Microsoft: Xbox 360 sales double since price cuts
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Sep 11th 2008 4:39AM
posted Sep 11th 2008 4:39AM
Good things happen when you suddenly become the lowest-priced console in the US. In the first weekend since cutting Xbox 360 prices, Microsoft is reporting a 100% increase in sales of all Xbox 360 models compared to the previous weekend. While not mentioned specifically, Microsoft claims that one model sold at 6x the previous weekend rate. Gee, could that be the $250 Wii-beating, $199.99 Xbox 360 Arcade at the front of Microsoft's loss-leading lineup?
Good on Them. Here is hoping for more drops xD
GEE, I wonder.... could the Wii's superior sales numbers have had something to do with the fact that it was damn near half the price of the other two consoles?
GEE, maybe if the 360 and PS3 could have been the same price as the Wii.... maybe, their sales would be equalized - that is until people realize the wii's games SUCK.
(the low rank button is up and to the right)
@Flashpoint
Naw man, I'm right there with ya. Wii Sports is a lot of fun, and there's a lot to be said in the simple replayability and group-fun factor of that and a couple other titles. But, once you get past that, Wii games really do suck. Same with the DS. Most games don't come close to taking advantage of the touchscreen, and I'm sick of crappy graphics and storylines aimed at 2nd graders.
I know this is fairly off-topic (though it's never stopped engadged posters before..) but what do you highly-opinionated chaps think about the motion plus add-on? Do you reckon it'll stimulate some more good games? (by 'more' i mean 'in addition to SM galaxy and smash bros')
what are you hoping that they start giving them away? as cool is it would be....how much more can M$ drop the price? they already lose so much per console
I wonder how much it's costing them to make and distribute these days? Do you reckon they're actually making any money?
(Obviously, they're raking in major dough on the games)
holy crap does that hurt my eyes...
Well, they WERE making profit on the premiums like a year or two ago. Surely with more die shrinks and other general cost cutting improvements they'd be at least cutting even on these price drops... right?
Wiiiiiiiiii.
P.S: 3
Look Out! You're Disappearing!
omg a ghost!
Interesting to see if it will last at that rate, keep us posted!
They're loosing money, lots of money on consoles.
But so are Sony and Nintendo - all manufacturers sell consoles at a loss, get the market saturation, then make it all back in games sales. Thats why it took so long for Microsoft's games department to make a profit.
Sony = Yes
Nintendo = Hell no.
Have you seen the rank of Wii on ALL console sales reports ?
Nintendo make a healthy profit on each Wii sold. Both the PS3 and Xbox lose money.
Nintendo has some interesting tech and excellent price point, its just a shame the games really do suck. Im not a fan of crappy sport games. Developers put NO effort into Wii games, especially when it comes to the controls and graphics.
In saying that, i do like my Wii, ive had to look for Gamecube games because Wii games suck so bad.
Actually X, despite your stupid "don't get fooled" fanboy comment below, I felt a need to correct you, Microsoft make money on the X360, they LOSE money, however, on the repairs necessary for earlier faulty models.
Stupid comment system, this was supposed to be in response to j_g_puff
-.-
Engadget... get the comment system sorted.
lol does it matter maty when you were just spouting off stuff as fact that you infact knew nothing about, love seeing people try to correct others like they know what there talking about and have not researched there statement whatsoever just to make a foll of themselves.
Fact Nintendo makes profit on every console sold,
i believe the 360 does though maybe not right now right after the price drop but there only significant loss at the moment is repairing and replacing older faulty systems.
Sony i am pretty sure does take a significant loss on every system right now.
Yes it does matter. Its been broken for years and its getting tiresome.
It was a generalising point anyhow. My point was not that of accuracy but that most consoles are sold at a loss (look at older nintendo consoles) by the manufacturer and ita fairly common.
No they are not loosing money. Microsoft last year began to make a profit of $75 per console sale, later they reported a $95 per console that allow them to put the E&D division on profits. This division includes the xBox, Zune, Surface, etc. Only xBox is doing fine in this MS division. Now the profits must be close to $130 - $150 before the price cut thats the reason they cut the arcade by $80 and the others by $50. They have the biggest attach rate and xBox Live.
I have 17 games between my personal games and my 7 years old kid.
P.S.
Microsoft had to take 1 billion on repairs and had lost 3 billions more the first xBox but this time around they are making lot of money.
some people have no idea what theyre talking about.
ps3 has and will always sell at a loss until it dips below $200, wii has been profitable all along (obviously because they are using the same exact hardware as the gamecube with 200mhz higher clocks) and the 360 started in the red and now sells profitable.
no opinion. fact.
I'll wait for the NPD thanks.
I bought a 20GB Pro a few weeks ago. It was $299 with a $30 circuit city gift card.
Then when the price drop went official I took my receipt back to the store and got a refund for the difference.
Their prices were a bit skewed though, the system said $250 instead of the real price drop for this version, $260
So I got it for $250 and kept the $30 gift card, essentially netting a Pro for under Wii price ;)
I got the 60GB Pro (to go with my PS3 and Wii) last month and the door to the USB port was broken. I took it back to BB 9 days later and they replaced the unit. MS dropped the price and because I brought the unit back to BB 9 days later they used that particular receipt and was able to give me the $50+ difference. That was awesome. Things do happen for a reason and the broken door turned out to be worth $50 for me.
That scared me. I'm leaving now.
umm, 100% increase? isnt this how many Microsoft send out not sell @ retailers?
another BS fallacy made up by the desperate officials over @ M$.
They are trying to build confidence in people. truth is they know there coming last this GEN!. its no longer three consoles in this war its only 2 now.
100%? well imagine the PS3 @ $199.95
then what PS3 sales will make 1 million a month. 12 million a year.!!
You ask a question, then answer your own question, then call microsoft a bunch of idiots because of the answer you gave to the question you don't know the answer to.
I do have to agree that if a PS3 dropped to $199.99 the sales volume would make hot cakes sales look like hummer sales. However Sony would completely loose their asses because hardly anyone would be buying the games and accessories that Sony would make any money on. However, a lot more people would have a great Blu-Ray player.
I just hope this make Sony rethink their price drop timing, I for one welcome a cheaper Blu-Ray player.
@ Dave Chappelle
What? You stupid. If the PS3 were to go to 199.99 they would go bankrupt before they sell one at that price. Are you stupid?
And if it didn't have blue-ray well 0 sales!!
Your just another PS3 Fan!
I would have voted you up more if you'd omitted the /s tag.
Again, Don't get fooled by that $199.
Because it's really $299?
@ Lazrpanda .... Im not defending that PS3 fanboy you had a pop at back there but his usage of questions was purely rhetorical!
Not sure how many people did statistics but numbers, can easily be manipulated to seem like something else. MS definitely ain't lying. They sales might have gone up 2x or even 6x over previous weeks. But you need to keep in mind the typical weekly sales of that console. Its very common to see only 500 units sold per week. The average weekly sales is in the 1 - 2000 range. So they may sell 10 times their weekly average and it still means nothing.
Plus, who in their right mind bought one the week before a highly predicted price drop. The week before undoubtedly had very weak sales.
Let's see where it's at in 6 months.
I own all 3 consoles, and each have their good points- the Wii is great for multi player games, the xBox is fantastic as a media center extender, and the PS3 has great graphics if you buy the right games, plus Blu-Ray. If I only had one, I'd pick the Wii.
Anybody think this might have something to do with who knows how many hundreds of thousands of college kids returning to school around this time? Just a thought
"100% increase in sales of all Xbox 360 models compared to the previous weekend"
In other words, the previous weekend's sales were DOWN, because everyone already knew that the price drop was coming and was waiting for the next weekend, when they could buy it for less.
Nice spin, Microsoft.
i doubt everyone reads engadget and other tech blogs like we do. most people probably had no idea.
I bet 6x on the Arcade.
help I need an ADULT!
Don't believe for a second that they are losing money on those sales at this point.
blah blah blah this blah blah blah that fanboi sucks this etc...
i traded in my wii that i bought on launch day this week since i never play it.
i bought a 360 arcade.
that makes 2 360s for me, i am sure i am not the only one to do so.
2 360s? What, you got 2 pairs of hands, or have you trained your feet to use a controller too?
**In game comments**
"Feet, I need help over here, I'm taking fire!"
"No worries mate! I'm right below you!"
Two 360's here also (1 PS3, one dust collecting Wii).
Two pairs of hands? No. Two TVs? Yep.
It's great if the wife doesn't want me hogging the TV in the living room to be able to pluck off the hard drive, throw it onto the other console, and keep on going in the other room as if I had moved the whole console. The proprietary hard drives are way overpriced, but it's really nice how easy it is to swap them between consoles.
Also, now me and the wife can play on Live together with my other friends (yes, I have the best wife ever).
Plus, it doesn't hurt to have an extra one lying around for when one of them visits RROD-land.
I have 2 360s... one upstairs and one downstairs. The wife hogs the one downstairs. My gamer profile is on a memory card and I can just log off one, take out the memory card, plug it into the other one and then log back on. Might get a third for the bedroom.
Is it a sin to just buy extra cables and power maybe a power cord and just transport the console to the next room? Even if you'd only be buying an extra arcade, it would let you spend that 200 on something cool that you don't already have.
when will they learn, suck everyone in with a low console price... then lower the Boom with expensive-a$$$ games that don't suck.
If the ps3 had been priced at $250 from the start it would have crushed the competition and Sony would have made up the initial loss on game and blue ray sales and Wii would be something a dog does when it is bad.
Not necessarily. Nintendo was making money on their console from day one. Also, look at the stats; they indicate that most people who do buy a Wii don't buy any games for it and just stick with the bundle. Games on today's consoles are outrageously expensive and since people can't demo them, many hesitate spending so much money. Most families that buy a Wii get the sports bundle and maybe a controller or two and they don't come back to get more games. This is like buying a crappy inkjet printer and get owned by the ink prices. I'm a PC gamer and game prices and quality are my chief concern as frankly, only a handful of games are worth their full price at launch. As for X360 price cut, it's great, there are a lot of platinum hits games one can play and seeing that all you get in a Pro is a lousy 20GB hard drive and a better tv cable, this makes Arcade even more appealing (HDD is $5-10 on eBay and HDMI is also around $10). So make your own conclusions but the new Arcade is definitely a worthwhile choice at a decent price. I wouldn't be surprised MS claims that their sales doubled seeing that the $80 one just saved can get then quite a few games if you don't go for new releases.
I'm not so sure about that. I would rather pay $300 for an Xbox 360 than $250 for a PS3.
Also, the people making the Wii a top seller aren't really in the market for a PS3 at any price.
No demos?
It seems like just about every single game released for the 360 has a demo out.
A little ol' demo for a little ol' franchise called star wars just did gangbusters according to lucas arts.
Go figure.
Christmas is going to get VERY interesting IMO. MS has stock and Nintendon't. Very interesting indeed.
you really can tell the people that dont keep up to date on the revisions, since the last revision of hardware the 360 was in profit per console last i recall hearing, and the overall entertainment industry was in the green instead of red....
every analyst has said that the only console still in red is sony and their getting dug deeper into the red
He-he... Finally some real pressure on Nintendo ^_^
I'd be more interested in hearing how much sales are up versus the average for the year, not just the previous weekend. These price drops have been common knowledge for quite some time now, it stands to reason that most people who were in the market for an Xbox 360 a week before the price drop would have just waited.
Hey attention all wii fans, and the people who are crying about the prices being to high for ps3 and xbox previously, ps3 actually put together a powerhouse and nintendo just threw together the cheapest reliable parts and sold it with a controller that mimiced the ps3 motion controlled actions. I am not saying the wii isnt popular, and they made a great finicial decision but it is still crap
I'm not gonna defend the wii, I have one and am completely disapointed by it. But I though the Wii-mote was introduced before the ps3 motion control controller.
On a side note. I love my 360.
First, as noted by others, the 2x and 6x greater then last weekend figure is pure marketing spin due to people not buying since they knew the price cut was coming (indeed, only a 2x increase versus last week would seem to indicate that the price drop didn't work at all.) So, with that out of the way... if one were to go by what you see at places like this with regard to the Wii and whether or not "the games suck", you would think that Nintendo was sunk long ago, but of course they aren't. What's the reason for that? I'm guessing it's that, low and behold, most people like the Wii and the games available for it.
Huzaa for Xbox 360 owners. More sales means more games, media, and live activity. It is so affordable now, why not buy it? (other than because it is extremely loud, lacks a blu-ray drive, and has a history of shoddy quality)
I would like to buy a 360 in the near future, but even with the price drop I'm still holding off for now. Why not buy? Because I can look past the new "sticker price" and see the real costs involved. Aside from the loudness and history of shoddy quality (have they actually fixed that yet?) you mentioned, I'm still waiting for MS to build in the wireless adapter, price the hard drives reasonably, and open up Live for free. Sure, I could buy a cheap Arcade or Pro model, but to make those models functional in my entertainment center requires a lot more extra add-ons that significantly lessen the price gap.
Maybe this fall they'll put together a better bundle for the holiday shoppers...
They're not going to make Live free this generation. It's clear from Sony's last big firmware release where they were supposedly going to catch up that it's just not possible for Sony to do it this gen since they didn't have the foresight to dedicate a core to the XMB. Until MS gets some real competition on the online gaming front (which I fully expect Sony to have ready to go next gen), they can get away with continuing to charge for Live.
Of course, Sony's unwillingness to impose rules on the developers and their desire to leave everything up to said developers could keep them behind on that front next gen as well, as having everything integrated, streamlined, and exactly the same no matter which game you have in is one of the most necessary things on that front.
Why not? It may be $200 for arcade for you but by the moment we get one, its price is $800-1000 for Elite and $500+ for Arcade. So, why not buy one? :)
Last weekend sales were pretty low (partly because people were waiting for the price cut) so, a 100% boost is not a threat on the wii, not even on the PS3.
I'll wait for NPD numbers of next weeks, but if I were MS, i'd be worrying.
I'm thinking about getting the $199 Arcade for casual gaming, can I get by without the hard drive? I really only need to save games and download roster updates for Madden.
Uh, the 360 has reportedly been breaking even/making money for a year now. The MS machine was more expensive for a reason -- it has much more power that the Wii.
Sure, Wii units sell out, but 360 still has the highest game attach rate.
It still puzzles when I read comments like "... while my Wii is collecting dust" and "...but I don't use it anymore." Do you normally keep expensive electronics sitting around you don't use? Do you enjoy clutter around your place? Are you pac-rats that don't want to get rid of anything? Why not sell it and recoup some money instead of having it sit there? Seems sillly to complain about it.
Of course the sales will double, and yes that is/ was the reason why the Wii(King of casual gaming system) sells so well.
Ps3? Dont mention Japanophile shit in the presence of grown men. Ohhhh did you find that easter egg in MGS4!?!? ............
Exactly...
Hold your breath for God Of War 3.....
- You can stop kneeling now...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB6fq9Aadwk
I have a Wii and a 360. My 7 year old son loves the 360 because of Rockband downloadable content, achievements and Xbox Live. The Wii does not get played much in the house. The 360 is a more well rounded console. You really can't go wrong with a 360 or a PS3. The primary reason that the Wii sells like it does is because parents are price sensitive and the Wii was the cheapest new console on the market, parents trust Nintendo games (Mario etc...) and there was so much hype associated with the Wii.
Now that the 360 is the cheapest console, I think you will see many people gravitate towards the 360. There are a couple of reasons for this:
1. The growth in the number of high-definition TV's. Simply put: Dad's who buy these for their families (actually buy it to watch HDTV sports) will want a game console that works in high definition.
2. The games are simply better: Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Madden 09, Left 4 Dead, Dead Space, Viva Pinata, Pure, etc...
3. Growth in downloadable content. Simply put, this is what makes the XBox 360 a true market force. You not only get a fantastic game machine, but all the demos, additional game content, videos, now movies etc...
4. XBox Live Friends. Believe me when I say that the 360 is a streamlined, no lag, no hassle experience that allows me to play with people I like on a regular basis. Not only do we play the game, but it allows me to keep in touch and do things with people hundreds of miles away.
Don't get me wrong. The Wii is a fun system, but it is limited and I think given a choice based a great deal on price people will buy the 360. Nintendo will still be number 1 in console sales, but Microsoft is definetly going to be number 2. Sony simply cannot afford to drop the price to a $199 level. I honestly believe Microsoft will now do anything it takes to be the industry leader. At the end of the day, that means better games for people because great games sell consoles.
Cheers,
Kelly
Can anyone tell me if the xBox360 Arcade version can be used as a Media Extender? Since the media is actually stored inside the PC, is it necessary to have a hard drive "inside" the 360?
I am a wii owner...soon to be sold. Then I am buying a PS3 for the games and the Blu-Ray.
I think the X360 is a poorly designed and built game system. Sure some nut jobs from Day one bought one, but look at the strikingly similar numbers to sales of X1 and X360. I think those that wanted one have bought one and very little growth for their business is happening. People do not want a X360 and its not because its too expensive. Where are the 120 million PS2 owners this generation? 1/4 of them have already bought a Wii, PS3 and X360 own the other 1/4, and the other half of them are waiting for the PS3 to drop in price enough to take the plunge.
X720 needs to go ahead and come out so they can canibalize their own customer base again and everyone can have the same argument when those sales level off.
The news of the price cut probably put a huge dent in overall sales for the past few weeks. So to have a huge uptick when the price cut happens really isn't a surprise. Look what happenned with the PSP price cut. What is really important is a few weeks from now.
Also Microsoft still has not made dollar one from the XBOX division. It doesn't matter how much profit you make on a console right now until that profit reduces all loss and gives you an overall profit.
Also at $199 Microsoft is losing money on the console. They will not be able to make money at that price point until the CPU and GPU are integrated into one chip. Remember that for quite a long time Microsoft had to make 7 360s that didn't work for every 3 that did work. They still had to pay the assembly company to build those dead consoles and the parts suppliers for the parts. They didn't find out that the consoles were dead until they were tested after they shipped. In fact right now they are still only around 80% yield so for every 10 360s coming off the line 2 of them are dead from the factory. In what wasn't a very smart move Microsoft bought the production rights for the microprocessors, they have to pay for every one that doesn't work.
Microsoft had to pay for million of consoles that were broken that were never sold. Then they had to write off the cost of millions of defective consoles that were sold. If Microsoft was losing money on the sale of a console then the production cost of each console is the true cost. The true production loss could be far higher than the billion dollar RRoD writeoff.
So in reality Microsoft is very far off from turing a profit.
This doesn't surprise me. Not to bash the Wii, because I've stood up for it for a while, but the games are a little on the stale side. Most of the good games are first party. The 360, hardware issues aside, has a great library and a fairly solid online experience. And now it's the cheapest console out there.
It's going to be interesting to see how Sony and Nintendo retaliate.