I think that it is, if only because at this same point in time the Xbox 360 was impossible to find and demand was very high–units selling on eBay for absurd amounts, any shipments that arrive in stores (not that there were many) disappearing immediately.
With similar numbers shipped and sold at this point, it’s not at all hard to find a PS3 right now. Call it anecdotal if you want, but as far as I can tell, nobody is having trouble finding them in stores. With NPD sales and Sony’s shipment numbers now available, we know that the “Sony’s just doing a better job restocking” argument is a load of bull. They have done exactly the same job restocking the Microsoft dd last year, and yet demand for the PS3 is obviously much lower because, unlike the 360 in January '06, the PS3 is very easy to get. Gabe Newell’s “cancel the PS3” advice is pretty silly, but I don’t think that it is at all a stretch to call the PS3 launch a “disaster.”
I wonder how much the xbox 360 benefited from first-mover advantage in the next-gen race. I can imagine a healthy slice of the hard-core market that wanted a next-gen console ASAP and snapped up 360’s. Now that the new xbox has a stable of good games and the PS3 doesn’t yet, there’s no compelling reason for them to get a PS3 at the moment. It should be an interesting fight once the PS3 exclusives are out and the fanboys are properly incited.
It’s hard to know what that comparison means, though. It could just be an indicator that the first next gen system is a hotter commodity because it’s first. The PS3 faces a lot of competition for 360 games that the 360 didn’t face at launch.
You have to think the price tag has something to do with it, though. I’ve walked by PS3s in the store. I’m actually more tempted to buy a second 360 for my office than a PS3… and the price has everything to do with that.
Nintendo actually priced the Wii perfectly. Since when is a company making a profit by selling at what the market will bear “overcharging”?
Nintendo left themselves in a position where they could have dropped the launch price to $200 if they had to, and then abided their time to see what MS and Sony were going to do. I’d say they wound up doing better than fine. They didn’t have to play the price card, because MS and Sony did it for them.
The idea that the “proper” cost of a product is the sum of the intrinsic value of its component parts is an economic lesson taught only in the hallowed halls of Sony’s marketing department, and on which they base their conclusion that the Wii is overpriced, while the PS3 is so cheap you should feel guilty buying it at such a low price.
That wasn’t the argument to begin with, except perhaps from Kony. The problem here is a fixation on the word just and the presumed extrapolation that some people can’t wait to argue against, regardless of whether it’s actually stated by the person making the observation. Sony launched with fewer but surpassed the 360 totals – not by a meaningful amount when you’re just comparing overall totals, but enough to make it clear that they are making them at a rate higher that Microsoft was at this point.
The fact is, they are doing a better job at restocking to this point. It has also become clear that this wasn’t necessarily the sort of plus they might have wanted right now (despite the benefit that it was to people trying to pick one up post-launch), as it appears to have exposed where “balance” lay, and what it revealed isn’t very pretty.
They have done exactly the same job restocking the Microsoft dd last year
I don’t think this is supported except under the vaguest categorizations. You were more likely to get a PS3 at retail post-launch than you were a 360 in part because there were many more PS3s available at retail post-launch than the 360 (while the reverse is true of the 360). It’s basic math (starting with over 50% fewer but surpassing overall), and the equation doesn’t balance any other way.
and yet demand for the PS3 is obviously much lower because, unlike the 360 in January '06, the PS3 is very easy to get.
Microsoft sucked at restocking the 360 in January of last year. Which again, I take pains to point out, doesn’t mean they didn’t have higher demand.
Gabe Newell’s “cancel the PS3” advice is pretty silly, but I don’t think that it is at all a stretch to call the PS3 launch a “disaster.”
deepruntramp is pretty active in the WoW threads, something that I don’t remember about the King.
That said,
deep, “a Gamecube 1.5 with a gimmick controller that,” “overpaying for the meager hardware,” “poorly veiled tech demo drivel,” and misrepresenting Wii Sports as a forced bundle, are anything but “just” a negative comment here or there. He responded, you won, don’t try to play the “I’m less trollier than thou” card.
