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Xbox360 number 1 in US: PS3 floundering? |
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by Mike Bantick
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Saturday, 13 January 2007 |
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Page 1 of 2 The 2006 holiday season has been a big one for Microsofts' gaming division in the US, with sales of the curvy white entertainment box clearly outstripping its next-gen counterparts. Should Nintendo, and especially Sony be concerned?
Using only the US as a guide is somewhat misleading, and really the sales of all games consoles this time around has been phenomenal for all camps. It is also fair to say that Sales figures - and I will refer to some below, so beware - can easily be played with. Check out this 1Up story for example.
But for most of us, perception is reality, and the cold hard facts are, that unless you can get units into homes, support for a particular device will falter. So let's check out the vibe.
For the November and December months last year, the Xbox 360 outsold its Next-Gen rivals, the Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3 combined. This gives the Xbox 360 a dominant 51% market share in the US.
There are of course many possible reasons for this take up. The obvious ones are the fact that supply was able to keep pace with demand, and the year head start Microsoft had on its rivals, enabling improved developer content due to a familiarity with the system. Games such as Gears of War helped propel the device.
The Microsoft Live experience is also, so far, unparalleled in quality.
But what about the other two? Over at MCV there is a report that the Nintendo Wii is increasing in popularity as time goes on. This can probably be explained by a word of mouth factor. The Wii is defiantly a novel experience that transcends interests. Increasing the demographic of a 'gamer' was a central aim of Nintendo, and is manifesting itself in phenomenal sales.
Meanwhile, the PS3 is providing solid sales for Sony, but the word on the cyber street is that Sony is inflating "sales figures" simply to increase the hype. There are many reports about supply outstripping demand in major retailers.
This is not unexpected in my view. The PS3 is positioning itself as more of niche product, with a great deal being bet on the Blu-ray market of high definition video for early adopting technophiles.
Over at eproductwars.com, at least at the time of writing, Blu-ray sales have fought back to be almost level pegging with HD-DVD - this is mainly due to sales of PS3. But one wonders how the cheap HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 may yet swing this battle. Even though there was much techno-chest-beating at the resent Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas the Blu-ray vs HD-DVD has yet to be won.
So what are my predictions for the gaming arena year to come? See page two.
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Radioactive IT 
