PS3 sold more than the 360).

What makes you say there is no demand? Clearly not as much as Wii, DS or PSP but surely equal or more than the 360. I think they will all drop next week for sure but I have no reasons no single out the PS3 as the biggest fall.

It's not the price alone that sells a system (though that helps more in the US than anywhere else). Perceived value of the console has more impact than anything else, no matter where you look. If most people feel they're getting a good deal if they buy a console, then that console will do well. This is entirely regardless of if they really are getting a good deal, naturally. If a product is marketed well, it can be horrible and still sell well. I like to call that "hype and run", because that's basically what you see happening. Of course, there's also the other type, viral marketing, which relies on having a quality product in some respect to sell well. A riskier venture if you don't actually have a quality product, but ultimately just as effective (if not moreso) than the "hype and run" tactic.

If your neighbour gets a D does that make your C- a good grade?

I agree that there is little reason to single out the PS3 except for the fact that I have never seen so many retailer deals on a console as I've seen for the PS3 for the past couple of weeks.

@krik,... next week all consoles will fall due to lower demand, demand is considerably higher across all consoles before Christmas than after.... fishy was merely staing what will happen, which is that all consoles will fall next week with considerably lower demand.

I believe unless Wii had another shipment to America and UK last Sunday that Wii will probably fall the most, because other consoles will still be able to ride high for those 2 days before Christmas (last Sunday+Monday).

as far as Wii sales next week, I am think Japan will be the only fully stocked country. I have heard very little about anyone getting in Wii's this week.

I dont think price is the key problem of the PS3
the key problem is price compared to the Xbox360 that offer a similar content (or even better ...)

Throughout our school days we're all taught that monopolies are a bad thing. They hurt small businesses, and they cause progress to slow down.



What we aren't taught is that this concept is not true for every market. The operating system market (Windows, OS X, Linux, etc.) is one where this "rule" fails. Video game systems are another.



The key difference between these "platform products" and just about everything else is that, from a standpoint of economic importance to the world, platform products do more in the way of creating markets than they do in the way of competing in markets that already exist.



Look at Windows as an example. Because Windows is used by close to 90% of the market, thousands and thousands of software companies have been able to spring into existance and create products that can reach the largest possible audience by supporting only a single platform. There are entire genres of products for niche markets that are only feasible because of this "universal language" we call Windows. For many of these tiny software markets, an OS market split evenly between 2 or more OS's would mean there would not be enough customers on any single platform to support the companies. Many companies would simply no longer exist in such a market, as there wouldn't be any extra income to support the extra costs involved with supporting multiple platforms. The average quality of the software would drop significantly, as money that would ordinarily be spent on debugging and feature development would instead be put into cross-platform development, new support costs, etc. Feature selection would be reduced, as most developers would choose to pick features that can only be done on all platforms. And finally, competition would also be reduced as many companies would be forced to compete on only one platform, thereby reducing the total amount of competition between companies in each market.



The video game system market is a little different, since you don't see the 5000 person niche markets that you see in the software industry. But many of the same results can be seen. Many game companies take the approach of developing their software for multiple platforms, choosing only features and functionality they can make work relatively equally on all platforms. As a result, quality is driven down as many games are not designed to take full advantage of their systems. A split system market also means that exclusive titles can not receive the financial input that they would if the market was dominated by a single console - the market is just too split to allow it. Again, the quality goes down, not up.



If there's one thing that we all (including the EU) should have learned from history by now, it's that the world market naturally gravitates in the direction of platform monopolies, simply because they offer the most advantage for the most people (companies and consumers). Attempting to control and prevent them is damaging.

 

The Wii wont go anywhere, I never said that, I think they will continue to sell the most next year. I dont think the PS3 will be far behind though. People will get both a PS3 and Wii. The PS3 and 360 is only for the most hardcore.

And I mean near Wii number currently, not saying it will outsell Wii's next year numbers. (1,000,000 in a week next Christmas, or near it).

I don't like the Wii, but I do realize it has a strong hold on the global market which will take quite a bit to loosen. It will take something revolutionary on the PS3's part to get the attention away from the Wii and back to Sony. Both will sell very well I think, and co-exist.