On games and NPDs

First some background.

  1. Qwaider made the following comment on a previous post
    .....
    On a side note, have you seen the reports on games?
    WII beat everyone for December, followed by Xbox36 then PS2 and finally PS3! Looks like Sony might be losing this one if their 5 year old console STILL beats their flagship console

  2. December Console NPDs are as follows:
  • Nintendo DS - 2.47 mil
  • Wii - 1.35 mil
  • Xbox 360 - 1.26 mil
  • PlayStation 2 - 1.1 mil
  • PSP - 1.06 mil
  • PlayStation 3 - 797,600

It is quite obvious that XBOX 360 is giving the Wii a run for it's money. And that Sony is struggling with getting people to embrace their next gen PS3. And there is no reason for that to change except for one tiny thing.

Hollywood seems to have dumped HD-DVD in favor of Blu-ray, and that is guaranteed to drive up demand for the Blu-ray devices. Of which, PS3 is the most famous and sought after model.

People who have been waiting for the format wars to end are now likely to go the PS3 route and get a gaming console as a bonus on top of their Blu-ray player.

I expect that January NPDs will tell a significantly different story for PS3. And looking at MGS4 down the line as one potential juggernaut for the PS3, it is likely that we will see a tipping in the scales in favor of Sony in 2008.

That's of course unless Microsoft introduces a Blu-ray add-on to the XBOX 360. Making this add-on the most cost effective player for people about to step to HD movies.

Comments

  1. Good analyses but you forgot one HUGE factor in the Bluray-HD-DVD showdown.
    The PORN industry. Yes, you heard it right, the PORN industry was the driving force behind the VHS winning the format war agains Sony's Betamax. The result. Total domination of the VHS
    According to the porn producers they have still not decided and the titles out for HD-DVD are slightly more than those of Blu-ray. In addition, almost all new title are being produced for both formats (with HD-DVD having a 1.1 lead)

    I think this battle is still far from over. And WE the consumers are going to continue to wait and see. Which means even less adotion for PS3

    ReplyDelete
  2. Qwaider,

    Thought you might say that.

    Check this out
    Sales post CES Warner

    ReplyDelete
  3. 2weeks? Not even counting the sales of HD-DVD add on for XBOX360 and PS3. That report is a joke!

    Anyway, if I were you, I would wait and see. The individual blu-ray dvd's are over $45 here and were around JD90 in Jordan, so I'm in no rush :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. *lol* Qwaider. Actually I already have the HD-DVD Addon for the XBOX 360.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I find it hard to believe people are still using the porn argument. The majority of people get there porn from the internet these days, it's a complete non-issue in the current format wars.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's still an industry worthy of billions and can decide the fate of things to come
    The level of clarity of HD-DVD's and bluray is really unmatched by the interne due to bandwidth needs. But who knows

    Sari, what!? You already got it? Can you tell me how are you finding the prices of the HD-DVD's over there? They're soooooo damn expensive in the US

    ReplyDelete
  7. The battle is over Blu-Ray is the winner!
    I just heard from a very close Microsoft source that XBOX might be offering Bluray as early as May! But that's just a rumour so far.

    ReplyDelete

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