Ben-DutkaBear with my train of logic for a moment, bearing in mind that I'm a big fan of several Xbox 360 exclusives.
First, the facts- The Xbox 360 routinely outsells the PlayStation 3 in North America, although in terms of worldwide sales, it now appears as if the two consoles are just about even. Call of Duty certainly sells best in the US, the one country where the 360 actually does top the PS3 on a consistent basis. And according to recent numbers, approximately 70% of CoD players use the 360 for playing any new entry. Typically, the split is 70/30 between the PS3 and 360 versions of any new CoD and sometimes it's an even bigger discrepancy.
Now, the PS3 is well known for its exclusives (no, we don't need to run down the list). The 360…well, we've got Gears , Forza , Halo , and Alan Wake , with a few other minor ones (like one of my favorites, Lost Odyssey ) adding to the console's appeal. But Gears and Forza combined could never hope to reach Call of Duty sales numbers, and the Halo fans have to face up to facts…this is a CoD world these days, although Halo 4 is slated for the fall. The bottom line is that the 360 exclusives, regardless of what anyone says, don't have anywhere near the appeal Call of Duty has on a country-wide basis. I mean, it's not really even close.
Then you start counting up the sales of the 360 versions of the last four CoD entries…the numbers are astronomical. Of course, the PS3 benefits to some extent as well, but it's hardly the same thing. Furthermore, as CoD is basically a community event (multiplayer is the major draw), newcomers are probably enticed to purchase a 360 because the majority of their friends likely play CoD on Microsoft's system. So it's very likely that a great many people out there did in fact purchase a 360 only for CoD in the past few years, and given the sheer size of the numbers associated with that franchise, and Microsoft's general success in this country…
Now, if you just took away CoD and didn't factor in the profound impact that franchise has had, would it really significantly affect 360 console sales? I honestly think it would.
If I were placing a bet at Las Vegas, my money would be on that!
I would also place a side bet on COD being the reason Xbox Live has so many people!!
A combination of CoD and RROD's.
It isnt halo anymore so yeah i think it is. I remember when the 1st modern warfare came out and took xbl by storm, all my halo 3 fanatic friends started playing it i never saw them play halo since. lol. Its also price. 360 is like $150-200 now and us americans are cheap so…
I think the 360 has sold so well is because the rrod. Does anyone have a 360 from launch or know someone who has one that hasn't gotten the rrod?
Oddly enough…me.
Every single person I know has gone through at least three 360s but my launch 360 is still working fine.
Wow well that's good you didn't have to deal with it. I had my launch 360 get it twice then another 360 I bought a few years later got the rrod so I gave up and got a ps3 and haven't looked back.
Ben doesnt play Xbox as much based on his launch Xbox.
I went through three 360's and then I learned how to repair them out of sheer frustration due to issues that seemingly happen the moment my warranty would expire. I had to repair my third one twice, then I bought a PS3 and sold my 360 to my roomie. Fortunately (and unfortunately) I never had the RROD with the 360. I continued to get 'Insert Disc' failures which was caused by a bad DVD drive.
As far as the 360 outselling the PS3 due to Call of Duty, I dont think that is the reason why because the PS3 has Call of Duty too. If the PS3 didn't have Call of Duty, I think that argument would be more accurate.
We also need to consider the alluring base price point of the lower end 360's like the Arcade version (not sure if it is still sold btw) and the fact that the 360 is better multiplayer gaming if you are willing to shell out the money for an Xbox Live Gold membership. Voice party that is still a big hit and not just for Call of Duty. I do miss chatting with 9 people while playing team up mode in sports games and with the press of a single button you can invite everyone in your party in to a game instead of going through your friends list one by one and sending invites on the PS3.
I also believe that the year head start allowed for early adoption of the 360 and then those owners peer pressure friends and coworkers to buy a 360 so they can game it up online. At least in my experience!
Nonetheless, put them both toe to toe and if you look at the pros and cons for each system, the PS3 is a MUCH better value for long term console ownership. It's a shame these Xbox only doods don't realize it!
Last edited by Palpatations911 on 5/1/2012 11:19:11 PM
I have a 360 that I got a few weeks before Halo 3 and it still works fine. I only played Halo, Gears, Left 4 Dead, and a few other games. I'm pretty sure that if I had played the 360 as much as I played my PS3 it would have fried.
i know a few people who have launch day 360s!
on the other hand i dont know anyone who has launch day ps3s!
sadly my 60GB had the bluray drive die within a few months, then 2 weeks later i got a YLOD, then another 3, then the motherboard died a few months after the slim died so i had to get that.
a friend of mine who bought his 60GB with me had the same original problem bluray drive died, then after that had 2 YLODs and then got rid of it.
gotta love it how whenever sales are talked about everyone says oh the 360 only sold so well because of the RROD.
like every other system out there is as reliable as a wood burning stove…….
Bull…
Anonymous Cowherd, The problem with your post is a) it contradicts the experience of most gamers, and b) it contradicts all the research done into failing consoles around the world, all of which points to a catastrophically high failure rate in the 1st and second generation Xbox 360s. No amount of unsubstantiated anecdotal evidence and hand waving from you can alter that.
and the point is?
im not saying the 360 is more reliable im saying 1 my experience is that it is, and 2 that i find it extremely ironic that every time 360 sales are brought up reliability is the "excuse" for higher sales.
like no other system has reliability issues.
"Does anyone have a 360 from launch or know someone who has one that hasn't gotten the rrod?"
My launch model is still running strong and the second one I bought about 3 years ago is, too.
With the Xbox being the only system to have an above 5% failure rate (near 30% in first and second generation), I would say that yes, the 360 is the only one with reliability issues.
I haven't really kept up with the console wars in the past year or so, but I'm curious about something…
…if the consoles are neck-in-neck worldwide, then why do I see most of the Sony first part games selling so little? And why is it that most big third party games sell better on the 360? Or is this just a perception thing?
Sorry about my ignorance. If anyone could answer this, I would appreciate it.
They sell just enough. multiplat games sell a whole lot better because theyre on multiple consoles and pc's, more sales.:-)
Also, PS3 exclusives are very diverse titles and not many mainstream people choose to enjoy more than one or two genres.
You need to remember that making an exclusive takes less resources than making a multiplat. Consequently exclusives can sell comparatively less than multiplats but still remain profitable.
And the myth that multiplats always sell better on the 360 is just that… a myth. Shooters are the only multiplats that sell consistently better on the 360.
Last edited by Cole on 5/1/2012 11:56:44 PM
@Killa: What Fabi means is that multi plat titles sell better on the x360, not total sale but sale on the respective platforms. Also, the sales numbers of many exclusives are rather low compared to other releases within the same genre. Both is true. Prime example is Resistance 3, one of the best shooters last year, still sold nothing compared to the biggest multiplat shooters on this platform.
@World: I don't think that is the problem either. It's not like the exclusives are particularly narrow genre-wise. Platformers, shooters, action adventures and racing games. Can you get more mainstream than that?
@Cole: No, the myth is that only shooters sell better on the x360. That's the myth around here, and it holds no truth whatsoever. Practically every genre sells better on the x360, with as far as I have been able to find out only one exception: Final Fantasy.
Look at the sales of Skyrim. For every copy of Skyrim sold on the ps3 there were sold almost FIVE copies to the x360. Similar is seen with Portal 2, that also sold a lot better on the x360 if my memory serves me correctly.
* * *
I have often asked the same as you Fabi. If indeed they are neck-to-neck, then why do most multiplats sell better – *much* better – on the x360 than the ps3? Every time I see sales numbers for a given title the split between the two are not anywhere near 50/50.
And I have no real good theories as to why it is like that.
I can only think of three plausible theories:
1) Many ps3s around are mainly used as blu-ray players?
2) Ps3 owners on average buy much fewer games?
3) The actual market shares are not as even as imagined
Last edited by Beamboom on 5/2/2012 4:20:31 AM
@Beamboom
What I should have said was that only shooters are gauranteed to sell better on the 360. With other genres it could go either way. Here's a list of games that sold better on PS3.
Final Fantasy 13
Devil May Cry
Castlevania
Bayonetta
Resident Evil 5
Street Fighter 4
Super Street Fighter 4
Tekken 6
Blazeblue: Calamity Trigger
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift
Fist Of The North Star
Dynasty Warriors 6
Lost Planet 2
Nier
Resonance Of Fate
Sonic Sega All Stars Racing
Burnout Paradise
Dante's Inferno
Blur
Split/Second
Need For Speed: Shift
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit
Batman Arkam Asylum
Batman Arkham City
Just Cause 2
Dead Space
Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Darksiders
Alpha Protocol
Colin McRae Dirt 2
Fifa Soccer 11
Ghostbusters
Grid
Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions
Tomb Raider: Underworld
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Quantum Theory
I'm sure there's more, but you get the idea.
Beamboom, the problem with what you're saying is that the profit numbers by platform for third party developers point to PS3 software selling better than 360 overall, regardless of how a few high profile titles sell in NA based on NPD numbers. Look at the profit sheets for EA, Capcom, Konami, etc…
Yea Beam. Companies like Capcom have rountinely stated that their profit comes mostly from the PS3. Better attachment rate. Not every or even most games sell better on the 360. Just depends on the game.
@Cole – Wow, I didn't expect some of those games on that list to sell better on the PS3. I guess it just seems that the 360 exclusives sell better because the high profile games, for the most part, sell better on the 360.
Cole: What's the source of that list? Cause if this is true then it all makes more sense. Whenever I read about sales numbers the highest number has been for the x360, with only one exception being FF.
But did even Bayonetta sell better on the ps3, despite all the problems? That's… Weird.
It's like Christmas for Excelsior tonight =p
I also think KInect draws a lot of hardware sales, sadly.
I have to say I smiled a bit when their much-touted Star Wars Kinect pulled in 5's.
hehe. Good one Temjin. I do love these kind of topics. Thanks for the Christmas present Ben!!
It isn't really a Christmas present, though, is it. :p The article says 360 has sold better in NA. Which is something Ben has never denied.
But if it makes you feel good about yourself, who am I to bring you back to reality. XD
Seems like a logical chain of thought. And ever since they started to focus on Kinect the 360 has come to depend almost entirely on 3rd party software.
Soccer moms buying their bratty kids one 360 after another is what I suspect.
Seriously, most of the time I'm at the store in the games section, I feel like I never see anyone over the age of 16 browsing the 360 games. Many of them whining to their mommy for a new game or Kinect. Even more often I notice the people browsing the PS3 section are older. About age or close to it. Many of them, I assume, wise enough to avoid buying a console over and over again that just keeps dying.
I think its mainly because people's xbox's get banned or hacked or just RROD'd. Plus CoD always has the special Xbox 360 edition CoD where its all camo and stuff. So people fork out another two hundred dollars for it. Thats my opinion anyway.
Why don't they just say 'to heck with it' and convert to the side of all that is great and holy in the realm of gaming and buy a damn Playstation? Lol. How many times are they going to let MS burn them?
I don't get it all, u can play COD games online on the PS3 for free but on the 360 u have to pay extra. I think when it comes to the 360 it's peer pressure between parents-their kids and friends.
Last edited by AcHiLLiA on 5/1/2012 11:17:55 PM
Some of the higher profile multiplatform games also have less bugs on the 360 versions.
And we are none too pleased about it.
I'm sad to say that Kinect probably helped 360 hardware sales a lot. Not because it's any good, but because the masses will buy anything if it's endorsed by enough celebrities.
It's definitely the Kinect. The North American games market is no longer really about games, whichever console has the latest gimmicky piece of technology that's labeled as the 'it' thing is what sells. It happened in the early part of this gen with the Wii, now the 'casual' audience is in love with Kinect.
I would never have considered this to be part of the explanation at all, Ben, had it not been for a personal experience back when I last had a COD period, with Modern Warfare: All of a sudden a friend of mine that I played COD with a lot told me that he now considered getting a x360. And I was like, "WHAT???", but he explained: His son in his early teens, who he played cod with a lot (on the ps3) said he wanted a x360 instead because it was "better to play COD on", explanation being because most of his friends were there. A totally fair argument for a multiplayer game.
So there, two more x360 sold, two gamers converting from PS3 to XD360 because of COD. I believe there are *many* similar stories to this out there, and it only goes to show the immense power of a multiplayer franchise.
Last edited by Beamboom on 5/2/2012 2:45:26 AM
Got a 360 for Gears and Halo – also use it for Battlefield 3 – but prefer the PS3 for COD – as do most people I play with (granted im over 40 as are most of my COD buddies)
Actuall I really don't care.
WHAT!?
dont be ridiculous!
the 360 sells better then the ps3 simply because of it released earlier, cheaper, its had much more reliable games allot of ps3 games STILL are not as good as their 360 brethren.
not to mention XBLA is far better then PSN, and the dashboard for the 360 is far better then the ps3s.
Cheaper and more reliable? You're full of crap.
ive said it once, twice, and ill say it again.
never will the lack of reading comprehension cease to amaze me on this site!
i said more reliable games, is that so hard to understand?
and i dunno about the states but the 360 here released at under HALF the price the ps3 released!
last time i checked that is "cheaper"…..
so now whos full of "crap"?
oh, and in my experience the 360 has been FAR more reliable!
ive had mine for 3 years now never had ANY problems with it!
i had more problems with 1 ps3 my 60GB in 1 year then i have had with my 1 360 in 3 times that.
so if the definition of that is not more reliable, then what is?
360 is not, nor has ever been cheaper on a like for like basis. the ticket price on the 360 might be cheaper but by the time you added the wireless adapter, HDD and XBL subscription the cost difference was non existent – which you and every other person who ever spent money on the things knows well. 360 games are not more reliable, that's bunk. Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is better than PSN? What are you smoking? The only meaningful difference between Xbox Live and PSN is cross game chat. Apart from that PSN is as good or better than XBL (not XBLA since that is really a games retail space).
For a start XBL has a two tier subscription system. There are around 50 million XBL subscriptions (oddly low considering MS claims over 63 million consoles sold). Of those 50 million subscriptions, the majority are the free Silver subscription that is necessary for firmware updates and store access, but does *not* allow online play. So out of 63 million consoles and all the gamers that play on the ones that are still alive, there are fewer than 25 million active online gamers.
PS3 has sold more or less 62 million units world wide, and of those units sold, market research suggests that nearly 90% are actually connected to the net. With free online play that's about 54 million potential active online players. There was a recent report that said that the PS3 is more played than 360, globally. PlayStation Home in December 2010 had 17 million active users. Yes, 17 million. 16 months later those numbers have continued to grow and is they grew at the same rate they did from Home's launch through DEC2010, the number of active Home users is approximately the same as the number of Xbox Live Gold subscribers.
All in all, PS3 is more connected, and more used. Actual data shows that a minority of Xbxo360 buyers actually play games online.
Last edited by TheHighlander on 5/2/2012 10:14:42 AM
As much as I love my 360, I gotta disagree about the dashboard. My only complaint about the PS3's dashboard thing is that if you have a lot of programs installed, it's a pain to scroll through the list. The 360 is just so convoluted. And just when you get used to where things are, they moved stuff around again.
My comprehension is just fine. I usually just skim your posts inordered to shield my brain from your insanity.
My point still stands regardless. You're full of it. Flame harder next time.
@SirLoin
I organize my immense number of files. So maybe this is a nice FYI for you! (I learned on another forum, myself) If you highlight a game, for example, and hit Triangle, then click on Information, you can name it's folder. Then, anything else you assign the same name to will be stored in that folder.
My XMB now has my games sorted in "RPG's" Action/Adventure, Platformers, Puzzle, Zombie Killers, and a few other folders.
Keeps everything nice and organized. I have my music sorted by genre then artist then album as well.
I don't get it, yesterday I saw an article that the ps3 is the most played(online) console. Now this article, that it is being outsold. Maybe yesterdays the article was talking worldwide?
From what I have seen through friends and media, from reading all the fanboyism on both sides…. I think in general it is the multiplayer component that has made the 360 the more successful. It really began with the Xbox and Halo. People including only bought the Xbox to play Halo and many, excluding me, played online for the multiplayer. I did play MP on my computer though.
This carried over. I believe the success of the MP aspects of Halo on the Xbox inspired devs to jump on the wagon and exploit its success.
Now that we are on the latest gen, that success has not only carried over but has cemented a firm base on the 360. Why do you think Ubi added a MP component… the success of it on 360.
This is not saying the 360 is better, far from it, The PS3 is a better machine, its just that the Xbox consoles got itself established as the console where everyone plays MP all the way back to the original Halo. And of course people are like lemmings, they listen to friend saying that they are on a 360 so the only way to play with them is to buy one.
I am not an MP player so I could careless. I only play MP, when I have or do, on the PC/Mac and even then not for long due to the morons that play on them, vets and noobs alike.
I only bought the Xbox/360 for Halo, its really in my eye all it is good for to my game playing. BUT to each there own.
I think if you took away CoD altogether, the 360 would suffer greatly in comparison to the PS3. Players would have to resort to the Halo universe, which has gotten a little stale for sure and with Halo 4 in testing phase and coming out later… hopefully will reboot that franchise.
Keep playing!