Retailers and analysts across North America confirm that the hottest selling gaming console this past weekend was the Xbox 360.
In Canada Microsoft Game Studios was offering a three game deal with a system with a 20GB hard drive and an extra controller at one retailer for $449.99. One of the free games was Gears of War and when that sold out gamers could get the new Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and Xbox Live Arcade: Unplugged.
A quick trip around to several stores on Sunday saw all Nintendo Wii systems sold out, but the majority of gamers who were coming to get a Wii or a PlayStation 3 were taking advantage of the $449.99 Xbox 360 deal.
Microsoft also dropped the price of several of their Xbox 360 games and peripherals to try and out-market Sony and Nintendo.
As a result gamers will be hard-pressed to find an Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or a Nintendo Wii on store shelves at least for the rest of this week.
It looks like Microsoft is not going to pull a Dreamcast in this fight!
Update: There’s a report out that claims that due to decreased manufacturing costs Microsoft is actually making a profit on each 360 sold. Considering that Microsoft lost about 4 billion on the original Xbox, despite its success in the marketplace, this is good new for Gates and Company.
Xbox 360 is NOT the “last” generation it’s the CURRENT generation. Last generation would be PS2, Xbox, and GameCube. The current is Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3. Get your facts strait please.
Also anyone who has a friend that has a 360 realizes the social value and PEER PRESSURE involved when you have a 360. You can see what games your friends have.. how far into the game they are into it, and you’re always pressured into getting a better gamerscore than your friends. Genius in marketing!
The PS3 and Wii come out, and suddenly the Xbox 360 is considered last generation?
It’s pretty obvious that the Xbox 360 is selling best right now. The console is well established, quite available, and it’s got some really good games coming out. The games coming out for this holiday season are beginning to represent the real “next generation” rather than forward-ports of Xbox 1 and PS2 games.
What in the heck? What is the point of this story? The X360 has been out almost a year, the PS3 5 days, the Wii 2 days; and you’re reporting the console war is over?
You could also report that the new T.M.X. Elmo released today is a losing failure because Tickle Me Elmo has far outsold it….right? Logic? Knock knock?
Compare all the “next gen” consoles to sales figures for the Playstation 2 and you will see who is still the industry leader.
C’mon D.U., you’re a better site than to report this non-story prematurely.
Ooops, I meant T.M.X. Elmo released in September.
4 “you’re a better site than to report this non-story prematurely.”
I disagree. The fact that the Xbox 360 had an entire year of sales and people are still buying it more than the ultra-hyped latest consoles says a lot about the 360.
Zuke,
Read the article man… it states “this past weekend” as it’s sales figures used, not the amount of consoles ever sold in total.
What they are saying is, the Xbox 360 outsold the two other consoles _on their own launch weekend_, ie more people bought Xbox 360’s this last weekend than either a Wii or a PS3.
Good job MS. Wii is on my list as a probable buy in 6 months, PS3 as a maybe buy in 12 months.
Regards,
Shane.
#7 Thanks Shane, apparently you’re the only one who bothered to read the article!
M$ has positioned itself well for the short term with the 360. As time goes on, the storage difference between the 360 and the PS3 will be exploited… in the PS3’s favor.
my question is this – it is well-known that consoles are loss-leaders. lose bucks on the console, make it back on game licenses. What happens when people start buying the PS3 just as a (relatively) inexpensive Blu-Ray player, but then don’t buy many (or any) games? As part of a consortium, I can’t see Sony making the kind of money on Blu-Ray movies (especially those released by other studios) that they would make on the game licenses.
In essence, what could happen is that, by trying to use the PS3 to push out Blu-Ray over HDDVD, Sony may have turned the PS3 into a permanent money-loser.
Perhaps sub-$500 Blu-Ray players may emerge in time to keep this from happening, but rigt now there ain’t none, AFAIK. I guess the question is does it happen soon enough?
God knows I WANT Sony to succeed – tho less so after the rootkit fiasco – but I am so very skeptical about their ability to pull it out.
“Thanks Shane, apparently you’re the only one who bothered to read the article! ”
That’s hysterical considering you called the 360 “last year’s generation.” The 360 is “next-gen” by every definition there is and according to every gamer out there.
That having been said, it does say a lot that the 360 out-sold the other two on their launch weekends. Perfectly cromulent point. 😉
Won’t a X-Box run Linux? Interesting…
“That having been said, it does say a lot that the 360 out-sold the other two on their launch weekends. Perfectly cromulent point.”
You’ve embiggened me to continue blogging, thank you!
http://www.xbox-linux.org/
The other consoles sold out, though. That doesn’t mean that demand for the xbox 360 is higher. The others literally could not have sold any more. We’ll find out after the other two are out of their launch supply period which consoles are selling the best.
#15 “The other consoles sold out, though. That doesn’t mean that demand for the xbox 360 is higher.”
Read the article, all three consoles sold out.
erm, I read the article. It said the game Gears of War sold out and hinted that 360 might be running low but I don’t see any hard figures or the assertion that it sold out.
#17. Where exactly did the article say that that the “360 might be running low”?! I quoted exactly what the article said. You can believe it or not, but making something up is just nonsense.
I’m amazed that people have time to learn and play computer games.
Of course the Xbox had greater sales last weekend; there were more Xboxes on the shelves.
Once the supply-side crunch is assuaged, we will have a much better idea for which system the consumers have a greater demand.
Actually, to be honest, I have been told that my PS3 will be available in the next three weeks from the local Gamestop…. and considering the launch titles available being utter garbage… I’ve told them to just credit my card and cancel the pre-order…. I’ll get it when it’s got some good games..
It took me several Months to get my Xbox 360 after launch, I got it in late February….
My Wii arrived via UPS today… yay….
So, as far as launch sellouts and length of time afterwards to get one… it looks like the 360 from my PERSONAL experience is the leader, and it STILL outsold the PS3 and the Wii on their launch weekend…. and its been out a year so the market is already fairly saturated….
Sony in my opinion is shooting themselves in the foot by trying to use the PS3 to push Blu Ray… and well, the $600 price tag for a gaming console is a contributing factor as well….
I have a PSP, PS2, and used to have a PS1…. so while I love Sony… I dont know if the PS3 will be the big success they’d hoped… at least until those far off console selling franchises come… Final Fantasy and Metal Gear…. at least Nintendo launched with one of their Console Sellers… Twilight Princess…
It’s very easy to say that the Xbox 360 outsold the PS3 and Wii during that past weekend since they totally sold OUT, and had only limited supplies.
It’s not like the casual buyers could have gotten one anyway. But they could get a 360, and a lot of retail stores were giving good deals on 360s on that very same weekend.
BTW the 360 will be EXACTLY one year old this Wednesday (22nd) from it’s release date.
I just had the opportunity to play on a PS3 and it seems the only big thing it does is add a LOT of motion blur into the video games to make it appear smoother. I found it distracting. OH can’t handle high frame rates in HD? Throw in some nauseating motion blur like Hollywood movies do.
I read the article – so you’re calling a winner based on 1 weekend’s sales?
What I should have said more clearly, was that why is it a surprise the X360 sold more units than the other 2? The other two were released with only a limited production inventory, the X360 is now in a fully mature production cycle, so shortages are virtually non-existent. Microsoft’s sales trick of lowering the price to coincide with expected Wii and PS3 shortages was smart, but will be an abnormal blip on the sales cycle once the others can gear up production high enough to meet demand.
The winner of the game console market in general is still the PS2:
Sales for Sept 06:
PS2 306,517
Xbox 6,495
Gamecube 42,286
X360 259,458
Sales for October 2006
PS2 235,000
Xbox 3,500
Gamecube 32,000
X360 218,000
The PS2 is 6 years old and continues to sell more units than both Microsoft boxes combined. No doubt the X360 is cannibalizing Xbox sales. The same will probably happen to the PS3/PS2 duo, but the war is hardly over. Give it a year to see meaningful sales figures, rather than anomalies. Once the PS3 production matures and the prices come down (just like X360 has), then let’s talk turkey.
Wow, watch all the sony fanbois line up to defend their beloved and overpriced piece of junk.
Look, this is sony’s last hurrah in the game system business, the ps3 is unbelievable flawed (though it makes a great bluray player), sony still can’t manufacture it consistently, and its a system with no games now or on the horizon worth a damn.
Good luck with that dvd player – oops I mean ps3!
#11
ALL releases of the PS3, Wii and 360 from last year ALL SOLD OUT when they were initially put into the market. That doesn’t mean one system is better than the other.
I’m still waiting for HALO 3 to come out before I buy my XBOX 360…
24 Wow, watch all the sony fanbois line up to defend their beloved and overpriced piece of junk.
Neck-and-neck with the Xbox360 fanbois offended that it was called “last year’s generation”.
As a friend used to say “I’ve got 3 words for you: Pot, Kettle, Black”.
M$ lowered the price on the 360 only when Sony & Nitendo release new consoles – which must be great news to anybody who was dumb enough to buy a 360 in the last month or two…
Good to see competition in a marketplace is still a good thing for consumers. 🙂
360 has been out for a year, and people [crazy ones] were camping-out waiting for the PS3… they must be less-than-thrilled to find out that some of their PS2 games aren’t backwards-compatible…
And, of course, we are all repeatedly told the Wii is really the best game-play machine, because it doesn’t concentrate on “eye candy”.
I still like the fact that some rich person can go about their business, knowing someone is camped-out in front of a Walmart – waiting to buy a PS3 – and then “flip it” to said rich person via E-bay. Capitalism is such a wonderful system. 🙂
#18. SN, I was paraphrasing what you quoted not as you say making things up. “pretty much everything is gone.” certainly does not equal “sold out”. It seems to me to indicate running low, and sounds like its guessing at that otherwise they would have posted hard facts.
#27 – Amen to that!
I’m hardly a PS3 fanboy, I’m a die-hard PC gamer and still feel that is the superior platform, bugs, costs, and all.
I sure hope some of these sky-is-falling folks who are predicting the demise of Sony because of the apparent PS3 “failure” are not stock advisors too.
To beat a dead horse, IMO if Microsoft were really smart, they’d cut the price of the X360 even lower, to maybe the $300-350 pricepoint in an effort to saturate the market during Xmas while Sony & Nintendo are having supply issues. They have the large cash reserves to sustain such a move for sure. I remember seeing a TV documentary last year detailing how they willingly lost over $100/unit on each Xbox sold, but it was a wise investment in order to pierce the market & effectively compete with the (then) $200 PS2.
I thought you could get the 360 for $399
so whats this $449 price?? And WHATs free about it.