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[Rhindle]

These are all numbers from Screen Digest, printed in MCV. Not the newest numbers, but since Europe-wide sales stats are so hard to come by, I thought I'd type them up.

Console Installed Bases - 3/31/05

PS 29.2
PS2 25.1
N64 5.9
DC 1.6
Xbox 5.2
GCN 3.9
GBA 8.0
GBAsp 7.4
NDS 0.3

European Sell-Thru Change 2004 vs 2003

PS2 -9%
Xbox +7%
GCN -23%
Total -9%

Market Size Rankings (2004)

(1) UK
(2) Spain
(3) France
(4) Germany
(5) Italy
(6) Scandinavia

UK, France and Scandinavia have been shrinking for the past three years. Germany has been expanding.

Software sales in Western Europe were flat in 2004 and will decline slightly in 2005 to about 5.5M Euro.
But they forecast a sharp rise to 6.3M Euro for 2006 as the new hardware kicks in (shout out to my boi Michael Pachter).

 

[John Harker]

Nintendo Abysmal.

Sad, really. Didn't the GC have an insanely good launch, like better than Micro?

 

[jimbo]

Yeah I beleive the GC had the lead over the Xbox for awhile in Europe. I think there was actually a time when the GC outsold the PS2 during one of its price drops, but I'm not sure.

Over time the Xbox took it. I think that was due more to Nintendo's abysmal care for Europe. Because the Xbox never made that kind of jump on GC in the US. It raised its lead at a steady pace here, but there, it just had one huge swing in momentum over the past 2 years with the Xbox up and the GC wayyyy down.

 

[Blimblim]

I dont have the 2004 numbers, but before that GC was ahead of Xbox in France and Spain. I'm pretty sure it was still the case in 2004 for France too.

 

[Project Midway]

Only reason GC had a better launch than Xbox was Xbox being hugely overpriced. MS really dropped the ball on Xbox EU pricing. After few price cuts it was bye-bye gamecube.

 

[Mrbob]

Damn I didnt know the Xbox did so shitty in Europe. MS needs to step it up with tha 360 in Japan and Europe. Looking at that list it seems that Europe only really wants to support one main console. Japan is the same way. North America is the only territory where it seems more than one console can attain success.

 

[Blimblim]

Damn I didnt know the Xbox did so shitty in Europe. MS needs to step it up with tha 360 in Japan and Europe.

This time MS Europe handles everything for the Xbox 360 launch. For Xbox it was Redmond and we all know the results...

 

[cvxfreak]

Nintendo better do something about GC soon - they want to keep the thing within focus of consumers before unleashing the Revolution.

 

[John Harker]

Any statistics out there how well the actual RE4 GC bundle sold there?
It was a cool system, good deal.

Any sales numbers just on that SKU?

 

[thorns]

No wonder software sales are abysmal here.. ridiculously high prices + blatant piracy (about everyone who has an xbox has it modded here in sweden).

 

[Funky Papa]

Funny, I was going to post some sales numbers but I thought it wasn't necessary since my threads are usually ignored :lol

Sad, really. Didn't the GC have an insanely good launch, like better than Micro?

Good? Yes. Better than MS? Also. Insanely Good? No way. It was more like the typical PR fluff, Nintendo had a good launch but it was not something mindblowing by any means.

Yeah I beleive the GC had the lead over the Xbox for awhile in Europe.

Actually GC was a competitive piece of hardware for some time, specially since some gits at MS managed to screw the Xbox launch in the worst possible way. It took a lot of time (and money) to MS to recover from the blow. The thing is that MS has managed to invert the situation with low but constant sales whereas Nintendo has had lots of problems moving new units from the shelves because of the struggling release lists. Waiting several months for the next great game is not something that gamers like.

I dont have the 2004 numbers, but before that GC was ahead of Xbox in France and Spain.

IIRC GC's lead over the Xbox in Spain is just a 0.6% for 2004, the difference is so tiny it is negligible.

BTW if find those "Market Size Rankings" numbers highly suspicious. Spain is #4 AFAIK (we were #7 last year IIRC, quite a jump) unless they are talking about market increases and not plain sizes.

Any statistics out there how well the actual RE4 GC bundle sold there?

I believe that bundles are internally tracked, but according to GFK the game had nice sales over Europe, specially given the installed base.

Nintendo is no longer my favourite videogame company but I've been a fan for years and hurts me to see what they are doing. They have improved the marketing, but the brand image remains unchanged (kiddy, slow, quirky) and release lists are still painful for the average consumer. They need to get their shit together unless they feel comfortable with their current Apple-like status.

 

[gofreak]

So, marketshare for the current gen systems in Europe:

PS2: 70.1%
Xbox: 14.5%
GC: 10.9%
DC: 4.5%

Interesting to note that Europe is almost as strong for Sony as Japan. Xbox and GC have simply switched places, but with less of a bias toward Xbox as there is toward GC in Japan.

Europe will be the market to watch next gen, IMO.

 

[MrPing1000]

doubt it ps3 will win xbox 2nd and nintendo 3rd. NOE needs a mind wipe THEN GO TO MARS!

ohh and the uk is EA country, my fellow countrymen have shit taste advertising leads them too easily

 

[Funky Papa]

Europe=Sonyland. Here console is spelled PlayStation, as simple as that.

Now, this is something to study. We got screwed with release dates, we've been fucked with 50Hz and black bars for ages, they rape us with ludicrous hardware prices YET we buy everything with the Sony brand. I really hope Sony realizes how important we are for their PS3 launch, but we've been done again with the PSP so I am not keeping my hopes high.

 

[gofreak]

doubt it ps3 will win xbox 2nd and nintendo 3rd. NOE needs a mind wipe THEN GO TO MARS!

I mean more because it might start creeping up on the US as the largest market for games. Plus you'd think MS might have a chance to eat into more of Sony's marketshare here vs, say, Japan (although, to be honest, I'm not sure how deserving MS is of success here looking at their current X360 plans and how they handled Xbox here).

 

[Blimblim]

I mean more because it might start creeping up on the US as the largest market for games. Plus you'd think MS might have a chance to eat into more of Sony's marketshare here vs, say, Japan (although, to be honest, I'm not sure how deserving MS is of success here looking at their current X360 plans and how they handled Xbox here).

What's so bad about the current X360 plans?

 

[typhonsentra]

About what I expected as far as sales go.

 

[iapetus]

We got screwed with release dates, we've been fucked with 50Hz and black bars for ages, they rape us with ludicrous hardware prices YET we buy everything with the Sony brand.

You're delusional if you think it's a purely Sony thing - and I'd say there's a strong case for saying they're not the worst offenders by a long way. PSX was actually one of the better-priced consoles in its mid to late life - don't forget that it wasn't that long ago that £1 = $1 was pretty much an industry standard for console pricing. These days that doesn't tend to last much past launch.

If you want screwed with release dates, look at Nintendo games. If you want raping with ludicrous hardware prices, try XBox at launch. If you want fuckery with 50Hz and black bars then blame Square and Capcom (though Sony should have slapped them into order in the same way Sega did). Not that Sony doesn't do the same things, just that they're not the only ones.

 

[gofreak]

What's so bad about the current X360 plans?

Quite frankly it's coming too soon, in Europe at the very least. That's the biggie. How many Christmasses has Xbox seen in Europe? 3? The more I think about it, the more pissed off I should be at MS (especially given that as an owner, I was only there for 2 of those Christmasses - and many more only had one, buying the system for Halo2).

The focus on HD is also meaningless in Europe.

 

[thorns]

Does anyone have market share numbers just for 2004? xbox has been doing really well through 2004 I believe, after some better pricing and a solid lineup.

 

[Excelion]

UK, France and Scandinavia have been shrinking for the past three years. Germany has been expanding.

Software sales in Western Europe were flat in 2004 and will decline slightly in 2005 to about 5.5M Euro.

It's wrong for France, GFK reports +11% in 2004 (1.17€ billion) and +8% is expected in 2005.

L’ambiance était, à juste titre, plombée et ce ne furent pas les quelques questions de journalistes qui ramenèrent un peu de sérénité dans la salle de conférence du SELL, mais un bilan des loisirs interactifs troussé avec beaucoup de talent, comme de coutume, par François Klipfel pour GfK. Et paradoxe des paradoxes, après avoir dit combien le jeu vidéo français est sous assistance respiratoire : les loisirs interactifs et le jeu vidéo ne se sont jamais aussi bien portés commercialement. Au point d’être plus gros en chiffre d’affaires que le cinéma en 2004, et sans doute plus gros que la musique en 2005 !

Avec un taux d’équipement en micro-ordinateurs de 45% fin 2004 (on dépasse les 46% aujourd’hui) et une croissance spectaculaire de l’équipement en consoles de jeux (+56% en 10 ans !), la France n’est pas – loin s’en faut – à la traîne … Le chiffre d’affaires, grâce à l’effet levier de cet équipement en croissance, a cru de 11% en 2004 à 1,17 milliards d’euros. Un dynamisme qui permet aux jeux et logiciels de loisirs, qui ont connu en 2004 une croissance de CA presque cinq fois supérieure à celle des autres produits de loisirs, de réaliser un petit exploit : placer 4 titres parmi les 20 meilleures ventes de produits culturels l’an passé, avec notamment GTA San Andreas (Rockstar) qui arrive en 2ème position (plus de 38 millions d’euros de CA soit 17 millions de plus que le livre Da Vinci Code !).

François Klipfel est formel : les perspectives pour 2005 sont excellentes ! (Raison de plus pour enrager de la situation, semble vouloir dire la moue de Jean-Claude Larue). On doit même s’attendre à une année historique ! Facteur justifiant un tel optimisme : le lancement à l’E3 de plusieurs nouvelles consoles, qui devraient se vendre à plus de 2,8 millions d’unités d’ici la fin de l’année … Avec, pour la première fois, une prépondérance des plateformes portables (DS, PSP, N-Gage, Gizmondo, etc.) et un boum parallèle des jeux sur téléphones mobiles. En valeur, le marché devrait atteindre les 444 millions d’euros, soit une croissance impressionnante de +32%.

Le marché des CD-Rom PC ne sera pas en reste, même si les taux de croissance attendus devraient être moins impressionnants : de l’ordre de +8% en volumes.

Au total, le marché des loisirs interactifs devrait dépasser sans coup férir les 1,5 milliards d’euros en 2005 (+8%) ce qui en fait un loisir culturel majeur des français. Nos gouvernants puissent-ils s’en apercevoir …

 

[iapetus]

Quite frankly it's coming too soon, in Europe at the very least. That's the biggie. How many Christmasses has Xbox seen in Europe? 3? The more I think about it, the more pissed off I should be at MS (especially given that as an owner, I was only there for 2 of those Christmasses - and many more only had one, buying the system for Halo2).

The focus on HD is also meaningless in Europe.

I disagree on both fronts. What you're saying with the first is that once a company delays a system it should delay all subsequent systems so that the original isn't seen as having a short life? I'm more than happy to chalk up the short life of the XBox to problems with the XBox launch, not the 360 - I want simultaneous hardware launches (or at least a minimised delay) and if MS provide that, then this is a good thing.

As for the focus on HD, I'll probably end up buying an HDTV for XBox 360 at some point - 32" LCD models are coming down to the £750 sort of level, and as the price comes down it's going to become more widespread. The next-gen consoles are going to help drive uptake, not depend on it.

 

[gofreak]

I disagree on both fronts. What you're saying with the first is that once a company delays a system it should delay all subsequent systems so that the original isn't seen as having a short life? I'm more than happy to chalk up the short life of the XBox to problems with the XBox launch, not the 360 - I want simultaneous hardware launches (or at least a minimised delay) and if MS provide that, then this is a good thing.

Xbox should be a 2006 console everywhere, IMO. The problem is just amplified in Europe. They are killing Xbox prematurely, there is far more technical potential there than in any of the other systems, yet they're basically killing it a year earlier than any of the others. It could easily see itself through another year. That way, we'd also be getting a late 2006 machine, and all that means technologically, versus a late 2005 machine. It's a much better scenario for the consumer...the reasons they're launching in 2005 have little to do with the product or the consumer (for the latter, particularly in Europe), so I'm not sure why I should be pleased about it. Who wouldn't be happy, or happier, if MS had announced a significantly more powerful, and more featured system for a worldwide Nov 06 launch? I'd have preferred that.

All I know is there are going to be a lot of pissed people who only bought a Xbox in the last 12-24 months. People here won't forget its short lifespan.

 

[Nick Laslett]

Console Installed Bases - 3/31/05

PS 29.2
PS2 25.1
N64 5.9
DC 1.6
Xbox 5.2
GCN 3.9
GBA 8.0
GBAsp 7.4
NDS 0.3

Market Size Rankings (2004)

(1) UK
(2) Spain
(3) France
(4) Germany
(5) Italy
(6) Scandinavia

Wow, these Playstation numbers are truely astounding. I know that the other consoles had a smaller user base, but I didn't realise the gap was 20million to the next nearest competitor.

One problem Microsoft will have to contend with more in Europe than in the US, is the incredibily short lifespan of the Xbox. The Xbox was launched in March 2002 at £299. For the first 6 months the sales were abysmal and there were 4 price drops until we hit the magic figure of £149 in March 2003. Microsoft then bundles Splinter Cell and another game with the XBox at £149. Sales in the UK began to take off. But that was only 2 years ago.

There was an Xbox shortage over Christmas this year and now that the 360 has been unveiled, hardware sales will decline sharply. The sentiment in Europe for your average Xbox owner, discovering that the console they have only owned for a very short time is about to be replaced can not be a good one. With such a small user base publishers have very little incentive but to only convert the biggest selling titles. Games releases will dry up quicker in Europe than in the US due to the extra conversion costs.

At lot of Xbox owners have already been through the demise of the DC. It is not nice owning a console and 2 years later finding the games have dried up. People want to associate themselves with successful products that reflect their sensibilities. In the UK that means you have a PS2. Sony have demonstrated again to the average consumer* that owning a different console just means you miss out. (*The Hardcore are very happy with their Xboxes.)

 

[Project Midway]

As for the focus on HD, I'll probably end up buying an HDTV for XBox 360 at some point - 32" LCD models are coming down to the £750 sort of level, and as the price comes down it's going to become more widespread. The next-gen consoles are going to help drive uptake, not depend on it.

Yeah, I agree. There's a lot of interest in flat screens and 720p 27"-32" prices are plummeting really fast.

 

[Funky Papa]

If you want screwed with release dates, look at Nintendo games. If you want raping with ludicrous hardware prices, try XBox at launch. If you want fuckery with 50Hz and black bars then blame Square and Capcom (though Sony should have slapped them into order in the same way Sega did). Not that Sony doesn't do the same things, just that they're not the only ones.

I already stated that in my first post, my surpise comes from Sony doing it while keeping their gigantic market share

 

[sol5377]

For those people in Europe who feel Xbox 360 is coming out a year too early: Just hold off on buying on until November '06 and pretend it doesn't exist. The Xbox will still receive support (mostly 3rd party) through '06. Once you've had your 4 Xbox holidays under your belt, then you can move onto Xbox 360 with it's lower priced launch games and it's 2nd wave of titles coming out and you can choose your pick of the litter. The 360 will have also probably received a price drop by then.

 

[iapetus]

I already stated that in my first post, my surpise comes from Sony doing it while keeping their gigantic market share

Well, as long as everyone else does it then there's nothing consumers who want to play games can do about it. I thought Nintendo were going to have an impact on that front with a very promising launch as far as screwing Europe over went, but alas they quickly reverted to form.

 

[Wax Free Vanilla]

What are the UK sales for top dog and xbox?

Top Dog = PS2

 

[SantaC]

No wonder software sales are abysmal here.. ridiculously high prices + blatant piracy (about everyone who has an xbox has it modded here in sweden)

where in sweden do you live?

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

The relation among places makes Europe look a lot like Japan, except there's a third console which isn't hugely behind the second. Also much weaker in portables.

 

[bigNman]

PS 29.2
N64 5.9

Wow, I didnt think the n64 got raped that badly.

 

[HokieJoe]

Xbox should be a 2006 console everywhere, IMO. The problem is just amplified in Europe. They are killing Xbox prematurely, there is far more technical potential there than in any of the other systems, yet they're basically killing it a year earlier than any of the others. It could easily see itself through another year. That way, we'd also be getting a late 2006 machine, and all that means technologically, versus a late 2005 machine. It's a much better scenario for the consumer...the reasons they're launching in 2005 have little to do with the product or the consumer (for the latter, particularly in Europe), so I'm not sure why I should be pleased about it. Who wouldn't be happy, or happier, if MS had announced a significantly more powerful, and more featured system for a worldwide Nov 06 launch? I'd have preferred that.

All I know is there are going to be a lot of pissed people who only bought a Xbox in the last 12-24 months. People here won't forget its short lifespan.

Uhhh, from what I've read they aren't halting production on the Xbox concurrent with the 360 release. Game development won't stop either. From what I've read, it will be a migration, not a revolution (no pun intended).

 

[monchi-kun]

here's the gamasutra article

European Game Hardware Figures Discussed
New game-related statistics, printed in UK trade paper MCV and relayed from from survey firm Screen Digest, have given a rare insight into hardware sales across Europe. Although the figures are largely in-line with long-held assumptions about the European market, they do hold some interesting surprises.

In particular, the installed hardware user base for each of the current generation consoles, as of March 31st 2005, includes the PlayStation 2 at 25.1 million, the Game Boy Advance: 15.4 million (with 8.0m for the GBA, and 7.4m for the GBA SP), the Xbox at 5.2 million units, and the GameCube at 3.9 million units. The Nintendo DS, having only just launched at the time of the survey, was at 0.3 million units, and the survey also notes that the original PlayStation was the largest single European platform, with 29.2 million units.

Sell-through figures for 2004, compared to 2003, are down 9 percent for the PlayStation, up 7 percent for the Xbox and down 23 percent for the GameCube, according to the report. Overall, the hardware market across Europe has been down 9 percent over the last year, although with few other figures to go by, this may simply be due to the current generation of consoles being in their final years.

General wisdom usually has it that Germany is the largest single market in Europe, but Screen Digest’s figures show that the biggest is in fact the UK, followed by Spain, France, Germany, Italy and Scandinavia. The PC market is particularly vibrant in Germany though, and much less important in the UK, which would account for the discrepancy in these rankings. More information is available in Screen Digest's full report released in March, and named: 'European Interactive Games: The 2005 State of the Industry Report'.

Over the course of the next generation, many analysts expect the PAL-compatible game market (which includes Europe, Australasia, the Middle East and Africa) to exceed North America as the largest single market in the world. However, the difficulties with multiple different languages, cultures and laws are still likely to make North America and Japan more initially accessible markets for both hardware manufacturers and software publishers.

-David Jenkins

 

[gofreak]

Uhhh, from what I've read they aren't halting production on the Xbox concurrent with the 360 release. Game development won't stop either. From what I've read, it will be a migration, not a revolution (no pun intended).

It's naive to expect much support for Xbox beyond 360's release, or for it to be a focus of developer attention, at least for "prestige" titles. Quality releases - or quality exclusives, more precisely - are already drying up - and IIRC, all first party development has now switched to X360. And production is stopping this summer, i think (at least Nvidia is stopping NV2A production, if they haven't already).

Xbox should be having a bountiful year, but they're killing it at what should be its peak. They're just not following through with Xbox like I thought they would and should - there are millions of new users who bought in last year, during what usually would be a system's mid-cycle, and they'd expect more than this. They're not going to be served as well as they should be now.

I know I'd prefer another 12 months of technically mature, late cycle quality, exclusive games and a more powerful and more featured console in Nov 2006 over the short cycle we've had with Xbox and a 2005 X360. Who here would have been unhappy with a 2006 release? It's perhaps pointless to discuss now, since X360 is a 2005 release and that's it, but the sentiments expressed here do exist.

All IMO, of course.

 

[Vennt]

It's naive to expect much support for Xbox beyond 360's release, or for it to be a focus of developer attention, at least for "prestige" titles. Quality releases - or quality exclusives, more precisely - are already drying up - and IIRC, all first party development has now switched to X360. And production is stopping this summer, i think (at least Nvidia is stopping NV2A production, if they haven't already).

Xbox should be having a bountiful year, but they're killing it at what should be its peak. They're just not following through with Xbox like I thought they would and should - there are millions of new users who bought in last year, during what usually would be a system's mid-cycle, and they'd expect more than this. They're not going to be served as well as they should be now.

I know I'd prefer another 12 months of technically mature, late cycle quality, exclusive games and a more powerful and more featured console in Nov 2006 over the short cycle we've had with Xbox and a 2005 X360. Who here would have been unhappy with a 2006 release? It's perhaps pointless to discuss now, since X360 is a 2005 release and that's it, but the sentiments expressed here do exist.

All IMO, of course.

As a late Xbox purchaser I can only say I agree wholeheartedly with this, I'd feel different if I'd bought one at launch, but the fact remains that due to the way timing has worked out the Xbox will have been one of my consoles I feel I'll never really see the full benefit of, a bit like the DC in some regards

 

[sonycowboy]

It's naive to expect much support for Xbox beyond 360's release, or for it to be a focus of developer attention, at least for "prestige" titles. Quality releases are already drying up - and IIRC, all first party development has now switched to X360. And production is stopping this summer, i think (at least Nvidia is stopping NV2A production, if they haven't already).

Xbox should be having a bountiful year, but they're killing it at what should be its peak. They're just not following through with Xbox like I thought they would and should - there are millions of new users who bought in last year, during what usually would be a system's mid-cycle, and they'd expect more than this. They're not going to be served as well as they should be now.

I know I'd prefer another 12 months of technically mature, late cycle quality games and a more powerful and more featured console in Nov 2006 over the short cycle we've had with Xbox and a 2005 X360. Who here would have been unhappy with a 2006 release? It's perhaps pointless to discuss now, since X360 is a 2005 release and that's it, but the sentiments expressed here do exist.

All IMO, of course.

The Xbox should get significant multiplatform development well into 2007 at the least. Developers are assuredly going to do so for the PS2 and should be able to do the Xbox without much additional effort.

The only caveat to this is if the market dies and people don't buy those multiplatform games from EA,Activision, Ubisoft, Midway, etc. If it doesn't sell, then publisher's won't take the risk of the moderate development time, but potentially more costly would be the software inventory if half went unpurchased.

It will be interesting to see where the XBox fan base goes in the next year or so. Obviously, many will go to the 360, but out of the 20M, the next year would likely only see 5-7M users do this. That leaves another 13-15M Xbox owners out there.

Although, I do agree that we will see very little, if any at all, of high profile exclusive titles.

 

[Solid]

Console Installed Bases - 3/31/05

PS 29.2
N64 5.9

PS2 25.1
DC 1.6
Xbox 5.2
GCN 3.9

Ouch :lol

 

[sonycowboy]

NDS 0.3

I know that it just launched on March 11th in Europe, but I thought the DS had a much better launch than this??

 

[radioheadrule83]

I know that it just launched on March 11th in Europe, but I thought the DS had a much better launch than this??

Yeah as I recall, Nintendo had done 600k or something rather quickly... before March 31st I'm sure of it. Perhaps DS sales were under-projected. GfK are either playing catch up, they've got the value outright wrong, or Nintendo were spinning/lying.

Wow, I didnt think the n64 got raped that badly.

Nintendo were of course beaten by Sony, but another reason for the large gap is that for all intents and purposes, Nintendo ceased N64 sales, while Sony - to their credit - kept the PlayStation alive right up until today arguably.

 

[jarrod]

The Xbox should get significant multiplatform development well into 2007 at the least. Developers are assuredly going to do so for the PS2 and should be able to do the Xbox without much additional effort.

I'd say it depends more on how willing to support Xbox shelf space Microsoft is. It might not be worth splitting/diverting resources that could go to Xbox 360. Then again, if they "pull a Sega" it could hurt them with publishers... early 2006 should be telling.

 

[sonycowboy]

I'd say it depends more on how willing to support Xbox shelf space Microsoft is. It might not be worth splitting/diverting resources that could go to Xbox 360. Then again, if they "pull a Sega" it could hurt them with publishers... early 2006 should be telling.

Well, we all but know that Xbox hardware will be gone in short order, so shelf space is a retail/publisher concern, not a Microsoft one. Microsoft is not going to pay retailers to stock Xbox software. Publishers will push for them to do so, but as I said before, it's all about how the sales fall. If the installed base moves on, then the format will be dead and releases will quickly dry up ala Dreamcast & the N64.

Microsoft, also, will not refuse to manufacture Xbox software for as long as any of the major publishers want to publish it.

 

[Lionheart]

I know that it just launched on March 11th in Europe, but I thought the DS had a much better launch than this??

On March 31st Nintendo released this press release, that said over 500.000 (77 % of shipped units) were sold until Easter Saturday (probably the 26th).

Quite a gap with the 0.3 million that is reported here indeed.

Other 'real' numbers that we had were for UK launch, where 87.000 were sold were sold in the first two days.

 

[jarrod]

Well, we all but know that Xbox hardware will be gone in short order, so shelf space is a retail/publisher concern, not a Microsoft one. Microsoft is not going to pay retailers to stock Xbox software. Publishers will push for them to do so, but as I said before, it's all about how the sales fall. If the installed base moves on, then the format will be dead and releases will quickly dry up ala Dreamcast & the N64.

Microsoft, also, will not refuse to manufacture Xbox software for as long as any of the major publishers want to publish it.

Er, don't the console makers "pay" for shelf space? It's not simply up to 3rd party publishers pushing retail, if Microsoft doesn't ensure shelf space for Xbox software, then there simply won't be any.

 

[gofreak]

Nintendo were of course beaten by Sony, but another reason for the large gap is that for all intents and purposes, Nintendo ceased N64 sales, while Sony - to their credit - kept the PlayStation alive right up until today arguably.

It's interesting to note that globally, since PS2's launch, Sony has sold well over 20m PSones..

 

[sonycowboy]

Er, don't the console makers "pay" for shelf space? It's not simply up to 3rd party publishers pushing retail, if Microsoft doesn't ensure shelf space for Xbox software, then there simply won't be any.

No. They don't. At least not for "other" publishers. Most publishers don't "pay" for shelf space on a regular basis. They'll pay to be the "vendor of the month" or to get a front line title POP's stuff visible, but it's not like they have to pay to get into a store.

And the Xbox stuff won't be the "premiere" stuff in a retail store, with the exception that a version of a big title (eg. Madden) will have prominent shelf space.

 

[sonycowboy]

It's interesting to note that globally, since PS2's launch, Sony has sold well over 20m PSones..

Actually, it's 28.5M. The PS2 came out before the PSOne in Japan and only a month before the PS2 in the US..

So, by far the majority of PSOne sales were after the PS2 launched. In fact, the PSOne outsold the Xbox & GC in 2001 & 2002.

 

[gofreak]

Actually, it's 28.5M. The PS2 came out before the PSOne in Japan and only a month before the PS2 in the US..

So, by far the majority of PSOne sales were after the PS2 launched. In fact, the PSOne outsold the Xbox & GC in 2001 & 2002.

I was counting really only from 2001, which I thought was fair enough Especially if comparisons to Xbox/GC are to be made.

Kinda scary!

 

[SolidSnakex]

Kinda scary!

It makes that 130+m sales from the PS2 that some are thinking it can do seem that much more likely though.

 

[gofreak]

It makes that 130+m sales from the PS2 that some are thinking it can do seem that much more likely though.

I'd be surprised. The slim version has been out a little while now, it's not like it'll be a fresh kickstart to sales again post-PS3. Though there's still the pricecuts.

It'll be interesting to watch, for sure.