Support NeoGAF

[V_Arnold]

The 360 probably top the DS as the biggest comeback ever in a console race with a relaunch.

The casual effect of the DS started in June 2005 with Nintendogs and Brain Age (along with hardcore-friendly titles like Mario Kart DS and many others), and the hardware pricedrop and revision (DS Lite) that immediately followed totally did a 180 and kill the PSP in one blow.

Now the 360 did similar things with the hardware revision (360 Slim) in summer, and then casual effect of the Kinect in November, along with an insane number of gift card and price drop deal (down from the already-low $200 4GB model) at retailers.

It's hard not to win the race. Both case give reason for existing userbase to upgrade, core gamers (without DS/360) to hop on the bandwagon, and casual gamers to get noticed of the product.

As much as I love 360 (shaping up to one of my favorites easily, even if thanks to a lot of multiplayers games also), it simply cannot be compared to the DS. The DS had one weak west year, and then completely dominated the 3 biggest gaming market in the world (hardware-wise at least, and with a selection of software also), while 360 can only say this in regards of the US market, and maybe to the UK. Japan is an improvement over the total failure of the first console, but it is still nowhere near good. Rest of Eu is again a problematic spot. It is not comparable to what DS achieved.

 

[Pooya]

UPDATE
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6285151.html

Pachter also noted that one third of PS3 sales were $400 PlayStation Move bundles, versus one half of all Xbox 360 purchases being Kinect bundles. (There are two Kinect bundles, a $300 4GB model and $400 250GB model.) "Xbox 360 Kinect console bundles outsold PS3 Move console bundles by more than 5 to 1," said the analyst.

 

[Saint Gregory]

The problem with Wii is that it's just too damm fine right now for a sucessor.

Nintendo still has room for at least 2 price drops to re-ignite demand before a sucessor comes out ($169 and $149). Sony and MS approach with move and kinect just buys nintendo more time.

The best strategy for them now is milk every drop as possible from Wii until hardware prices goes down enough for them to release a Wii 2 with "current gen" graphics but dirty cheap to make.

Realistically I know this, it was more of a personal plea. I'm really aching for some new home console action and I'm starting to take MS and Sony seriously about their "no new consoles anytime soon" claims. Nintendo has arguably their best holiday software line-up for the Wii since launch but damn if the system isn't feeling downright archaic, to me at least.

Edit: Wow, that's huge for 360 that half of its sales were Kinect bundles. System seller indeed. I know I'm eating crow. . .

 

[brotkasten]

Is it wrong to think that 417k is pretty bad for a NFS game? I wouldn't say it bombed, but only 417k units including every platform? For a NFS?

 

[RBH]

Pachter also noted that one third of PS3 sales were $400 PlayStation Move bundles, versus one half of all Xbox 360 purchases being Kinect bundles. (There are two Kinect bundles, a $300 4GB model and $400 250GB model.) "Xbox 360 Kinect console bundles outsold PS3 Move console bundles by more than 5 to 1," said the analyst.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6285151.html


Edit: Beaten.

 

[Nirolak]

Adding.

 

[FrankT]

Pachter also noted that one third of PS3 sales were $400 PlayStation Move bundles, versus one half of all Xbox 360 purchases being Kinect bundles

~700k on the Kinect bundles then. Tis right. That actually accounts even beyond the 600k boost YoY.

Alright MS, lets have the standalone number for Kinect. That should give us a nice total for Nov US.

 

[Megadragon15]

UPDATE
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6285151.html

That is a lot of new Kinect console purchasers. Sheesh. Move am cry?

 

[Opus Angelorum]

Half of the Xbox sales had Kinect? Wow

 

[see5harp]

Damn Kinect bundles straight beasting.

 

[Nemo]

Good, I love Dance Central and finally see the potential of Kinect. Kudos to MS

While I hope it doesn't outlive this gen it has the chance of creating sooo many original and cool games.

 

[JdFoX187]

Is it wrong to think that 417k is pretty bad for a NFS game? I wouldn't say it bombed, but only 417k units including every platform? For a NFS?

I imagine it will have good word of mouth. This is the best Need for Speed in years. People were probably hesitant toward the franchise after shit like Undercover. But once they hear how good this one is, hopefully they will come around.

 

[NeonZ]

The problem with Wii is that it's just too damm fine right now for a sucessor.

Nintendo still has room for at least 2 price drops to re-ignite demand before a sucessor comes out ($169 and $149). Sony and MS approach with move and kinect just buys nintendo more time.

The best strategy for them now is milk every drop as possible from Wii until hardware prices goes down enough for them to release a Wii 2 with "current gen" graphics but dirty cheap to make.

Considering Nintendo's current strategy, I think they only will drop the Wii to $149 when the successor is already announced.

I still think they should release a successor while they're still relevant. Waiting until the Wii is dead before releasing a sucessor will only hurt their image.

 

[gkryhewy]

Good lord, Move too? Is there any conceivable way in which this could have been a worse month for Sony?

 

[Kenka]

That underlines a difference.

 

[Megadragon15]

Good lord, Move too? Is there any conceivable way in which this could have been a worse month for Sony?

Look on the bright side. They are still doing really well outside of the USA.

 

[dragonfart28]

UPDATE
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6285151.html

In other words, in a few months we'll be back to your regular schedule. December should be crazy though.

 

[gofreak]

Good lord, Move too?

How do you mean? Given PS3 sales, what did you expect Move sales to be like? I'm frankly surprised that a third of PS3 sales were Move bundles, I figured it'd be lower than that.

On a side note, maybe I'm wrong or missing something, but Pachter's ratio math seems off (?)

 

[Saiyar]

~700k on the Kinect bundles then. Tis right. That actually accounts even beyond the 600k boost YoY.

Alright MS, lets have the standalone number for Kinect. That should give us a nice total for Nov US.

Pachter said 1.5 million Kinects in the US so that would mean 800k standalones.

 

[mrwilt]

I feel Microsoft really did get the advertising right for the kinect. I thought the commercials for kinect were much better than the commercials for the move. In my mind, it drew me to want to purchase the kinect rather than the move.

 

[TheOddOne]

5 to 1? This NPD keeps on giving.

 

[AniHawk]

Good lord, Move too? Is there any conceivable way in which this could have been a worse month for Sony?

God of War: Ghost of Sparta probably bombed.

 

[Kenka]

Adding.

Nirolak, the link you posted in the OP regarding Dance Central doesn't indicate specifically if the top 10 mentionned is either combined SKU or individual.

 

[Cosmonaut X]

Good lord, Move too? Is there any conceivable way in which this could have been a worse month for Sony?

I'm struggling to think of one -

-- PS3 sales down YoY and well below their competitors
-- GT5 not off to a flying start, despite being the only big holiday title they have
-- Move bundles handily outsold by Kinect bundles
-- PSP sales apparently in the shitter

Depending on the platform breakdown for the multi-plat titles, you could maybe throw that in too. Pretty appalling month for them.

 

[Dynoro]

So more people bought a 360+Kinect bundle than bought a PS3 - looks like Kinect is selling nicely.

 

[offshore]

UPDATE
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6285151.html

Just wow. Going for "precision" and "accuracy" doesn't seem too clever now, does it Sony...

 

[Nirolak]

Nirolak, the link you posted in the OP regarding Dance Central doesn't indicate specifically if the top 10 mentionned is either combined SKU or individual.

Whoops, fixed.

Thank you.

 

[gkryhewy]

How do you mean? Given PS3 sales, what did you expect Move sales to be like? I'm frankly surprised that a third of PS3 sales were Move bundles, I figured it'd be lower than that.

On a side note, maybe I'm wrong or missing something, but Pachter's ratio math seems off (?)

I would not have expected a 5:1 ratio.

 

[Cosmonaut X]

I feel Microsoft really did get the advertising right for the kinect. I thought the commercials for kinect were much better than the commercials for the move. In my mind, it drew me to want to purchase the kinect rather than the move.

If it's anything like the ads here in the UK, Microsoft nailed ads that would appeal to a wider, more casual audience without looking like a Wii rip-off (of course, the form of the tech helps here) whereas Sony's Move ads make it look just like the Wii, except with a daft glowing bellend.

One comes out looking like something interesting and different, the other comes out looking like a "me too!" knock-off.

 

[Castor Krieg]

I feel Microsoft really did get the advertising right for the kinect. I thought the commercials for kinect were much better than the commercials for the move. In my mind, it drew me to want to purchase the kinect rather than the move.

Hell yeah well done commercials: Oprah! Ellen! Oprah! Ellen! Just let it go...

 

[yellowjacket25]

Am I crazy for thinking that 1/3 Move bundles was not too bad for Sony? Its a $400 bundle, that wasn't discounted on Black Friday at all. The most expensive bundle of all video game machines for the month. Kudos to Microsoft for the Kinect success though. They have done a great job with its launch.

 

[Ashes]

~175 k move bundles versus ~700k
Kinnect outsold move by 5-1 in the launch month.
More kinect bundles sold than ps3 units in total.

guess december will be around:
~350K move bundles, versus are around 1400K kinect bundle

edit: Wait, math feels a little off... where did I go wrong?
1/3 of 530= 175K
1/2 of 1.4= 700K

175*5=875K

175/700=0.25 or 1/4. By that math it was 1/4 of kinect launch sales in it's third month.

 

[MrPink93485]

Am I crazy for thinking that 1/3 Move bundles was not too bad for Sony? Its a $400 bundle, that wasn't discounted on Black Friday at all. The most expensive bundle of all video game machines for the month. Kudos to Microsoft for the Kinect success though. They have done a great job with its launch.

Agreed. I don't think 1/3 is that bad. It's just that MS did so much better with Kinect that makes it look worse for Sony.

 

[Megadragon15]

Hell yeah well done commercials: Oprah! Ellen! Oprah! Ellen! Just let it go...

Let's see: Oprah, Ellen, and Bieber vs. Butler. We all lost.

 

[parasight]

Woo! Go Dance Central! Hopefully this inspires someone to buy Harmonix (not Activision).

 

[Gary Whitta]

YOWZA at that 5-to-1 Kinect/Move bundle ratio!

 

[Relix]

Told ya guys Kinect was going to be a real success.

 

[Threi]

Just wow. Going for "precision" and "accuracy" doesn't seem too clever now, does it Sony...

Didn't know that consumer demand for peripherals was inversely proportional to how precise the tech is.

 

[gofreak]

I would not have expected a 5:1 ratio.

Not that it makes a huge difference, but unless my math is wrong, it's more like 4:1

530k / 3 = ~177k

1370k / 2 = 685k

685:177 != 5:1

It's still a high ratio, but I'm not sure why it's surprising in light of the 360 and PS3 numbers we already knew. 360 sold nearly 3x PS3, and had a $300 Kinect bundle, thus 4x the motion control bundles seems quite reasonable. If anything I'm surprised it's not a little worse, like I said, a third of PS3 sales being move bundles sort of surprises me.

 

[Penguin]

UPDATE
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6285151.html

Does that mean the uDraw sold about on par with the Move?

 

[Owzers]

Just wow. Going for "precision" and "accuracy" doesn't seem too clever now, does it Sony...

Especially without any games that look fun to play and require buying extra controllers for multiplayer at an already higher price than a kinect bundle. Making Sports Champions look like a Home avatar reject game was a mistake, not having anything else to play on Move was the second mistake.

 

[Shiggy]

Do we already know anything about Kinect sales?

 

[Nirolak]

Does that mean the uDraw sold about on par with the Move?

Well, we don't know what the non-bundled sales for Kinect or Move were.

For a third party accessory in the post-guitar era though, uDraw is really successful.

 

[gregor7777]

Hell yeah well done commercials: Oprah! Ellen! Oprah! Ellen! Just let it go...

Someone certainly needs to let it go.

Anyway, that kinnect # truly is unbelievable. Hopefully it leads to an investment in software development.

 

[Stoffinator]

Especially without any games that look fun to play and require buying extra controllers for multiplayer at an already higher price than a kinect bundle. Making Sports Champions look like a Home avatar reject game was a mistake, not having anything else to play on Move was the second mistake.

I would still take Sports Champions over anything else on Move or Kinect personally.

 

[Lion Heart]

Told ya guys Kinect was going to be a real success.

I think MANY people predicted that before launch.

 

[LegoDad]

~175 k move bundles versus ~700k

More kinect bundles sold than ps3 units in total.

guess december will be around:
~350K move bundles, versus are around 1400K kinect bundle

The only thing I don't like about the numbers is how many were actually new customers, every single console I sold during black friday weekend was they wanted Kinect, but their console is this amount of years old, should I replace because of RROD...

It felt as Kinect was driving sales of Kinect, but people worried about their console dieing sold the console itself.

 

[Jonsoncao]

I think MANY people predicted that before launch.

while as a whole, GAF didnt

 

[Relix]

I think MANY people predicted that before launch.

I do remember more naysayers than not. GAF also underestimated the Wii at one point. And the DS.

I think its now a rule of thumb that if GAF says its gonna fail it will be a success.... :lol

 

[gregor7777]

The only thing I don't like about the numbers is how many were actually new customers, every single console I sold during black friday weekend was they wanted Kinect, but their console is this amount of years old, should I replace because of RROD...

It felt as Kinect was driving sales of Kinect, but people worried about their console dieing sold the console itself.

Every single one? How many did you sell exactly?