Apparently the war is in full force and Microsoft’s Don Mattrick is ready to poke the flag in the ground and call it a sure fire victory (in so many words). He said he’s “willing to declare here today that Xbox 360 will sell more consoles worldwide this generation than PS3” (eurogamer)
They’re either not seeing the Wii as a competitor or are trying to avoid that evil word considering the growth of the tiny little console in the market. After telling the audience the Xbox 360 has already outpaced the PlayStation 3 and Wii he failed to mention the one-year head start the 360 had over its competitors.
There are, of course, bonuses to talking figures when you were first out of the gate. The interesting facts, which won’t present themselves for years now, will be the end unit sales figures for Wii, 360 and PlayStation 3 when all boxes are end-of-life’d. We’re sure to hear each side declare victory when they’ve decided when the war actually ends. In Microsoft’s eyes, the console war will probably end when they release the next-generation box, barring the fact that they should wait at least one year before claiming the title.
You can’t argue with the facts, Xbox 360 is doing very well in the United States (if we ignore Japan). The Nintendo Wii has sold 8.8 million units to the Xbox 360‘s 10.3 million units. How many units did the Xbox 360 have sold around the same time Nintendo boasts 8.8 million? Probably a bit less.
Press can be a great thing when you have numbers to play with and figures to skew. Oddly enough, if some of us are any indication, we’ve purchased multiple Xbox 360’s because of dead systems. Sure, we’re stupid for actually doing it, but those figures will work into the total units sold for the Xbox 360 hardware sales. Imagine, their failing systems may have actually boosted sales figures a bit; probably not statistically significant but funny non-the-less.
We can’t wait to see what type of numbers Sony and Nintendo are going to fling out. If we ask each competitor, we’re sure they’ll say we’re going to win the console war. Nintendo may just ask, “what console war? We just make game hardware” and you can’t fault them there!
😛 You can do a flashback for AvP2, it was launched in late 2001.
@Blizzard brags Diablo III will have difficulties that are harder-than-hard:
Hey, as long as the difficulty can be selected, sure, go apeshit.
I used to play games on the highest difficulty, because I liked the challenge, so I can understand people wanting more difficult games.
I will repeat myself: as long as the user can select it, it’s fine.
@Sony passed on Demon’s Souls because it was “crap“:
😀 Erm, I see a pattern here in decision making … Cure: change the decision maker.
@Sony credit rating downgraded:
Congrats to the podcast crew for the selection of news items. It is a true lecture on the principle of cause and effect.
Granted, turning down a game is only one cause that triggered the effect of Sony’s credit rating downgrade.
@Tim Schafer raises $1.6M (and counting) to develop an adventure game:
I think this is also due to the name (thanks for confirming that later in the show).
@Epic’s Sweeney: Lifelike graphics will come in our lifetime
Moore’s law might change. Ok, you can estimate how many penta flops are required in order to generate visuals. These estimates are ok and valid (the human eye won’t change in time, at least not in the next 1000 years).
But to assume that the rate of growth in computers will not change, well, as you already realized, that’s an ASSUMPTION.
If I were Tim I would limit the range (in time) for my predictions.
Regarding the 6 people on the show, well, taking turns/directing the podcast is … meh. I’ll take surprises and improvisation any time.
@QOTW:
Erm … Scrooge McDuck? 🙂
Ok, not quite a prince or hero, but I liked the cartoon. The NES games only made it even more charming.
I think the fact that he was quite determined (in the cartoon at least) in finding what was at the root of the episode’s mystery that made him my favorite.
@Blizzard brags Diablo III will have difficulties that are harder-than-hard: To me, they can make as many ultra-hard difficulties as they want, as long as they make a normal difficulty.
@Tim Schafer raises $1.6M (and counting) to develop an adventure game: This may be good news for Tim Schafer, but it’s not good news for any of the other developers. Like so many other sites highlighted, this only happened because Schafer is well-known and almost universally loved as the underdog of the industry.
@Epic’s Sweeney: Lifelike graphics will come in our lifetime: I’m not much of a graphic whore, but better graphics definitely make me appreciate the game more and maybe even enjoy it more.
@QOTW: I don’t care much for Pixie Dust, but I would guess Paul’s to be Peter Pan?
@sony credit rating downgraded
I don’t really know if sony gets most of its sales from gaming but they sure are failing when it comes to gaming this year
@ lifelike graphics will come in our lifetime
Well I’m mostly appreciating the graphics we have today and besides lifelike graphics is equal to more expensive hardware ,…. At least that’s what I think
@qotw
I would say peter pan coz he’s like immortal and he never grows up and he treats everything childsplay and he could fly whenever he wants to. Maybe I could play pixie hollow and get addicted I dunno but I could use the prize If I ever get addicted or I could just use cheat engine.. 🙂