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.
