TBH I fail to see how Mad Max is going to attract anyone. I dunno how it was charting on its own before the Borderlands DLC madness, which is still affecting the back half of the top 100. But in the UK individual GFK formats chart Mad Max isn't in the top 40. It's an odd choice for an inducement. Maybe Amazon over-ordered on Xb one versions.

"I wonder why so many of these expire in 3 days, aside from the 1 deal that runs until 11/21. Maybe there's a new wave of deals coming."

These are to counteract the black ops 3 PS4 buzz. Then a push for Fallout 4 and Tomb raider. No doubt then more deals leading into Battlefront. Then the black Friday craziness.

I have a feeling Halo aside, most people have started buying XB1 based on the deals, rather than a steady sales flow, with peaks around all of the big games. I'm not sure how healthy this will prove to be going into 2016.

When I read the deals list a few days ago, it sounds like the first deal applies to all bundles. The second only applies to the New holiday bundles.

Yeah, I was looking and is there actually a standalone XB1?

Binging is never healthy, and concentrating all your sales efforts in the final 2 1/2 months of the year is binging. If the market largely forgets you for 9 months of the year, then you will get ever diminishing returns in that final 3 months. And of course the need for more extreme measures to reach the sales level they want.

Remember back when the punditocracy and commentariat were saying PS4's end of year was looking lackluster and that Sony was possibly giving Xb one a look in because of it?

When did MS announce its temporary price drop last year? Was it in October or November? AC:U launched in November and the ACU bundle was $350 from the outset, but how soon before the AC:U bundle did MS announce?

The problem this time around is that MS knows a temporary price cut is untennable. They know if they move to $299 then it has to be a permanent move because if they move back to $350 in the new year their sales will plummet horriby. So, in terms of afforability of price movement they can't just think in terms of this final month and a half of the year. While it would have a much lower effect it might help for a permanent price drop to $329. That might be affordable as a permanent move and it does give Xb one a price advantage over PS4. And everyone knows Xb one can't be competitive against PS4 at the same price. This will be strongly driven home to everyone if PS4 winds up winning October NPD, which is a far more likely scenario than anyone thought possible just a few months ago.

Last one tonight. I think I might actually try to sleep for a change.

2 hours since the last update:

#09 PS4 Black Ops Bundle (same)
#17 PS4 Nathan Drake Bundle (same)
#24 PS4 Star Wars Bundle (up 2)
#30 PS4 Star Wars Standard Bundle (same)
#33 XB1 Fallout bundle (up 3)
#63 XB1 Halo Bundle (up 7)
#89 XB1 Kinect Bundle (up 11)
#100 XB1 Gears Bundle (re-entry)

PS4 - 5 bundles, 4 in the top 100
XB1 - 15 bundles, 4 in the top 100

Probably a good idea lol

That's a good observation, but I think that sets them up for a hard fall: SW:BF launches right on the heels of BO:3, and I tend to doubt that people will shift to X1 right after the BO3 launch (to make those two extra days of deals effective).

Ok so it becomes increasingly unlikely that MS announces a true price cut as we get deeper into November. What we're likely to see is more cut priced limited offer / specific retailer deals.

Considering they were down YoY for the first quarter, and you'd expect them to be up YoY by some %, I'd say that week, or so, of vascillating and returning to the original [Kinectless] price had a substantial short term negative effect. But it was such a short waffle that in terms of the overall effect on sales for the year (financial and calendar year) the effect was pretty negligible. The important lesson was that there is no way they can use the same tactic, because they know if would be a disaster if the went through with it this time, and people wouldn't believe them. If we assume that some proportion of late 2014 Xb one sales was because people thought the price cut was only going to be temporary (more fool them I say) and they would have otherwise waited if they new the price cut was permanent, then trying the temporary price cut tactic again is unlikely to fool a new pool of people into buying before they intended.

Also it's just a bad look to drop the price after the launch of the lastest game in your number 1 franchise of all time. If you want to drop the price you do it before the game launches.

Back to the Amazon chart. I am very surprised to see BO3 still inside the top 10. Amazon no longer has a guarantee of delivery on the launch day, and normally that should signal the start of the decline in the charts for that bundle. That's what happened for the Halo 5 bundle. Just how big is this Black Ops Bundle going to be?