5punk

Clearing Up Holiday Sales Rumours
Gamespot's regular 'Rumor Control' column tackles some confusion around who had the most holiday sales among the three new consoles. A CNBC broadcast prompted GamesIndustry.biz to proclaim the 360 the winner, with some 2 Million in sales. The Wii followed closely behind with 1.8 Million, and the PS3 followed that number with 750,000. The catch here is that, while it's possible a viewer could have assumed this was official NPD data, it wasn't. From the article: "The segment is an interview with Billy Pidgeon, an analyst with IT market intelligence firm IDC. In it, a graphic appears on screen showing estimated console sales in North America for November through December 25, 2006. The numbers match up with the figures being attributed to the NPD, but CNBC attributes IDC as its source on them. The confusion likely comes from a blurb of text that appears at the bottom of the screen shortly after the graphic is taken down. It notes that the 'NDP Group' (sic) pegged the Wii as selling more than twice the number of PS3s for the month of November, which is true, but also something that was announced last month." The numbers may prove to be true, but we're going to have to wait a bit longer to see who actually came out ahead last month.




Author: Zonk
Category: biz
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Source: Slashdot: Games
Description: News for nerds, stuff that matters

I wonder if the Wii would have beat the 360 if there had been enough in stock for everyone who wanted one...

More to the point, does it really matter?

The only people this will affect are stockholders in Sony, Nintendo & Microsoft shares. The whole console wars stance really bores me, and when the game review sites finally realise all 3 do very different things and are aimed at different segments of the gaming market, then finally we might get some useful news on what each of them do, rather than constantly comparing them all the the time.

Welcome to the Internet. Home of "My Lego Star Destroyer is better than your AC/DC tattoo!".

Woo Elephant Yeah wrote:More to the point, does it really matter?

The only people this will affect are stockholders in Sony, Nintendo & Microsoft shares. The whole console wars stance really bores me, and when the game review sites finally realise all 3 do very different things and are aimed at different segments of the gaming market, then finally we might get some useful news on what each of them do, rather than constantly comparing them all the the time.

When it comes to comparing the wii to the others, then I agree totally.

I cant see that the 360 and the ps3 are aiming for very different markets though, so I think its probably fair comparing them.

Joose wrote:I cant see that the 360 and the ps3 are aiming for very different markets though, so I think its probably fair comparing them.

Uh oh, I am entering an argument with Joose *prepares self*

I think that the games on the 360 are very much in the same vein as the original Xbox. The PS2 had a massively diverse selection of games in comparison to the Xbox, where as I've stated before, the Xbox was pretty much aimed at FPS, Driving & Sports game enthusiasts.

The PS2 has a massively diverse amount of games, and I can see the same thing happening on the PS3.

I think we have to discount all the cross platform titles from any kind of comparison, as titles are coming out for the PC, Wii, 360 and PS3.
To em comparing them on different consoles is pointless, so what you have to really compare (if anything at all) are console specific games/exclusives of which I can see the PS3 having more than the 360.

Sony's Price Tag is definitely going to alienate the young kid gamers, and I think they are trying to attract an audience of adult gamers, who have grown up always knowing a PS1/2.

The 360 however will just do what Microsoft has always done, and that's the mass game market in the U.S., which in turn won't bring many 360 exclusive games.

The point I'm trying to make is that I just can't see the point in comparing say COD3 on the PS3 & 360, when it is also available on the Wii (and hopefully on the PC)

PS3 is more of a High Definition player, entertainment centre & games console all in one, whereas (allthough recent efforts to do otherwise with the Xbox Video Downloads) the 360 is pretty much purely a games console only, with a bit of media centre functionality thrown in (IMO).

It's probably just me, but I hate fanboy stuff, especially where people just constantly state their biased opinions based on what they own, and I'm tired of reading the same old shit on review sites.

Dog Pants wrote:Welcome to the Internet. Home of "My Lego Star Destroyer is better than your AC/DC tattoo!".

And the winner is...

FIGHT!

mrbobbins wrote:


And the winner is...

FIGHT!

Hahahaha! We should use this to settle every argument.

Woo Elephant Yeah wrote: I think we have to discount all the cross platform titles from any kind of comparison, as titles are coming out for the PC, Wii, 360 and PS3.
To em comparing them on different consoles is pointless, so what you have to really compare (if anything at all) are console specific games/exclusives of which I can see the PS3 having more than the 360.

eh? Like you say, many (maybe even most, of the better ones at least) games are cross platform. Surely the cross platform games are the best way to compare the actual consoles. If Game X is brilliant on one, but shite on the other, thats got to reflect on the console, surely?

Besides that, Im not seeing any evidence that there will be that many more exclusives on PS3 than 360. Gears of War is 360 only, for example. Plus, if it had a million more exclusive, but they were all rubbish, that wouldnt really be an advantage.

Besides, all I meant was that ps3 and 360 are aiming for roughly the same markets. They may be using slightly different tacks, but its close enough, especially for our purposes. 5punkers may choose to buy a wii in addition to one of the other consoles, because they offer vastly different things. I cant imagine theres going to be that many of use buy both 360 and PS3 (except for the people with silly monies) because they offer such similar things that its not worth it. Therefore, its worth comparing the two.

The 360 however will just do what Microsoft has always done, and that's the mass game market in the U.S., which in turn won't bring many 360 exclusive games.

again; eh? You think that because the 360 is aiming at the mass market, and is therefore going to (probably) sell better, that will put off people from signing exlusive deals with microsoft? Totally failing to see the logic there, im afraid.

It's probably just me, but I hate fanboy stuff, especially where people just constantly state their biased opinions based on what they own, and I'm tired of reading the same old shit on review sites.

That much I agree on

Joose wrote:again; eh? You think that because the 360 is aiming at the mass market, and is therefore going to (probably) sell better, that will put off people from signing exlusive deals with microsoft? Totally failing to see the logic there, im afraid.

I just can't see Microsoft going for unknown game developers trying out something completely new, thus making almost every game on the 360's list a cross platform title.

Gears Of War seems to have bucked this trend and hopefully Microsoft might start putting some money into new and interesting games coming out on their console.

I still don't really see the need to compare the same game on both platforms, as who really gives a shit if one looks slightly shinier than on the other? They are almost always the same game, just coded/ported differently to be played on the console.

The controllers are near identical, and other than the PS3 having slightly better graphics, what more is there to compare?

I understand the whole "they are both similar, so surely they ought to be compared more than others" thing, but that just doesn't work for me, I find the whole comparison pointless.

Completely agree on the consoles being similar, but I think the choice on whether to buy one or the other is down to the following :

1) What exclusive games does each console have that you really want
2) How much money have you got to spend
3) Is the Blu-Ray player worth the extra expense
4) How much will the 360 v2 cost (which finally has 1080p output) in comparison to the PS3

As for the games playing differently on each console, I can't for the life of me see anything that would make a real difference other than how well the online stuff works

Woo Elephant Yeah wrote: Completely agree on the consoles being similar, but I think the choice on whether to buy one or the other is down to the following :

1) What exclusive games does each console have that you really want
2) How much money have you got to spend
3) Is the Blu-Ray player worth the extra expense
4) How much will the 360 v2 cost (which finally has 1080p output) in comparison to the PS3

As for the games playing differently on each console, I can't for the life of me see anything that would make a real difference other than how well the online stuff works

soyou are saying there is no point comparing the two....apart from what games they have, how much they cost, whether they have a blue ray player, and thier online play function...

Im sorry, but thats not comparing them?

Joose wrote:
soyou are saying there is no point comparing the two....apart from what games they have, how much they cost, whether they have a blue ray player, and thier online play function...

Im sorry, but thats not comparing them?

Joose goes for the three... NOTHING BUT NET BABY!!!

Yep, basically HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, 1080p or not 1080p (that is the question), exlcusive titles.
Other than that what else is there that makes the 2 consoles significantly any different from one another?

By all means compare the hardware to each other if you are a stats freak, but when it comes to gaming, it's the stuff that is not cross-platform that defines a console and it's success when you look back in years to come.

Here I made this Smug Impact Kitten^TM for you

I owned all of the last generation of consoles, and will probably end up owning all the new ones eventually, simply because there have been and will likely always be what I feel are must-have games exclusive to each of them. There are currently only a couple of games I'm interested in on the 360 and PSP, but I'll likely pick one or both up next time the price drops - I'm guessing April.

I didn't have a favourite system of the last bunch, although where games were released on more than one I tended to go for the Xbox version as it was slightly better graphically and had a greater savegame capacity, unless it was a title I wanted to share with my (mostly PS2-owning) friends or where I wanted to take my savegames to their houses. Sometimes the controller config had an effect - the placement of the thumbsticks was slightly nicer on the PS2 when you had to work them both in a game and the extra back buttons sometimes handy, but the analogue back buttons on the Xbox were quite win in some titles.

It's only silly things like those that made any difference to me, but they were enough for me to notice - I have one XBox-exclusive driving game and no FPSes on it, so I never saw it as a system specifically for them, but it is true that I have a wider range of PS2 titles.

When GTA4 arrives, significantly more people are likely to have 360s than do PS3s, but late next year assuming some essential PS3 exclusives drop it will be worth looking at their relative merits.

Like I say, I aim to have all of them, so which is best (in general) arguments always seemed a bit irrelevant, but I do hope that there is enough difference between the 360 and PS3 that I can feel I'm buying a game for the system best suited to it, rather than thinking I've just shelled out for an identical box with a different name tag on it. When I get my hands on one, I'll be able to answer that.

Woo Elephant Yeah wrote:Here I made this Smug Impact Kitten^TM for you

brilliance!

The only way it matters which console sells more is if it is by such a large margin that another console goes out of business. And I feel with each of the investments put into all of the consoles, this is never gonna happen. So for all of us it doesn't matter which one sells more.

As for the argument over whether to go for Xbox360 or PS3.. I feel the main thing goes down to whether you want the BluRay or not. Because if you want the capability for High def entertainment on Xbox360 its gonna cost about the same as the PS3 anyway.

In my case, I'm avoiding them both. If I could; I'd go for the PS3, mainly because I feel personally that BluRay should be the one to kick-off.. but 2 reasons I won't. I don't want to take the risk that it won't kick-off, and I really can't afford it. (Even if I have 3 months (If not 6? The way Sony are going) to save for it )