So Microsoft recently slashed the price of the Xbox 360 in Europe and in South Africa to help alleviate flagging sales.
The PS3 has recently been beating the 360 in all European territories except the UK and this cut was planned to overturn that and to propel the 360 into the minds of all gamers just in time for GTA IV…
But has it worked.
Well apparently not, the first true post price cut sales are in and Microsoft will be crying.
Lets get to the numbers
Wii – 113,921
PS3 – 74,638
360 – 68,542
So not only has the 360 not received a huge increase it sales, it hasn’t even received enough to overtake the PS3 and the Wii is now outselling it 2:1….
In fact the only territories where the 360 outsells the PS3 is in the UK, Australia and here. Everywhere else it pretty much comes dead last.
So is this the time for Microsoft to start panicking. If they can’t even overtake the PS3 with a huge price cut what is going to happen when the PS3 finally gets its big titles released?
VGChartz.com | European Weekly Chart
Last Updated: March 26, 2008
Burns ZA
March 26, 2008 at 12:40
dharma in the mouth
JimBob
March 26, 2008 at 12:41
They’ve closed the gap quite a bit, which is all they need to do for now. Last week and this week probably aren’t the best weeks to judge because Sony seems to be doing a very good job of marketing GT5: Prologue in Europe, with a lot of interest, pre-orders and a bundle, whereas Microsoft has no big exclusive release for now.
Burns ZA
March 26, 2008 at 12:41
Yay, I r the winna!!
nanomiles
March 26, 2008 at 12:42
HEHE, that was waayy too easy…..Well done Burns!!
bokka1
March 26, 2008 at 12:46
Man I saw that on the first glance.
Well done.
LazySAGamer
March 26, 2008 at 12:50
🙁 I take it hiding in plain site didn’t work….
Well done Burns, now I gotta go convince a distributor to give me more prizes… and a better hiding spot….
Fox1
March 26, 2008 at 12:57
Those figures don’t coincide with this bit of news:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/uk-xbox-360-sales-up-40
Now I think I get it! Vgchartz monitors the number of consoles sent to the retailers but not how many consoles the retailer sells??? 😀
Banana hammock
March 26, 2008 at 13:04
@JimBob, MS will not share your view on this. The PS3 may have been marketing GT5p but their sales didn’t go anywhere either.
I expected a big jump in 360 sales, what this tells me is that the Europeans want what they want regardless of price. The damn thing is cheaper than a Wii, but people want to play on a Wii not an XboX.
So it looks like they are left trying to defend their power in NA, Japan is not going to change anytime soon and there’s not much more they can do about Europe. The ball is now in Sony’s court WRT trying to get some NA love.
Meanwhile the Wii just carries on and on and on…
Evilredzombie
March 26, 2008 at 13:25
YO ! @ Fox…. what u have to say now ?
Evilredzombie’s last blog post..PS3ZA Shirts
Naudran
March 26, 2008 at 13:26
Ahhh man! And this article has to go up right when I’m in a meeting 🙁 O, well… such is life. Congrats Burn.
@Banana: Didn’t the PS3 overtake the 360 in NA in January?
Burns ZA
March 26, 2008 at 13:28
Thanks dudes and Lazy, Phil, the distributors and my mom and dad.
Banana hammock
March 26, 2008 at 14:00
@Naudran, the PS3 has been outselling the XboX in NA, but by such a small margin it’s almost not worth mentioning. Especially considering the huge gap in total sales that the PS3 has to make up.
It’ll be worrying for MS for sure, and both them and Sony have space for price cuts in the region. Personally i think the legions of PS2 owners are waiting to cross over. I’m just not 100% sure what it is they are waiting for (price, MGS4, GTA4, GT5). If it’s GTA4 it’ll be interesting to see how many of them jump over to the XboX. I still think most will go to the PS3, a lot can be said about brand faith.
scotty777
March 26, 2008 at 14:01
lol… well… maybe this will be the year of the ps3?
Fox1
March 26, 2008 at 14:03
@Evilredzombie- This has got me thinking for the past hour 🙁 If you go to gamesindustry.biz then you will find that the actual sales have increased by 40 percent. There’s something strange about those figures from vgchartz.
Anyway… so much for the European price cut 🙁
Jinja
March 26, 2008 at 14:39
@Fox – UK Sales have SHOT up (overtaking the PS3), and was quite an increase in Europe. (But not enough to overtake the PS3).
I say GO 360 GO! … Only cos I really want the MGS4 PS3 Bundle to have a decent price. 🙂
Jinja’s last blog post..South Park Episodes Free
Banana hammock
March 26, 2008 at 14:43
@Fox1, Gamesindustry reported on UK only. VGChartz stats are for the whole of the PAL regions. If you go into their breakdown you’ll see the 40% increase in the UK.
Fox1
March 26, 2008 at 15:33
@Banana hammock- Now I see. So i guess that MS are hoping for a domino effect of the UK sales on the other European countries.
@Jinja- Did you see the wide range of 360 games at MUSICA going for R199?
Fox1
March 26, 2008 at 15:44
SA falls in the Other region. Have a look at the weekly sales for the 360 and PS3 in the Other region:
360- 30,967
PS3- 14,536
Wii- 4,828
@Lazy- I guess the price cuts by MS did have an effect both here and the UK 😀
doobiwan
March 26, 2008 at 16:07
Sheesh Lazy, even I have to give you credit for one inflammatory title, I couldn’t have done better myself 😉
Let’s all just use a calculator should we? Before the Price cut the 360 was being outsold almost 2:1, so 50%. Sales increase 40% and now the sales difference is 8%. Easy.
8%! They’re basically selling on par in the Playstations strongest region, even in the shadow of European favourites like GT5 and MGS. Also consider there weren’t any big games or anything this week. If MS can stay within 10% of PS3 in Europe, I think they’ll be quite happy with that.
Either which way, what both platforms need is killer content, so maybe this thread can pick up when GTA4 releases.
doobiwan’s last blog post..Evil Genius Conspiracy Theory of the Day: For the homeless …
LazySAGamer
March 26, 2008 at 18:15
@Fox1, you will see that the 360 has been winning in ‘our’ area for quite some time.
I personally believe it is due to the lack of buying power in emerging markets which forces the PS3 out of the vast majority of families budgets.
@doobiwan, I do try come up with interesting headlines…
I would like to say to the normal guys who flame me, notice that there have been very few comments aimed in my direction to falsify this data. I do honestly try and report on the facts even if the facts don’t want to be seen 🙂
xbox console
March 26, 2008 at 19:43
My kids are crazy about xbox. Everytime I have to shut their TV down. I always believed xbox is addiction and now scientists got proof of it 🙂 . But all in all great console , much better than playstation (yes i like xbox).
Hey , by the way , nice blog , I really enjoyed info in it .
boredhousewife
March 26, 2008 at 20:39
For my money the big difference between the PS3 and Xbox in PAL territories is Spain & France . They account for about 25% of the total PAL console & handheld sales – but any given mnth they can for account for between 30 & 35% of PS3 sales but less than 10% of Xbox sales. This differential accounts for about 15000 units worth of sales in any given week. I doubt that any pricecut is going to have a significant effect on the predominantly anti MS sentiments prevalent in the region.
This being taken into account I think MS is reasonably satisfied with the growth in the rest of Europe. 25 % growth overall from the previous week and 40 % in the UK which accounts for about 35% of their refional sales
Darthdad
March 26, 2008 at 21:45
Xbox fanboys are beginning to sound like PS3 fanboys when the PS3 was first released. Constantly justifying your stance on the purchase of your console. Believing any tidbit of info and applying the positive spin.
It’s a gaming console! Not some life saving device that will bring peace through out the known Universe.
Enjoy the games.
doobiwan
March 27, 2008 at 00:41
Uh, no. It takes a special kind to be a PS3 fanboy and that’s one set of exclusives Sony can happily keep 😉
doobiwan’s last blog post..Evil Genius 101: How to open Xbox Live part 2
darthdad
March 27, 2008 at 07:02
There we go again. 😉
Banana hammock
March 27, 2008 at 07:30
Hahaha Doobi, looks like you just proved that MS has bought that exclusivity away from Sony. Thanks!
As for the numbers, while narrowing the gap is good and a 40% increase in ANY area is a great performance, i still think MS will be less than happy about the overall results.
Burns ZA
March 27, 2008 at 16:09
Thank you very much Lazy and team. I have the prize in my hands!!!