Price point isn't everything; the latest data from the NPD group shows this. For September 2011, sales of Xbox 360 grew, despite being on average $35 more expensive than PS3.
In the later years of both consoles' lifespan, prices have been cut as an answer to slowing hardware sales. The math for the average price (total hardware revenue sales for a month divided by the number of systems sold) shows that the PS3 is cheaper than the Xbox 360, at $271 and $306 respectively. Still, more Xbox 360 systems were sold in September.
Gamasutra actually called this last month: "If consumers think that the Xbox 360 offers a better value, then the $50 PS3 price cut could bring the PS3's average price below that of the Xbox 360 without actually driving PS3 sales higher than Xbox 360 sales."
That's exactly what happened last month. Microsoft is selling 12,000 more systems per week and at a $35 higher price. Why would that happen? Better games? Better features?
It will be interesting to see how things go this holiday.
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
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Contest:
10:15 AM on 10.17.2011 | 
Though that is pretty interesting. I'm guessing the new Gears Of War drove all those consoles home?
Just wait till CoD comes out Xbox sales will rise and Bros be Bumping fists and racial slurs like no tomorrow, lol.
But when the President tells people to "turn off their [American] 360s", it makes sense.
Are Americans richer,dumber,or is it just poor advertising?
If your buddies own a 360, you're not going to get a PS3 just because it has a better value and won't steal more money from your wallet over the course of each year.
That's just reality. I could list a whole host of costs that you might incur over the years with the 360 that wouldn't happen on the PS3. I mean, over 5 years of live there's another $200 at least coming out of your wallet. If you need another of their proprietary hard drives? Well, not sure on that cost. Batteries for you controllers? Recharge kit? Wi-fi (until the Slim model at least)? RRoD and potentially getting fed up and getting a better model (inflated sales? [I have several friends that have bought a second one actually])
So it is what it is.
And I am a PS3 owner, but I live in Europe where everybody has PS3s and most 360 owners have them hacked and don't care about online - which is the strong point of the 360.
It is a testament to the Xbox that it continues to sell so well and wonderful that the PS3 is gaining in popularity.
You're damn right. That said, where in Europe are you? In the UK it seems to be even between the two.
i don't live in the US but in Amazon and Gamestop Webs, 360 its like 200us and the ps3 like 250us 300us so again how is the ps3 cheaper?
and don't make talk about the games its like a 360 game 70us and ps3 game 110us
I think it's mainly the head start of the 360 and lack of advertising which put the ps3 behind. You never really see as much advertising for the ps3 especially with stores like Best Buy which usually devotes their game ads to 360 every week (especially with kinect) with hardly any mention of ps3 games/systems which is one reason. The whole head start thing was more of a trickle down effect. Everybody wanted a 360 because they knew someone who had bought it during that year. Since they then bought it, their friends also wanted one and it kept repeating. Basically in this online era of gaming, more people tend to buy what their friends have and 360 had that extra year for an install base. Sony came in too late with a very unattractive price (2x the Ps2's launch price) which deterred people from buying so they choose something else (mainly 360). If they were to launch around the same time though, it could've been a different story.
The PS3 doesn't have any of those advantages.
They both have about the same amount of games (excluding XBLA, which rocks the PSN), and outside of Blu-Ray, the 360 arguably offers more media options than the PS3, once the Xbox TV option hits.
Also, online wise, you get what you pay for. I'd gladly pay $35 a year (yes, $35, there are deals every month) to have a dedicated backbone, and actual infrastructure. Xbox Live really ain't too shabby. Then there's the fact that it hasn't been cracked in the ten years it's been operational.
I'm from Romania, which means zero on Sony's or Microsoft's statistics since they have no official presence here, but most of the console community here buys games from UK stores(amazon.co.uk, play.com, hmv.com, game.co.uk) as they are cheaper even with shipping costs then local stores.
As a comparison Darksouls PS3 limited edition in a shop here costs about 86$, and the minimum wage is around 170$.
They're both great consoles. They're both selling well. But I guess websites need clicks so stories like these will always be written.
Still can't find any reason to turn on my 360 instead of my PS3 though. Oh well.
Otherwise, the exclusives mostly balance out, with an edge to the XBox if you are a shooters fan, out and cross platform games are similar enough not to distinguish them.
At the end of the day, this gen has been much more level in terms of sales than in the past. I would say the largest selling point Sony systems had in the past was the huge library of games that you could play nowhere else, and when consoles started offering up essentially the exact same games as each other (with the exception of first party published games), Sony lost a lot of the market share they enjoyed when their systems enjoyed far better libraries than their competition.
Nah, not really. PSN was down for a week and I still didn't turn on the 360. Just nothing I want to play on there. Sorry. =P
yeah a week, more like a month
a week?more like a month plus all those exclusive firmware updates
Not to mention replacement consoles (I'm on my 2nd 360)but once MS started losing most of their good exclusives,and started focusing more on Kinect,myself and most of my friends picked up PS3 when the slim released in 2009.
Once we realized there wasn't much difference between Live and PSN,and that PS3 had a more diverse selection of 1st party titles plus all 3rd party games could be played online for free, none of us have really had a reason to touch our 360's since.
In all honesty,like the rest of the world,I thought more people in the US would have done the same.
That said, I'm not bashing the 360, We all still have our 360's waiting for MS to release a "Must Own" exclusive. Unfortunately for us the Gears Series and Kinect titles aren't it.
As much as we, the hardcore, all laugh at the Kevin Butler commercials, they were stupid. Really, really stupid. Anyone here remember the PSP Marcus commercials?
By comparison, the 360 commercials were simple and dug into your heads. Xbox 360 logo, game trailer, Xbox 360 logo, repeat. The game trailer may have sucked, but every time you saw or heard that logo, you thought "oh, Xbox 360 commercial".
Well said.
"Even before the price cut, PS3 offered a better value than the 360. With the 360 you had to buy a wifi adaptor..."
Just a note, 360s have had built in wifi for quite a while now :)
I'll probably pick up a 360 in a couple years, after its successor is revealed.
And as many people have pointed out, 360 hardware shits out more frequently.
Millions, eh try thousands. During the first year of the ps3 life it was true that the ps3 was the best blu ray player. After HD DVD sunk blu ray player brides nosed dived pretty quick.
If you bought a os3 for anything else other than gaming after that first year, you were an idiot.
Also resistance is a bad example as its always been more of a flavor game than say uncharted or killzone, hell killzone 3 busted into the millions territory almost immediately.
As much as I love resistance it is a bit of a required taste, the weapons alone make it differ quite a bit from your average shooter.