With IGN’s recent opinion piece on the PlayStation 3 potentially overtaking the Xbox 360 in worldwide hardware sales, lots of people were up in arms arguing over the validity of the opposing consoles claims. Fanboy baiting aside, this article is somewhat redundant. After all, console sales figures prove absolutely nothing. Lets travel back to the Xbox 360′s infancy, when a little known problem called the Red Ring of Death (RRoD) was born. Millions of consoles suffered, some of which were replaced by peoples wallets, others replaced by Microsoft. Either way, because of a hardware error, at least some hardware sales during this period were by the same consumer, meaning figures were distorted. Similarly, the PlayStation 3 had its own issues with the Yellow Light of Death (YLOD), albeit on a smaller scale. Now, this proves that whilst the Xbox has sold more consoles thus far, both consoles figures are inflated because people had to replace consoles unnecessarily. But, they both suffer from the upgraded hardware syndrome too. With both consoles offering various hardware specifications, whether it be increased hard drive sizes, or new slim models, consumers again replaced their consoles with the newer edition, meaning that people could easily have had as many as 3 or 4 consoles, creating the illusion that many more people own the consoles. How about new media? We all love upgrading our setups. I mean, if we didn’t, we’d all still be using our massive CRT televisions and our computers with 256mb of RAM. When Blu Ray won the great format war against HD DVD, it was an extremely expensive way to watch films. It was only with the arrival of the PlayStation 3 that many people took up the format, which despite costing a cool $600 for the console, offered value for money back when Blu Ray players could cost a lot more upwards of that figure. So, if people bought an Xbox or a PlayStation console purely for the DVD and Blu Ray playback, is this as significant as a console sale for a hardcore gamer? Oh yeah, remember supercomputers? They were these big computers that cracked lots of algorithms and things. The PlayStation 3, back when it was a bit more open to accepting new operating systems, was readily used as a cheaper alternative to buying a supercomputer. In fact, there are thousands of schemes online where people have (or still) use multiple PlayStations and harvest the power. But, if one company buys over 1,700 PS3′s, and more do the same, how can we ever make sense of these rather ambiguous sales figures that we read about online?! Well, that is the point. Sure, you can look at these sales figures and interpret them however you want. Xbox fans, you can say that the PS3 is but a Blu Ray player. PlayStation fans, you can claim that the RRoD has caused 476% inflation of console sales, because everyone had like 16 replacements, right? In the end, you’ll just have to accept that it’s pointless squabbling about something that doesn’t matter and that we cannot answer. Oh yeah, the Wii and DS say hi! http://playtribune.com/2011/11/27/why-console-sales-figures-prove-nothing/ Yes, this article was on the front page of this site. But I strongly believe this article is worth discussing and would like to hear some thoughts on it.Why Console Sales Figures Prove Nothing
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