Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 08 April 2008 14:21
Opinion and Analysis
Page 3 of 5
It must be remembered that this moment in the sales calendar is not the time of year that consoles or consumer electronics equipment is flying off the shelves. People have just paid off their credit cards after Christmas, they’re worried about the global financial sub-prime crisis, rising oil prices, inflation, rising food prices and more.
Entertainment items – from any manufacturer – can wait until the mid-year sales, or even until Christmas.
People are also buying games for themselves or their children at nearly $100 a pop for their existing consoles, something else that is eating into the family budget.
I can confidently predict retailers will see plenty more sales of ALL their gear in the lead up to the mid-year sales. Then – surprise, surprise, they’ll drop off, until we get into the lead up of the Christmas/end-of-year/holiday shopping season. It’s called the sales cycle, I’m sure retailers have heard of it.
So, back to the Xbox 360. It’s Microsoft’s entry into the world of SD and HD TV show and movie downloads, IPTV, music downloads and also wireless media centres for the Windows XP and Vista platforms equipped with the Windows Media Center.
Based on the number of consoles Microsoft has sold worldwide, I can only imagine they’re very, very happy.
Surely they are working on more games, more features, the rumoured Xbox 360
motion controller we wrote about earlier today, a potential Blu-ray HD add-on (even though they keep on denying it, something companies regularly do until they suddenly launch what they have been denying) and... without doubt... the Xbox 360’s successor, be it the 720, 361, 362 or whatever Microsoft decides to call it.
That way, Microsoft will have a fourth generation console to outdo what will then be an ageing PS3 platform and a seriously underpowered Wii platform, once again leading the world into the next level of gaming.
Smarthouse also notes that Sony expect to sell 200,000 more PS3’s this year. Something tells me Microsoft expects to sell plenty more Xbox 360’s this year too, as would Nintendo expect to shift truckloads more Wii’s.
So what does Smarthouse say that Cidade said that I’m quoting next in this battle of the broadband capable gaming consoles? You’ve come this far. Can you turn back, or will you read on to page 4?
