I had the pleasure of chatting with with Microsoft's Xbox man himself, Director of Product Management, Aaron Greenberg, over dinner last night. Well, we didn't quite have dinner together. I was eating pizza while talking on the phone with him. I hope I wasn't too rude.
Recession? Hardware sales down? Aaron Greenberg didn't sound worried when we talked about it. "People were surprised at how well Xbox 360 sold," he told me. Despite headlines that say that Nintendo took it all in this busy holiday season, Greenberg pointed out more people spent money on Xbox 360 than anything else. Their figure of $838 million in "total consumer spending" beat out even Nintendo. And Sony, of course. That's 819,000 Xbox 360s in November, a bit under the Wii's 1.26 million, but about 100k more than PS3.
Having a lot of kick ass games lined up surely helped a bit. The biggest, of course, is Modern Warfare 2. Gamers picked the Xbox 360 version over the PS3. "They picked the Xbox 360 version well over 2 to 1 over the PS3 version," Greenberg proudly boasted. You could hear the pride in his voice. The numbers show a total of 4.2 million copies sold for the Xbox 360, but Greenberg pointed to the Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 bundles, which he says weren't even counted in that number.
While talking about the just-released NPD sales numbers, I brought up all of the great games coming up in early 2010, and was sure to put in my complaint that I haven't even been able to purchase all the 4Q '09 ones yet. Greenberg sympathized, but warned that next year would be even harder on a blogger's pocketbook. "We have a blockbuster ever single month," Greenberg said, speaking of 2010. He pointed to games like Splinter Cell: Conviction, the new Crackdown, Alan Wake, and Mass Effect 2, reminding me that many of next year's titles are Xbox 360 exclusives.
I asked him what he thought the biggest would be for next year, and he wasted no time in blurting out the name of the next game in the Halo series, Halo Reach. Greenberg sounded very certain. "Halo Reach will be the best-selling game of 2010," he said. He couldn't tell me why yet, but I trust him.
"It's not all just Modern Warfare 2," Greenberg reminds. Plenty of other Xbox 360 games are helping out. Forza Motorsport 3 sold over a million copies worldwide last month. Greenberg added, "It's an important game for us, and it's actually the highest-rated next-gen racing title out there." Just as important were Xbox 360 exclusive games like Halo 3: ODST and Left 4 Dead 2, with the latter pulling in 744,000 copies in November. Greenberg noted that all of the great Black Friday and other holiday shopping deals didn't hurt.
Just for fun, I tried to give him shit about one game that I know did not do well for them: Tony Hawk: Ride. He was prepared: "I hadn't tried that yet." I nodded silently, smugly. Of course, he didn't see that. Then he asked, "have you played it yet?" I told him it was not good and that I was sure he had heard this before. He said something about a high price point. Then he slickly transitioned into other topics. I gotcha, buddy.
Thanks for chatting with us, Aaron.
Contest:
9:40 AM on 12.11.2009
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Many more people bough MW2 on 360 over PS3? ORLY? You reckon an overhyped FPS game sold well to the hype eating FPS loving Xbox audience. Do you reckon?
In a time where the PS3 had some awesome exclusives and the 360 had nothing else to play at the time?
It didn't sell better because it's better, it sold better because..
1) there are more 360's. They're cheap as chips, everyone's got one.
2) FPS games are the 360 crowds Bread and Butter - there's a massive Halo, CoD, Madden / FIFA only 360 fanbase, read: not REAL gamers.
3) PS3 users had far better games to play.
I own both consoles and enjoyed all of the great games this year, stop being a fanboy and trying to justify your console purchase to cover up your insecurities. IT IS A VIDEO GAME CONSOLE! Why do you feel the need to defend either one to the death? What are you getting out of being microsoft or sony's person advertisement?
Don't be an asshole.
You know I respect you Sexy, and I actually agree with some of your points but I will give one thing that would put me over if I were choosing between 360 and PS3 MW2:
Xbox Live.
It's a very small thing (for me anyway) but that would be the realm where I would think it's "better."
But anyways this is Microsoft's guy. This is completely predictable to hear him say. It barely warrants a response.
"Developed over 70 years ago, Sudocrem is the market leader in the nappy rash sector. Nappy rash can be a cause of unhappy, crying babies, with as many as one in four babies suffering from the condition at one time or another."
Priceless.
How the world turns.
1. The ps3 and 360 are the same price point for the main model
2. If Fps games are the 360's bread and butter, then a. why did forza 3 sell so well, why is gears so popular? and b. why did MW2 sell well over a million copies on PS3 if its NOT its bread and butter
3. Such as Uncharted 2? Which is why Uncharted 2 (according to VG Chartz) has sold 1.85 million, and the PS3 MW2 has sold almost as many in a much shorter amount of time?
I own a PS3 but before I can get to the "amazing better games" I have to finish getting tired of L4D2 and MW2 with my RL friends. If not for them, I would be playing my PS3 more. So how am I NOT a gamer?!
You were cute at first Sexual, but c'mon man! As a fellow TrollMaster, your reaching for straws comes off as desperate, tired and just damn OLD. Unless you were purposely trolling with your comment, in which case: FUCK! I fell for it. :(
I don't know about other exclusives besides Demon's Souls, but then I'm probably not as informed as I could be. I do agree that the XBox always had "rep" as the console where the online FPSes are happening, but seriously, I think it's very silly to label FPS or sports games enthusiasts as "not REAL gamer". I don't think destructoid is a community where gaming genre elitism is welcomed, frankly.
Not liking online FPSes is fine, then just play and comment games you actually appreciate.
Prepare for your essay in response.
I love it when Chocs is given questions to answer!!
Chocsy loves his FPS.
Halo Reach won't stand much chance if Treyarch inevitably release Cod: World at War 2 or whatever.
Actually Sexy loves FPS' and online gaming. He was all for MW2 for the first couple of weeks of release.
but the xbox controller just owns ,i might be wrong but i believe the xbox controller is a much relaxed controller for a long play time what say guys?
one question i wana ask chocolate to be honest what exactly are u talkin bout when u say " ps3 has cooler games , arnt 95 % games that launch launch on both consoles with like 4 or 5 exclusives on either console and each release almost always has a parallel release on the opposing console
eg of a few exclusives based on points
mass effect vs (nothing on ps3 compares) xbox : 1
gears of war vs (nothing compares there ) xbox :1
uncharted 2 vs (nothing compares on xbox )ps3 1
god of war vs ( there is no game out there better than god of war ..) ps3 :1
alan wake ( hyped graphically advanced vs heavy rain( looks incredibly sweet) xbox:1/2 ps3:1/2
basically thats it both are not really any shade above each other and the rest of the games normally release on both
mw2 is amazing but it isnt as great as the hype machine build it up to be
Xzyliac mostly always has very level headed opinions , chocolate always is the shitstarter cuz of his bias for his black box o' sony
I totally agree. But then I just prefer the Xbox in almost every way, so my opinion isn't really going to mean much. I do like the PS3, and the only real beef I have with it is the controller, which is too light, too edgy (like edges, not kooky), the triggers don't feel like triggers, and the analogues are just horrible. I totally appreciate that those who prefer the Dualshock will like it for those exact reasons, and dislike the Xbox controller for the same reasons I love it. My post is meaningless, but then that's usually the case.
1.) How many of the 819k systems sold in November were console re-buys by the 600k - 1 mil 360 owners who were conveniently banned recently?
2.) How many of the 819k sold were $199 arcade models? 60 - 70% maybe?
I'm not bashing the PS3 at all, but constantly hearing about the 360 being only for shooters is retarded. I guess the best selling games on PS3 are all about composing symphonies?Shooters are massively popular, but that's on EVERY system, except Nintendo's.
Next year on the 360: Halo, Alan Wake, Mass Effect 2, Crackdown, SplinterCell.
Its going to be a great year for gamers but I think the PS3 takes the cake.
Personally, I'm a PS3 guy due to the fact that I feel the 360 is a rushed, shoddy design....
However that being said I'm all for competition and as long as Sony puts up numbers to be relevant in the industry...I'm happy.
He's probably writing afriggin' novel to respond to everyone.
PSN basically provides you the free network and leaves you to your fun in a lawless sandbox, which is great in its own way, but might not give some FPS players the support they want. Players who play FPSes casually like I do LOVE the 0$ PSN. My aunt bought a PS3 for my cousin who loves FPSes, and the fact that she would not have to pay monthly fees for my cousin's violent outlet was a major factor in her decision.
that said, as a PS3 owner and lover, i'm glad microsoft is currently doing better, since it means that Sony will just keep the quality of their games as high as it currently is and keep adding more awesome features to it's platform.
I fail to see how playing FPS's and sports games don't qualify someone as a real gamer. Is it RTS's? RPG's? Fighting games? What makes a real gamer? Because right now, my status as a real gamer is being threatened!
Also, 20% of the people I know who own a PS3 play literally one game on it - FIFA.