Xbox 360 sales don't worry SouthPeak

PirateThom - 674 days 16 hours ago

It's not that it isn't selling, it's that it sold a lot less in its second year than in its first even though all the big games were last year.

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predator - 674 days 16 hours ago

well considering it didnt have any competion in its first year, and in its seconed it had the ps3 and wii and all the news about rrod, to only sell 2 mill less from 10.4mill to 8.4mill this year. Thats not that bad at all. compare that to the ps3 and sales are neck and neck if you were not to count the 360's first year.

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shine1396 - 674 days 15 hours ago

did they actually sell 10.4 million in 'first year'. didn't they announce that number january last year, so technically its a year and a bit with two christmases. November 2005 to january 2007- christmas sales make huge difference. but still if that's how you want to count it, you should really be fair and count the second year like that as well. From november 2006 to january end of 2008. its going to give a bump.

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mikeslemonade - 674 days 15 hours ago

360 sales slowing down is inevitable. Tell me which games in 2008 will replace the Halo 3, Gears of War also impacted early 2007, Bioshock, Crackdown, and Mass Effect? Ninja Gaiden 2, Too Human, Fable 2, and Alan Wake won't be enough. Alan Wake is unproven and Fable 2 i can use the Killzone argument where xbox supporters say if the first one wasn't good why would the 2nd one be good. Ninja Gaiden 2 is niche and it isn't a 360 owner type of game. Too Human however is the one anticpated title but it won't be enough.

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lesferdinand - 674 days 15 hours ago

It's quite hard to tell how many 360s are out there. In its first year, MS shipped a ridiculous number of 360s when compared to demand. They basically stuffed all the retail channels in order to meet their sales (which for MS means sold to retailers not consumers) targets. For the first couple of months of 2007, they hardly shipped units at all as there were plenty lying on the shelves. Another push was made to reach the 10 million (revised from 12 million) shipped target at the end of Q2 2007, yet again stuffing the retail channels.

The RROD issue confuses matters even more. With a failure rate of about 30% (some sources report an even higher percentage) it's not unlikely that a fair number of 360s shipped are in fact replacements.

So MS shipped less in 2007 than in 2006 but this doesn't necessarily mean that fewer 360s were sold to consumers in 2007 vs 2006.

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mikeslemonade - 674 days 15 hours ago

It's known that microsoft inflated the 2006 numbers, so they did sell more in 2007 but not by much. However in 2007 they had way better games then they did in 2006. 2008 games will probably only be as good as the 2006 lineup. It's clear Microsoft put almost all their eggs into 2007 kowing the PS3 was going to be released. It started with Gears of War and then Halo 3.

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FirstknighT - 674 days 14 hours ago

...your wrong in most of your accounts. The first Fable was a fantastic game that averaged an 85%. The first Killzone was waaaaaay below that. Ninja Gaiden 2 will be a huge hit. I can see that you really don't even know what is coming out on the 360. You left out one of the greatest franchises ever created in Splinter Cell. A game that always averages in the high 9's. The 360 is in no hurry to fix things.

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mikeslemonade - 674 days 14 hours ago

You mean Splinter Cell 5 the game that comes out every year? That game isn't going to sell systems. The 360 already has a hardcore install base they need games that expand not cater to the same Halo 3 type gamer. Give me a good reason why 360 will sell better this year. I don't know why you can't admit that the 2008 lineup is weaker than 2007 lineup. Are you saying Halo 3, Gears, Mass Effect, Crackdown, Bioshock, and Lost Planet aren't good games?

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PirateThom - 674 days 13 hours ago

"A game that always averages in the high 9's"

http://www.metacritic.com/s...

85 is not high 9s

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Sayai jin - 674 days 13 hours ago

@mikeslemonade-When you say Alan Wake is unproven, it's called having a new IP, GOW, bioshock, and Crackdown was "Unproven" as there were new IP's, but did exceptionally well. The games you say that will not be enough is you opinion, but you are only stating some of the games. Well one big blockbuster will be Gears of War 2. Gears of War increased XBL Membership by a estimated 40% or more. Some reports state that it increased by 60%. Many argue that this was due to the 48 hour free subscription, but as we know now with over 10 million users most of those people subscribed to the service. Let's see other games I think that will have a huge impact will be Splinter Cell: Conviction, Huxley, etc. Also even those games like GTA and DMC for are multi paltform, they used to be Sony exlcusive, but now there are on the 306 as well. This is huge, but many oversight it. I expect some big some new IP's announce by MS at GDC this year.

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lesferdinand - 674 days 11 hours ago

"This is huge, but many oversight it."

It might be big but it's also old news.

DMC is not a system seller in the West but it sure could give the PS3 a push in Japan. GTA went from a timed exclusive to a non-exclusive. It might definitely motivate some people to get a next gen system but whether that will be a bigger boost for 360 than for PS3 remains to be seen. Not sure whether slapping a big "Will future exclusive content in a few month's time for which you will have to fork out but a small aditional fee" will lead to many extra copies sold (and systems pushed) with the average consumer. ;)

It might prevent the hardcore of getting a second system though. Although most (non-fanboys) already have.

360 (and probably MS in general) aren't strong (in the sense of loved, not known) brands anywhere outside the US. That's not going to change with nabbing a couple of exclusives from the competition. Especially when the real competition is another player than originally envisioned.

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lesferdinand - 674 days 14 hours ago

"SouthPeak CEO Melanie Mroz says she isn't worried about slowing sales of Xbox 360 hardware in its second full year on sale."

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Kigmal - 674 days 15 hours ago

and Monster Madness, which I might add both sucked major catastrophic ballsacks. Who cares what Southpeak says, make a good game for once in your life and maybe we'll listen.

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doomsonyman - 674 days 15 hours ago

TWO WORLDS was a sad game

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lesferdinand - 674 days 11 hours ago

Except that the 360 had a price drop in the not too distant past and there is no next one imminent.

Last time I looked at vgchartz, 360 had the same (slow) pace of PS2 during its first year, but it's starting to lag behing PS2 in the second. Wii on the other hand keeps outperforming PS2.

Personally, I'm not worried (I couldn't really care too much about console sales other than the fact that it's a factor for developers in deciding what platform to develop for) but I don't think MS is too happy about this. It might be an indication that, while 360 has been hugely successful in converting xbox owners into 360 owners, they haven't made much progress in the non-hardcore market.

MS hoped that the 360 would be the new PS2. Turned out to be (so far) that the Wii is the new PS2, but on steroids.

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