Gamerscore Blog

This is great news.  3.2 Million 360's have been sold.  Very nice.

"Despite a relatively small installed base, three of the top 10 selling video games in the US in March were for the Xbox 360 platform.  "

Why 'despite'. The console is fresh, the list of available games is still small. I'd be surprised if people weren't jumping like mad on those titles that are available. Once the catalog has over 100 titles it'll be much harder to get those spots in the charts.

I believe the 360 will easily dominate the software charts. Piracy isn't a issue bar the extremely few unlike for the PC. Obviously the 360 market is increasing, supposely it will be around 10 million by year end.

Personally if think developers need to choose what the're doing for development. I know alot of 360 owners who just don't like this current-gen port games. The top sellings games will be xbox exculsive ones or 360/PC eg Gears of War, Mass Effect, Battle for Middle Earth, Too Human, Chrome Hounds and Oblivion.

Don't give us super'd up current-gen ports.. give us next-gen title's like Ghost Recon and Oblivion please.

I assume that the 3.2mil is shipped to channels (normal measure), not sold through to end users.  A little disturbing that the rest of the world region is only 300k (Japan is in there), but given that Australia only launched on the 23rd of March, and with secondary Asian territories coming this quarter, that means you should see that number double or triple in short order.  I think a half million 360s in Australia is not out of the realm of possibility (half a million would mean a 360 in about 1 in 10 Aussie households, so that would be a big number, getting to a million would be a huge achievement).

What was the third top seller in March for 360?  Graw and Oblivion are gimmes, but I can't think of a third one (Burnout Revenge maybe? I didn't buy it [EA Game, BOYCOT EA]).

The catalog issue is less relevant for console games than you think (not to the same degree as PCs, where a game gets first and second week sales and in three weeks is discounted to half price).  The big sales period is still the first month after initial release.  It takes a very special game (or a pack-in) for a game to have sustained sales as new systems are sold.  I think Oblivion has that kind of staying power, and GRAW will until the sequel comes out probably.  Then again, normally I wait a week or two until the games are available used.  The ten dollar premium is more than I'm interested in spending, generally speaking, and the major chains won't let you return a new game for full credit (you have to sell it back).  I don't really rent games, so if the choice is taking a chance on day one on a game that isn't going to have reviews online until the end of the first week, or waiting that week and getting it for ten dollars less with a full return policy, then I'll wait.

Hard to believe that only half of 360 owners are on silver.  Silver really just involves plugging your console into your network, and makes a lot more content available to you.  The online features of the 360 are some of the most important components to me.  That basically means that these people aren't downloading demos, aren't playing in the XBLA, aren't getting patches, and probably aren't playing BC titles.  Mystifying.

5.0 to 5.5 million to channels by the end of June.  That is a huge accomplishment.  IIRC, Allard or Moore indicated that the first to 10 million has always been the lead seller in a generation.  That in less than three full quarters, and with major supply chain problems in the first two quarters.

With a strong holiday season, 360 could hit 10 million in 14 months.

This afternoon, Microsoft shared updates about our division on the Q3 earnings conference call. ...

Where did you get the shipment figures from, I'm looking at the report released by Microsoft and it does not mention any shipment figures.  http://www.microsoft.com/msft/earnings/FY06/earn_rel_q3_06.mspx

And I've read elsewhere about pretty huge losses that the Xbox division has suffered, but I suppose that's to be expected.

The losses that the XBOX division suffered quite recently was due to their acquisition for an online advertising firm.  Given the amount that was tossed around and the actual losses figure, the loss is quite insignificant compared to the headway .

i believe the numbers for xbox360 will skyrocket as soon as it get's hacked, the extremely easy modding is one of the keys to original xbox success, i don't know a single person who has bought and xbox and hasn't modded it to get the games for free, it's just so patheticly easy. the other keys would be strong online features and halo (honestly, nothing else worth playing that's not available for other systems that have larger library of games).

Units shipped.

Sales in Japan, though on the rise slightly, are worse than for the original Xbox.

At this point after launch the original Xbox had shipped more units.

The high attach rate - maybe that has something to do with the ridiculous bundles that were enforced and in many cases the only possible way for people to buy the console?

All Live stats are specious and not specific. Why is that? Why do you always state downloads, or gaming hours. Why not say how many people actually use it? There's no point in keeping it confidential especially if it can blow the competition away. Or is it a less than impressive figure?

Business is not good. Retailers and software developers took it in the shorts over this machine. Now you guys are saying it's all about Vista gaming. It's DOA in Japan. You've got ridiculous mixed messages like Shane Kim saying it's not for hardcore gamers. You have no idea what your brand is if you believe that. You should be proud and cater to the hardcore gamer. Viva Pinata will flop, just like Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero. Logo, music, attitude... Just who is a 360 gamer? It's not the multiethnic adrogynous 24 year old. It's 30 year old techhead ex frat dudes and 12 year olds who like trash talk on the Internet.

There will be some great games for the 360, must haves. But I think it's clear that this box has already lost it. I don't know anyone who's casually into games who wants one, I know very few people who have one, I can't find a premium in stores and am not going to shell out $50 for HD cables, and my own parents told me they don't want one because they heard they're defective. In fact, a store manager told them about the high number of returns.

Couldn't launch a bottle rocket.

arashi  

The success of the Playstation brand particularly in the Asian region was all due to piracy.

And as for you Masamune, your post seem nothing more but all based on assumptions.  I don't know if you have a clear understanding about the industry in general.  It looks like you just went in this thread to bash it.

IMHO, Microsoft has to do a re-launch.  Japan will take a lot of time, even if they do everything right.  Europe and US is where the real money is, but the shortage of consoles has hurt the launch momentum.

Microsoft needs to re-launch, probably with Halo 3, probably around PS3 release time.  They need to get the word out that (a) you can buy one without a bundle, (b) It is truly next-gen, and a match for the PS3, and (c) There's this thing called "Live"

I wouldn't be surprised if it's already in the works.

M$ft is making excellent headway into the next-gen race.  This is def. no Dreamcast, Sega didn't have the money\talent\etc. that mr. softie does.  The 360 will always have the most popular PC ports, because it is so easy for developers (note that Valve is getting involved now in 360 dev.).  This is great for gamers who hate dealing with constant PC upgrades, but still want hardcore games.  Sony has got to be hurting with all these outrageous PS3 expenditures, their balance sheet isn't as rosy as M$'s.  We shall see, but I think the 360 has a good chance at being #1 in North America.  ***

"Microsoft needs to re-launch, probably with Halo 3, probably around PS3 release time.  They need to get the word out that (a) you can buy one without a bundle, (b) It is truly next-gen, and a match for the PS3, and (c) There's this thing called "Live"

I wouldn't be surprised if it's already in the works."

I don't know that they have to formally call it a re-launch, but I am feeling pretty confident at the moment that after the fiscal year, we're going to see a SKU consolidation.  All units will have hard drives, all packages will have a wired controller, and if there is a first party game that stands out by then, you might have a pack-in.  The price would be at the same point that the core system is at now (probably regular AV/Super cables, IMHO).

I haven't heard that from anyone, this is just my own personal speculation, but putting that out there at $299 would be butter for selling massive amounts of consoles this holiday.  The reduction in costs of components and the better yield on chips along with streamlining of the power system should make this possible without a significantly larger loss per unit than what MS is taking now.

If the new consoles shipped in a different color or colors, that would make the re-launch scenario complete.  They would be easily identifiable as new consoles on the shelf, the prices would be at that mass market point (and possibly half what PS3 would be at), and to me it makes perfect sense.

I wouldn't be terribly surprised if we saw a controller revision soon too.  The wired/wireless controller thing is just bizarre.  I think that it might make more sense to reengineer the play and charge cable so that it actually carries data, then sell a single SKU controller that comes with the play and charge cable, then you can optionally buy the batteries, making it wireless.

Manufacturing two SKUs when you only have to manufacture one is a waste of resources.  Cutting down to a single SKU on the console and the controller would streamline the system and further improve economies of scale.

Oh, and the detail on that stuff is in the management discussion of financials in the 10Q report to the SEC.

Quote: "Home and Entertainment revenue increased during the third quarter of fiscal year 2006 primarily reflecting an increase in Xbox revenue of $475 million or 133%. Xbox revenue increased mainly due to the shipment of 1.75 million Xbox 360 consoles, which exceeded the number of first generation consoles sold in the prior year. In addition, Xbox 360 consoles sell at a higher average price than first generation consoles. Home and Entertainment revenue increased for the first nine months of fiscal year 2006 driven by the launch of Xbox 360 and the strength of new PC games, especially “Age of Empires III”. Revenue from the 3.25 million Xbox 360 consoles shipped since its launch more than offset the approximate $300 million impact of Halo2 sales in fiscal year 2005."

Interesting that they sold more 360s in the last quarter than they did Xboxes in the same quarter the prior year.

Does anybody know why there is such a large discrepancy between NPD data and MS data? US sales from NPD total 1.2 million to end of march, MS reports a 50% higher value than this over this same time frame. They also did the same last quarter (900k to 600k).

MS says shipped, NPD says sold but where could those units possibly be going? Now I understand that NPD estimates Walmart and other untracked sales but I find it incredibly doubtful that NPD would be so wrong in their estimates after so much experience and with so much responsibility.

So tell me why MS says 1.8 and NPD says 1.2?

The difference is shipped to channels vs sold to end users.  The difference represents units on shelves or in transit.

This afternoon, Microsoft shared updates about our division on the Q3 earnings conference call. For...