Folks on that forum are debating those stats you quoted since the person who posted them didnt say where he got them from. The stats I have seen show the 360 routinely outselling the ps3 everywhere in the world, except Japan. Of course, the wii outsells both of them without a sweat but that's another story.

Originally posted by Harhol on Escapist:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.85607?page=3

Statistics are the PS3's friend. Unfortunately, the American media isn't, meaning you have to read between the lines.

The PS3 has been on sale since November 2006 and has sold 21.6 million units. That's 26 months, at a rate of ~830,000 units per month. The X360 has been on sale since November 2005 and has sold 28 million units. That's 38 months, at a rate of ~736,000 units per month. By my estimation, PS3 has therefore sold at a rate of ~94,000 units per month faster than the X360.

Side by side comparisons aren't favourable to Microsoft either. When the X360 had been on sale for 26 months (this time last year) it had sold a total of 17.7 million units. Compare that with Sony's 21.6 million units sold in the same period of time. An even bigger margin for Sony!

Considering that the X360 was released first, is cheaper, has undergone multiple price cuts, has been advertised incessantly, has been backed by the majority of the gaming press and has lived through one more holiday season, this is a substantial victory for Sony. This doesn't even take into account the hundreds of millions that Microsoft have spent to secure various timed exclusives (Eternal Sonata, Last Remnant, Bioshock, Fallout 3 DLC, GTA4 DLC etc).

The big losers this generation have been Microsoft, not Sony, despite what various American corporate interests would want you to think (The Escapist included).

I for one am very comfortable buying most my games in PS3 format. Emphasis on "very". Just like I was buying everything Blu-ray as soon as it was available, and well before there were any indications who would win the format war. But I like my Xbox 360 too!

This comment was edited on Feb 16, 2009, 07:41.

Yes, it IS going to go away. End of story bud.

PC ports direct to Xbox a lot easier and earlier titles for PS3 had issues from learning how to port the titles. That's gotten a lot better. Because Xbox has been rabidly seeking first releases, it's become a beta test for the PS3 final versions. For me, that's good. I can buy a Xbox version to play until the refined and polished PS3 version comes out. =)

Either way, owning both systems gives you the best of both worlds.

I too would like to state that my allegiance to a multi-billion dollar multinational conglomerate I have no stake in.

If it makes you feel any better, you can buy the company shares - NTDOY, MSFT, SNE.

I strongly disagree with your last statement. Most multiplatform games look better on the 360 than on PS3 to me.

Resident Evil 5 is way better on 360. GRAW2 is unplayable on PS3.

People who have a nice 120hz 1080p HDTVs know that Blu-ray is king, and it's just getting people to try it in that format, I suggest loading up Pirates of the Caribbean 2 as a test BRD. I am warning you, it will spoil your tastes and even that downloadable stuff won't ever look as good again.

I am not worried about PS3 sales yet, this is a direct result of poor marketing and letting MS be more creative (and insidious) with an inferior product, which can be turned around. The question is, will they? PS3 hardware is the better of the two but owning them both is the way to go anyways if you want "everything" possible.

I think The Last Remnant on PS3 will clearly show the difference performance wise between the 2 consoles. Those of us that have both consoles constantly see a better look and performance on the PS3 when comparing games to the 360. MS DRM on DLC is pretty atrocious as well compared to PSN.

http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/06/blu-rays-first-two-years-outpaces-dvds/

According to Richard Greenfield of Pali Capital, in two years there were about 1.2 million DVD players sold, whereas Blu-ray stand-alone player sales are estimated to be at 2.5 million -- no this doesn't include PS3s which are expected to be at 8 million.

In other words...ignore Flatlines post.

I too would like to state my allegiance to a multi-billion dollar multinational conglomerate I have no stake in.

This comment was edited on Feb 14, 2009, 03:13.

So how do you account for data that shows bluray discs (movie) sales are outpacing DVD sales at the same time period of introduction?

http://www.blue-ray-media.com/30/blu-ray-sales-outpacing-dvd.html
http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/06/blu-rays-first-two-years-outpaces-dvds/

Seriously, can nobody fucking read? Blu-Ray is doing better at this point than DVD was at the same point in it's lifespan. Someone posted links to figures a month or more ago...the proof is out there.

This is a misleading factor. I'm almost positive that it includes PS3 units pushed, which is a significant factor.

Let's put a timeline in here:

1996: DVD was initially released commercially
2000: PS2 was released with a DVD player in it

Blu-Ray release: Mid 2006 (if you want to get technical, 2003, but there was no "standard" at the time)
PS3 release: Late 2006

So, the numbers about blu-ray saturation take PS3 sales into account (21 million units pushed) over about 2.5 years.

To compare saturation as an entertainment replacement for DVD at 2.5 years into DVD's life (and still a year and a half away from the PS2, which the DVD drive was a selling point for), you have to pull out PS3's sales numbers and strictly look at blu-ray players sold.

I'm sure the numbers are much more stark without including 100% of PS3 units sold as blu-ray adoption. I'd be interested to see those numbers.

Because let's face it, if you include the 120 million ps2 players as part of the "market" that Blu-ray has to displace, it has a very, very, very long way to go (there's something like one billion DVD players to displace, and DVD still accounts for 97% of sales and market saturation).

Blu-ray, at the moment, is a drop in the bucket. Far more likely than digital distribution making blu-ray obsolete is the advent of solid-state memory storage surpassing anything blu-ray can provide, and at higher throughputs. Flash memory is dropping in price rapidly, and within a few years is expected to surpass traditional hard drive costs, which at the moment is something like 10 cents per gig.

ColoradoHoudini, from my experiences with both machines, it's more or less a sum of everything. Again this is just my personal experience, but Xbox Live/Online/Store has been much easier to use and more stable. Performance wise on cross platform games can vary, and in general the 360 has had more solid performance, and does not require any sort of mandatory install with exception of a few games. Madden 09 for performance and Burnout Paradise for Hard Drive issues.
Plus there has been a better overall catalog for the 360, along with the unit cost.

But overall I think what's hurting PS3 sales the most is still the overall cost of the machine. Everyone is more or less waiting for a PS3 price drop, and if you can play the vast majority of the games out on a 360 (and the unit is cheaper) why get a PS3?

As for the reason not to drop the cost of the PS3... my guess is Sony overall is trying to get all the cost back for the PS3 development and Blu-Ray drives, along with manufacturing cost's back before they do so.

Physical media is not going to go away as long as ISPs gleefully impose bandwidth caps. The blocky pixelated stuff internet vendors try to pass off as hi-def is nowhere close to the quality of a Bluray. And if you want to get that type of quality, you have to download large files. Downloading 20gig files at 5mbps is not going to cut it, especially for video on demand services like iTunes and Netflix. And that's before Cox(sucker) Communications and their badwidth caps.

Bluray may be the last physical medium, but it will flourish before it dies. And I like the idea of popping in the disc on any bluray device and watching my movie. DRM is another factor limiting digital downloads. And unlike music with MP3, video has not settled on a dominant standard format that every one supports and uses.

The fact is physical media is going to go away and sooner rather than later.

That's where you fail to comprehend, nor is what you state a fact...physical media is NOT going away anytime soon. Between music, games and movies...movies will be the last to go from physical media and as I said, you are looking at about 25 years from now, and certainly not in the Blu-Ray life-cycle.

"Apologies in advance, I'm being pedantic here. This has nothing to do with the rest of this thread, but it's something that's bugged me for a while."
Be bugged. Be pedantic. I don't care.

Semantics don't bother me. They don't change the validity of what I said.

The fact is physical media is going to go away and sooner rather than later.

This comment was edited on Feb 13, 2009, 18:25.

Visual artifacts = Not that I've seen.
MPG blocks = Not visable on Blu-Ray. Rarely visible on DVD. Occasionally visible on digital TV. Nothing to do with screen technology.
obvious gradients = Not that I've seen.
dropped frames = Not that I've seen.
unnatural color palettes = if badly configured - much like every other system.
'lit grey' as the new black = Not noticeably for me.
overshoot, undershoot = OK, I don't know what these are.
Light bleed = Not that I've seen.
Weird aliasing = Not that I've seen.

How old was the last LCD screen you used??


What do you mean by analog at the end? VHS? The cinema? Cinemas are changing to digital projectors. Or do you mean CRT displays?

This comment was edited on Feb 13, 2009, 18:16.

Cept Black, won't have anything close to real black for a bit.

Some things are meant to be analog. sigh.

Cigarette burns, dirty film, blurry images (compared to Blu-Ray), miss queues on reel changes, broken film, sound sync, people kicking your seat, talking during the movie, making you move cus they didnt bother to take a pee before the movie, marks on the screen, hallway lights being cast onto the screen, etc, etc...yea give me more of that!

Analog sounds so good...err no it doesn't.

Visual artifacts, MPG blocks, obvious gradients, dropped frames, unnatural color palettes, 'lit grey' as the new black, overshoot, undershoot, light bleed and weird aliasing...yeah, give me more of that!

Just to point out, those are all problems with DVD's and old LCD/Plasma TV's. Get a new LCD with a high color contrast ratio, and blu-ray...everything you listed is non-existent.

It's a Dell 27" LCD computer monitor, it's 1920x1200 so 16:9 movies are slightly letter boxed.

He'd tell you it's over priced TBH, and that's not an unreasonable opinion.

Indeed. So was DVD when it first came out. And to be clear to others, Ive stated several times over the last few months that Sony's biggest mistake was not dropping the price of the PS3 this past holiday season. They think it's fine and will make up the difference in the long run...time will tell.