zewone said:
I'm really surprised at how close the PS3/360 SFIV sales are.
I don't see what's so surprising about this.
- Simultaneous Release
- "Hardcore Game" (Most PS3 owners that regularly buy games at this point are "Hardcore" due to the price)
- High-Crossover Console Ownership for PS3 Owners
- Superior Stock D-pad on PS3
- Free Online on PS3 for a very multi-centric game
If you look at these points it's no surprise that the PS3 version performed strongly. Why did it still lose?
- PS3's Much Smaller Userbase
If the userbases were the same size, then the PS3 version would have run away with it. But they aren't, and likely never will.
The only question in my mind is: which single factor was the one that swayed so many multi-owners to go PS3 for this title? Was it the d-pad or the free online? If it was the former then that doesn't help Sony much in the big picture since the D-Pad is not the focus in most modern games. If it was the latter then we may be seeing a shift that may ultimately result in MS re-evaluating LIVE's price structure.