Given your statement there, how do you feel about console sales numbers?

Having the highest selling console doesn't make it the best console, yet people seem to throw the number out there like it's evidence. I don't think you can honestly make that call when Wii fanboys claim highest selling console and PS3 fanboys claim highest average score of their games library.

every console has fanboys that use these figures/measures to show console superiority.

The guy/girl asked a question for opinions, you gave yours, why make it sound like he was flame baiting. He didn't equate highest attach rate = Best console.

OT: I think it will. I'm guessing the PS2 attach rate wasn't that high, given piracy and the sheer number of consoles it sold. 360 won't win this generation, so it won't have to worry about the attach rate decreasing due to too many people buying only 1 game for it.

I'd say 10 on average is possible.

Sorry, just had to.

Nothing personal, it just gave me a laugh.

We already went over that in the other thread. I'm just busting his chops.

He actually posted this the day after I corrected him.

I've never been of the mind a high attach rate is necessarily a great thing.

While used around the industry a lot, I've always felt it was always a rather misleading measure.

Looking at the figures it seems to me that a high attach rate tends to show:

1 - console has a relatively small install base

2 - the majority of its owners are core gamers that buy a much higher than average number of titles

3 - the console has a small number of very high selling titles


Now of course all measures change over time, so each consoles attach rate at a point in time will fluctuate with big releases, and with the overall growth (slowed more recently) of the undustry the potential final install base and total SW sales for this gen is higher than ever before.

But I feel the 360's high attach rate also betrays its rather modest install base vs the (I presumed desired by MS) highs of the PS2 and PS1.

My view is that it is actually healthier to see that attach rate slowly decrease in line with a rapidly increasing install base, as this would seem to be the indicator of true mass market success for a console.

In the end for the console seller it is better to sell 4Million units of a game with an install base of say 100Million than 4M units on an install base of 20Million. The latter gets you a better attach rate, the former gets you more console sales and market domination but a smaller attach rate.

LOL! Damnit.

I'll figure out some damage control though, don't worry. =)

Hahaha! I was wondering when you would respond.

Well it is in great position for two reasons. One it has a solid and steady release of big and popular titles and brands. Second, it is a second place console that isn't selling as highly as the first place. Big titles releasing on second place seller is just a good antidote for high attach ratios. Less hardware to obviously big software.

Looking at the latest slate of multi-plats out...Red Faction and Protoype...you see what the third party are talking about...

^^you did not bother looking at the userbase?

Would it not be best to keep up the attach rate as hardware grows? profit comes  not from the console but from the games (unless your nintendo where its all gravy) working to keep both in line is good, and as long as the console maintains positive growth rate year over year its achieving its goal of gaining potential buyers.

the worse place to be would be a declinging year over year sales figure and a lowering attach rate, that might scare off 3rd parties

while a mixture of the other two  declining hardware but gaining attach, and lowering attach and gaining hardware could be read as a toss up

right now the 360 sits where it needs to be, maybe not spectacularly so, but far better then predicted in the forums of this website going as far back as   winter 06/spring 07