Remember about 2 weeks ago when Amazon had a deal where they sold 1000 Xbox 360 core systems for $100? Apparently, that sale was more interesting to consumers than the release of either of the other next-gen systems.
Analyst firm Compete just released a study that compared the online traffic garnered from that promotion versus the online traffic generated by the new systems’ launches and apparently people care more about the $100 Xbox 360. Not only that, but they find that while it isn’t quite drawing the same level of interest as the newly released systems, the Xbox 360 has enjoyed a massive upswing in popularity since the launch, and while the Wii is still beloved, the PlayStation 3 had a 15% drop in interest only a week after it’s launch.
What does this mean? Well, it means that Steve Ballmer won’t be throwing chairs around Redmond any time soon, as this definitely bodes well for his boys. It also goes to show that Sony can not rely on name recognition alone to get them through a rushed, and honestly crappy, launch. Microsoft is turning out to be very formidable competition for their precious new baby, and these numbers prove that fact.
I also want to pre-emptively stop any fan boys who are going to run to their nearest forum and drone on and on about how the Xbox 360 is totally crushing the PS3 and how it’s going to win this generation. We simply don’t know that yet. The only thing that we do know for sure is that Bill Gates eats children, and Ken Kutaragi would like nothing more than to sneak into your house at night and hit you with a brick while you sleep.
(Editor’s Note: We probably don’t know any of those things either. Nex has been pinching doses of Laudanum all night and earlier he had a conversation with Orson Welles about his groundbreaking work as the voice of Unicron. Sadly, Mr. Welles has been dead for years.)
