PS2 outselling XBox 360

[mwgiii]

PlayStation 2 outselling Xbox 360 in US

6/11/2006 4:11:49 PM, by Ken Fisher
http://red.as-us.falkag.net/dat/bgf...715,21621,14658,380,630&iid=135897&bid=281247
Like a good soccer match, the monthly sales battles between the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 2 have a lot of exciting back-and-forth. So far, however, the PlayStation 2 has remained in control of the match, outselling the Xbox 360 in six of the seven months since the Xbox 360's debut. The situation is a strong reminder that Sony's PS3 gamble, while huge, has a little more cushioning than is commonly recognized.


Since the release of the Xbox 360, Microsoft has averaged 246,000 console sales each month in the US, while the PS2 has seen an average of 473,000 units—a number bolstered by an estimated 1.5 million sales in December alone. Leaving out December, Sony's average drops to 302,000 per month, still outpacing the Xbox 360 by a healthy margin.


Rest of story:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060611-7030.html

 

[Purogamer]

But also remember there were few 360's to be had for a while, what's the average for the last month or two?

This isn't shocking anyways, 360 doesn't have a Killer App yet, and the library is pretty small even with xbox backwards compatability at about 200 games. PS2 library is enormous. Unless you really want to play Call of Duty 2, it's easy to see why some people would buy a ps2 at this point for 129 with the huge library of franchises available for 20 bucks or less...

This is why I said before that a lot of ps3's will be sold not because of what games it launches with, but because while you wait for the great game to come you can still play the old games you've already got...

 

[T2k]

This is why I said before that a lot of ps3's will be sold not because of what games it launches with, but because while you wait for the great game to come you can still play the old games you've already got...

...which may or may not will be true, depending on your games -= according to Sony, PS3 won't be fully backward compatible, not even close to 100%.

 

[Purogamer]

True, but they know how important it is and know they've got to do a good job. MS learned the hard way their first time out that people want this feature now and they dropped the ball a bit so far. There are some major titles that still don't work.

What bothers me more is that we can have very good xbox emulators and ps2 emulators on these systems, but the code/hacker crowd can't get decent emulators for dreamcast or psone on the computer...Our computers are more powerful than the consoles in most cases, just needs some better programmers...

 

[T2k]

Well, they knew how important was their TV business and look where they are now... or look at music business they used to lead too... or look at PSP w/o TV-out, touchscreen, writeable UMD disc etc... and now remember they knew how important PS3 is yet look what is happening around PS3 for years now...

 

[Stargazer]

If PS2 is selling this much better than XBOX 360 then I can imagine how well the PS3 is going to do. I wonder how the new nintendo will do in comparison? I would expect it to sell quite a few with its lower price.

 

[Purogamer]

Sony spread themselves too thin, but playstation is what keeps their losses from being catastrophic and they know that.

Even if the hardware was a massive failure and nobody bought it, they could just drop the price or fix the hardware, take another big loss and be back on track shortly. Sony isn't hanging on by a thread and will be gone if ps3 fails. They have manuevering room.

 

[Purogamer]

Nintendo will do well with Wii, at launch. Once people get that controller in their hand word will spread and they'll realize how dumb they sound right now...

 

[ebonovic]

Also then...

PS2 - $80 used; $100 Referb, $130 New
XBOX360 - $299 - $399 (if you can find them)

PS2 controllers: <$10
XBOX360 controllers: >$20

We are not really compare apples to apples here...

Heck, I am HUGH XBOX fan, but I am even considering picking up a slim-line PS2 so that my son can play the some "bazillion" library titles...

 

[ebonovic]

PS3 at nearly $500 just for the unit (and you have to get the big one... as it is not like you can "add" the missing features later)

Then add in another $30-$40 a POP for each of the 3 additional controlers for 4 player action... You are looking at nearly $700 (after tax and shipping) just for a 4 player system...

That is a lot of $$... it will sell... but dang.

Especially when us "old timers" (I am 32) look at Wii for $225ish plus another say $120 for controllers, and then possible have access to all the games we played as a kill that made us LOVE video games the way we do today (Zelda, Metroid, Double Dribble, Top Gun, Olympics ... button smashing, Super Mario, RC Pro-Am)... available as DOWNLOADS at our finger tips...

Mix in new versions of our "classic" favorites....

PS3 isn't in my future... Wii is

 

[Purogamer]

But the zelda and mario games today suck compared to the games we grew up with. Mario in 3D just doesn't work...

Where can you buy ps2 controllers for under 10 bucks? You talking about those junk 3rd party ones? Those shouldn't count, sony has always raped us with the costs of controllers and MEMORY CARDS. You have any idea how much money they make off of required memory cards? That's their bread and butter...

 

[T2k]

Yes and that's why they are sinking now - it's not 1986 anymore, not even 1996, people don't buy all of their proprietary sh*t anymore.
Take a look at UMD: it's only a year later and after the first few months of gigantic sales reports and such victorious news now studios are stopping their UMD releases, it's on the verge of silently dying out.
Why?
Because it's expensive to make, so it's expensive on the shelves, it's proprietary, it can't be played on anything else therefore people don't buy it, so it's a sheer loss for the studios. Almost every big studios scaled down their UMD releases, some like Paramount already dropped UMD entirely - only Sony's very own Sony Pictures has high hopes but even they have scaled back as it was reported around March.

 

[Stargazer]

If Microsoft can make twice as much on their XBOX 360 than PS2 then that changes the way we look at the number of sales for each unit. If price is going to be the main influence on purchase then Nintendo will win hands down.

 

[damaged]

These are interesting times in the console industry, I don't see 3 console manufacturers existing at once for too much longer, while competition is good for us, in this industry, you have only so many developers, when they are spread between 2 console systems (some games will be on both consoles, but not all since the devs have to learn 2 different proprietary systems), 2 consoles generally would have more variety, better developed games (since they don't have to rush out 3 versions), with 3 consoles, we have a larger divide, this usually results in the developers choosing a side, eventually someone has to go belly up (like Sega's console division)...now, I wonder which 2 will be left this time.

 

[ShadowEKU]

something else about that... a lot of people are simply replacing their ps2s my next door neighbor just bought his 3rd this month since launch... PS2s jsut simply wear the freak out.

 

[Purogamer]

PS2 sales are a joke. 75 million or more, and i'd say 40 million of those are replacement units, easily...

I see no reason why 3 consoles can't continue to co-exist. Nintendo won't take the hint and the other two aren't going anywhere. If you ever see a special (G4 used to run icons, don't know if they still do) on the crash of the industry, things going on now are eerily similar to just before the crash...

 

[ebonovic]

The $10 PS-2 Controllers...

We have occasionally caught them at Wal-Mart and Target... Usually the mad-catz 3rd party ones, but on a rare occasion we have gotten SONY branded ones from around 15 or so...

But even then..... 3rd party are "sub-standard" to a degree, but none the less they are still an option for the PS-2

 

[Purogamer]

Not for a gamer. For a kid or grandma maybe, but a player wouldn't settle to play with junk controllers unless he had to.