I don't think it's luck. More like good strategy. M$ already had their price drops planned out in advance. The fact that the economy was bad at the same time didn't change their strategy. It's obvious their plan worked to perfection for this year. Even if the ecomony was great, I still think the 360 would have outsell the PS3 this year.

of course it is not about luck, good strategy, NXE released, they only talk when it is ready.

and next week sales will be interesting. it will widen the gap even more.

Well, I have to disagree a bit - I think I'm making one small assuption - that the 360 wouldn't have done similarly as well had the econmic crisis not hit.

I belive MS made a good price cut, one that would put them back level with PS3 with good games ready to deliver additional boosts.

Assuming the data on this site is accurate enough to judge by, the indicators are the 360 has seen a massive additional boost on the back of the crisis.

Even MS are now repeatedly referrening to this same fact in their own press releases.

I'm sorry people think I'm somehow diminishing MS or their price cut by saying they were lucky how it coincided with their price cut, but its just the truth, and I don't think it diminishes or critices anything they did.  It's just very unlikely you'd be seeing the current sales jump over PS3 without the economic downturn.

From a larger perspective, what will be interesting to see is whether the advantage it drives for their entertainment division matches the likely dip they're expecting to see in their core buisness.  I suspect it actually may not, and that overall MS end up worse off overall due to the economy that better off.  But the 360 is benefiting without a doubt.  Even better for MS the PS3 will likely suffer at the same time, giving their entertainment division a double boost as it were.

I believe you're wrong.

The Xbox 360 is also suffering under the same conditions. So whilst there may be a substitution effect going on, its not as significant as you might think as the European market, like the Asian markets aren't as debt reliant/laden as the American market. This is the area where the Xbox 360 has seen its greater relative gains. In the American market for this to hold true you would expect the effect to be far greater as the Xbox 360 is seen in higher regard over there and the PS3 is just as relatively expensive as in the European markets and the effects of the economic crisis are hitting much harder.

The video game market hasn't been affected that much by the crisis yet so I guess the advantage of the 360 doesn't come from the fact that it's cheaper but it has a better value than the PS3.

I bet you're not surprised when I disagree with your disagreement!

Right now I believe general shoppers see 360/PS3 as interchangeable, while in the US it is seen as the more common choice, while in Others I believe Sony are really seeing the brand slide as there is nothing tangible to differentiate it currently from MS and 360.

I watched some shoppers recently as part of some store visits around UK and Europe, and they looked at the 360 games shelves, the PS3 game shelves, saw essentially the same titles (COD:WAW, Dead Space, etc.) then looked at console prices and picked up 360.

The 360 is seeing a massive swing on price due to the economy in my opinion, one that is doubly troubling for PS3 as it also pushes down upswing of the console.

In a recession if you have two items most purchasers see as the same (because let's face it we're probably past the point where the fanboys or anyone already biased to one or the other has long made their purchase) then the lower price option sees a big boost while the other loses.

Until the recession I would never have given 360 a chance at breaking out of hardcore to more general purchasers, but they have a chance now.  It's luck, but if MS are quick they could really convert current trends into a bit of a breakout from their core demographic.

And console sales are like viruses. If your friends have console x and everyone thinks it's cool, you'll probably buy it too. Microsoft is playing chess, not checkers. And they learned the game very well.

congrats m$ for really improving the xbox brand name and bringing in more ppl and now since u have a model at the magic point of $200, sales of the 360 should be close to 26 million or so. if sony can drop the ps3 at least by $50 for killzone 2 and include killzone 2 as a bundle, sales should be pretty good for sony.

nice to see 360 got such good sale.