question for you guys is what else do you expect when competition enters the market?

Don't bother it's best you let him/her vent.

most people just are not willing to pay that high of a price for a console.

MS NEEDS to listen to what everyone is saying and CUT THE FREAKING PRICE ALREADY!!!

drop it by 50-100$ and they will hit their targets no freaking problem, especially at a point when sony cannot cut their price, they would make a killing.

and it's also quite obvious from the attach rate they have achieved, the software will more than help make up the difference.

Means that they didn't sell anywhere near enough units this holiday season...which is really bad news for them. They shipped over 10 million, but if those didn't sell then...

Sony and Nintendo definitely need to capitalize on Microsoft's mediocre performance.

Perhaps the price drop is going to be later than I thought. More like early fall or early winter a couple months before Halo 3 launch. This way people waiting for Halo 3 will feel better about buying one sooner.

But I still think microsoft owes it to the consumers waiting for this drop. It should happen sooner, like in the next couple months if I had my way. MS is already making 70/console. A couple months later it'll be 100 per.

You know why he gives this out???

People in their mind start thinking the 360 will only sell 12 million by June.

Suddenly the real number is out: 16 million sold. WTF? The victory will look bigger then, imagine reaching your targets people say that's allright... But if you exceed the downtuned targets (which everyone has forgotten about in June it happened back in January which is now) people will cheer about your product.

That's a strategy possible.

And PS fanboys, please, don't even go there. The PS3 sales are going down by the second. In Japan, last week it sold just 20k. While the 360 sold about 8 or 9k. So it outsold the 360, but the 360 almost sold 50% of PS3 sales. That has never happened with the original XBOX compared to the PS2!!!

That's big. And the PS3 is loosing. Hard, so damn hard!

Not ONE, not one game in the Japanese top 20 selling games, while Gears was in there with 33k copies sold

You do not have to go full steam the whole race. Why exaust funds on an extra 3 million consoles? By june Halo 3 will be gearing up for lunch. It is not tha big of a deal. the company I work for dose the same thing in the summer months.

I do believe that now with the competition launching, there will be a lesser demand for the 360. That's natural.

I do also agree with theMART that MS is keeping their goals low, so that they'll be met and exceeded.

Finally, I also see this as a sign that there will be new version(s) of the 360 coming soon. Perhaps the core being produced with 20GB HDD, and possibly an 80GB premium system. Also, this holiday will also see the release of IPTV and the 360 will probably have to be accompanied by some new hardware (possibly a media 360 bundle).

I don't see this as a total sign of weakness, but as a small reorganization before the major releases this holiday (IPTV, Halo 3, ???).

Just My Opinion

Neither console is selling or/has the hype like the PS2 had back in its day. I do feel the 360 will out sell PS3 this year, but PS3 will continue to pursue right behind 360. I’m all about the competition between these to heavy weights. The further they go in trying to win/beat the other one to the top of this mountain, the better it gets for us gamers. This will also help keep prices down and not generate a monopoly for either one (like the PS2 had).

Not shocking at all. Original Bill said they'd sell 10 million by the time the PS3 launched.

Lower shipping targets meens that they aren't selling like they hoped whichever way you or Microsoft look at it, they might have shipped millions but there's still millions sitting on shelves...

Whether they're real (Which is what it looks like) or just for display, it's a pretty desperate move 'cause they're just stacked up like, oh my god.

It's the Tower of 360s. I was playing Motorstorm and my friend just stared at the sucker and said in a very unemotional manner "That's stupid."

=P

But there have been rumors about a new SKU. Also MS stated over a year ago that some time in 2007 they would release the 65nm chip 360. Both of these may factor into clearing out stocks and manufacturing plant re-tooling. Additionally, the success of the Wii may have had some affect on the 360 and PS3 sales, although I think it is due more to the higher price. At least, as far as MS is concerned, the PS3 is doing far worse than expected and the 360 did sell better than the other two this holiday season, without the Halo boost.

DJ and the rest of you Sony fanboys should stick to what you do for a living.

Companies don't always lower shipment because they are not selling.

as I wrote on another article, "This can be a sign of a radical move from microsoft that can impact console sales temporarily. This can be a sign of a price drop, new SKU, new bundle, etc which obviously will cause people to wait until the price drop before making a purchase."

It is very common for hardware manufaturers to keep reduce shipments on products that will be replaced. Now I'm not saying that this is a fact in this case. Maybe you fanboys are right and microsoft it's not selling. But it can also be true that microsoft will be changing the sku... maybe new harddrive for premium, 20GB hardrive for core, new CPU(they mentioned this), price drop.

Also as TheMART mentioned it's no unusual for companies to lower expectations in order to make a predictable outcome seem as a unexpected success.

You act like SONY did not drastically reduce the LAUNCH of the PS3 PERIOD. This is not a Sony vs. M$ issue in the first place it is an M$ smart money issue. You guys are just hurting for bad 360 news so bad. It only shows non PS3 owners how bad it sucks to be you.

"The days of giveaways are over? This reminds me of the usual dilemma for a console maker. Ship a lot of units, or make a lot of money. In some ways, they go together. They need to move a lot of consoles in order to create the chance for profits from game sales later on. But if you ship too many consoles too early, you lose a lot of money on the hardware. You can dig a hole that you never get out of, as when Microsoft lost $3.8 billion on the first Xbox."
http://www.next-gen.biz/ind...
The 360 is doing O.K. but things could be better. What Moore is talking about is a manufacture reduction not an all out stop. They met the 10 million sold goal and now they need to be smart. Because any one can F***K up a good thing. Just look at the PS3 Sony F*ked it up with a Blu ray drive. They do not need to over produce.

Sony fan boys want the 360 to tank but it will not. The PS3 mite. They ship 2,000,000 and loose $1,680,700,000.00. Now go think about that.

They need to LOWER the price. After 12+ months you've already sold to all the early adopters and hardcore gamers - who don't mind paying extra to have the latest and greatest.

The casual gamer who *maybe* plays a couple hours a month and is perfectly content with their old PS2 or Xbox, isn't looking to drop $400+ on a new video game system.

Microsoft has a false sense of security due to the outrageous price of the PS3. They alluded to it themselves when they said they were considering a price break until Sony announced their rates.

Meanwhile, the little Nintendo Wii might just pass up the big boys for offering a new experience at an afforable price. Crazy idea, isn't it???

There's a village missing it's idiot, you better go home now.

Shipped 10.4 was the first week of December, sold over 10mil. for the year. Mid. January, shipped over 11 million, sold over 10.5 million.
The numbers are great, especially the in regards to the pace that the inexpensive Wii is going at and well the ps3 does also have a mild impact on things as well. Alot of people wanted to wait to see what all 3 could offer so considereing this, I think the Xbox 360 has done phenominal and will do even better than last year for the second part of 07. The titles due then will be priceless to gamers. The Wii will slow down in sales in the next 2 or 3 months and the ps3 will continue to struggle in sales due to it's poor showing and once again over promissing and under delivering as usual.
The cost do nothing to inhance it's appeal, if somebody wanted to watch blu ray movies, well in a couple months a better, much much better blu ray device will be out and equal to the ps3 cost or less, and HD-DVD will also be giving a strong showing and it's HD-DVD add on to the Xbox 360 is only $199.99, that's a steal if someone wants it.

"REAL" gamers don't watch movies on there consoles so sony's decision to push blu ray was for all the wrong reasons.

What other mindless idiot druel will you expel from your mouth. seeing your postings anymore is like watching a sad and disgrunteled little boy whine for his mommy but still shouting excuses for not getting his (sony's) way.

That's why it says there allocation has been reduced not increased! There is no way that Micrsoft wants another price drop this early on there already selling cheap. They have shipped alot of consoles but many still sit on shelves...

after the holidays not everyone has disposable income, with paying credit card bills and bills in general. All consoles go through this year after year, should pick up this summer.

Could they be holding back systems so that right before they ship Halo 3 they can send millions to stores and make sure that they fully capitalize on the insane 360 demand that will be caused. If they run out of systems at launch those are valuable sales that may not return latter.

Ms needs a price drop. It's too much for most people at 399 for the premium. I know there department operated at a loss, but I thought the Zune was part of that department and the Zune can't be helping their bottom line at this time (or likely ever). MS needs a price drop in Europe with Sony's release and drop in price soon afterwards North America. If MS doesn't get to the 22-25 million mark by the end of Next christmas, then they will never dominate this generation. I am sure with halo's release there will be a pick-up in sales, but that's likely not until November. Whether ther's a lull or not they need to keep moving systems.

M$ has reduced their sales goals because the reality is that sales for the 360 has slowed down...THATS THE TRUTH, uhm, oh and BTW 10.4+ mil SOLD so far is pretty damm good. I think its "only natural" that sales have slowed for obvious reasons: the holidays have passed and there are TWO competing consoles on the market, -which is almost impossible to guage before hand what the "demand" for each will be....honestly who "knew for sure" that the Wii would be doing this well? I think even Nintendo is pleasently surprised, although of course they would never admit it.....and guess what sales are even dropping for the Wii, but that again is also only natural, personally I believe the Wii will eventually fall well behind M$ and Sony's offerings, but hey we will see.

At any rate I think M$ is doing the right thing, they are analyzing the market and making a "cautious projection" -this does not mean the 360 is not selling as Sonyfanboys want to believe because in fact the 360 is still doing well and outselling the "newer" PS3 which is doing WORSE THAN THE 360 SALES.

THE XBOX 360 IS TANKING LIKE THE DREAMCAST 10 MILLION IN 1 YEAR IN 37 COUNTRIES PATHETIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!

THE PS3 IS SELLING HALF AS GOOD AS THE Wii, ALSO PATHETIC!!!!!!!!

AND THE NINTENDO Wii WILL REIGN SUPREME, HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

to make the shareholders happy. When they first embarked on the XBox experiment they assured shareholders that they would be in black by the end of 2008 at the latest. Revising their shipping targets downward to a number that they know they can surpass is for placating the shareholders that may still have reservations about the ability of MS to succeed in the console market. All publicly held corporations do this. When the news arrives that MS has exceeded their goal of 12 million, the shares will go up, which keeps the shareholders happy.

Oh it's true, it's true!

Did you guys know Sony is expected to talk about their finacials this next tuesday... Sony fanboys should start getting ready for the flame war. You're now going wild over microsoft reducing shipping... But what if Sony's says the samething... and also mentions all the billions they are losing on the PS3? I suggest you have as much fun as possible from here to tuesday and after that take a few days off. If microsoft is doing as horrible as you want people to believe... let's see how things will be for Sony when stories all over indicate they are selling poorly, taking a hit per console sold, and is doing bad even in Japan.
Wow... I can't wait... I will be quoting some of you Sony's fanboys for a payback.
Enjoy for now....

the wii sold well because it was fun and cheap, a bit of a price drop would look quite nice. Also the ps3 is about to launch amazingly overpriced in europe, MS has a very strong lineup of games right now and could capitalize on some of the sticker shock that is bound to happen.

but we'll see, I have one so a price drop won't affect me at all, but I know quite a few people who are still on the fence about getting a wii or a 360, and may go with the 360 now since wii's are still hard to find.

You can bet MS is doing pretty fine.

Attach rate per console 5.3 games
Attach rate per PS3 1.5 at launch. And I bet still, because in the Japanese game top 20 not one game is for PS3. Gears is in there though with 33.000 copies sold on the 7th place for last week.

Now that's where it all comes down to at this point in time. Which format is profitable in the view of the gameproducer?

It's the 360. Gears sold over 3 million in just 2 months time. There are 14 games on 360 that sold over a million and a couple close or over 2 million from those 14.

That's why all the Sony exclusives come over. Unreal Tournament 3, Assassins Creed, Fatal Inertia, Bladestorm, DMC4, soonish MGS4 and I bet a lot more.

There is were Sony is going to loose the battle. Too few exclusives, too few good ones. Too few NEW IP's.

It's funny though how Sony fanboys jump on news like this. Which is only a marketingtrick from Peter Moore.

Because I know one thing, Peter Moore is better in playing the public then Barbie Ken is. So you bet this is all setup to make the actual sales be much, much higher, which will create a sort of hypeconcept. Compared to the lacking PS3 sales the 360 will get even an extra boost in sales.

two things:

1. By this time after the Xbox 1 launch, the Xbox cost £200. The 360 still costs £280, yet it still sells more than the xbox 1 did. It is doing great.

2. We still don't know if the 360 sold 10 mill. But that doesn't mean they didn't. For all you know, they got overexcited and shipped 12 million, which are now left over after the christmas rush. You can't sell consoles to people right after christmas, nobody has any cash.

I've said all along. The main reason no one is buying it is cause there are not enough games other then shooters that people want to play on MS's console. Go ahead and start saying PGR, Viva pinata or whatever else you 360 fans claim the system has but when it comes down to it, none of you put your money where your mouth is. No other game comes close to Gears of War when it's come to sales on the 360 and considering that Gears just came out 2 months ago thats pretty sad.

Wow this is totally unreal in every way possible.
I really can't believe you cant grasp this and are still talking about it.

THE LOWERED FORECAST HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH XBOX 360 SALES. IT IS A BOOK KEEPING ISSUE DUE TO A TAX DEFERMENT !!

This is from the same article "Clearly, the PlayStation 3 isn't taking away sales, as it is still in short supply and is even starting to accumulate on shelves."

Have we spoken about this at all ?

As usual you make a typical Sonyfanboy arguement: "The main reason no one is buying it is cause there are not enough games other then shooters that people want to play on MS's console." -and by "no one" you mean the 10+ including the ones who helped it outsell the PS3 over the holiday season, hmmm....

-Thats kind of "pre-schoolish" don't you think? like a lil kid when they lose....."yeah the only reason you beat me in basketball is cause you have a better low post game" -yeah its easy to try a paint the picture that M$ only has great shooters despite other games doing well, I'm not saying that M$ doesn't have a abundance of great shooters, Yes they do, but its not a bad thing, afterall it is a American made console and shooters sell very well here because they are fun as hell when done right.

-Americans also love their Sports, -specifically football and basketball so when you include 2K and EA franchises M$ has that area covered very well too, so if you actually look at it the only other major genres is RPG, Racing and Action/Platformers....360 has great games out now and more to come in these categories....but of course, if I say something like Dead Rising is a great game(sold very well for a new IP)or Oblivion is a great RPG, Forza 2...etc. then you could always just say, "yeah but all the 360 has is shooters"....you see there is no convincing Sonyfanboys who already have their mind made up(or just need a slogan to defend the PS3)....either way I hope 360 continues to deliver great games like they are now, including SHOOTERS,...Blue Dragon is great, but don't expect M$ to become a "RPG heavy console", lol they know what we "really like"....GOW is awesome, thats why its selling very well, accept it(stop hating)....and guess what my jump shot is better than yours too!

riddle me that buttman.

What is the claim that 360 has an attach rate of 5.4 games for every 360 out there.
That means that 54 million pieces of software should have been sold. 10 million 360's X 5.4 = 54,000,000 million games sold. The chart is out there. there is no way that 54 million pieces of software have been sold. Especially when gears has sold only 3 million of that. So that means that 51 million pieces of software have to be sold other then gears and theres no way that has happen. no other 360 title has broken the 1.5 million mark and only six titles have sold more then a million. so the attach rate for the 360 is at best 2.5 maybe 3 and not more. This for a system that had nothing to compete against other than the PS2 until november. So if you can show me a chart that can prove me wrong then by all means make me eat my words, post 36.3 has my link. Where yours! stuperman.

P.S. FeralPhoenix - you might have a better jumpshot then me but I'll drive in on you all day, D-Wade style, Baby!

gears,lost planet and dead rising must be pushing 6 million alone.
there are over 100 360 games and about 30 arcade games so i wouldnt be supprised.

some have sold alot more some have sold less.
it all works out ish.
its the reason developers love 360.

Respected industry magazine EDGE made many interesting comments in the December issue on the 360's degree of success.

1* The 360 is underperforming sales wise.

2* Microsoft changed sales targets from 10 million 360s sold BEFORE the Playstation 3 launched, to 10 million 360s SHIPPED by the end of 2006.

3* The 360 does have a high attatch rate with games, however this indicates to software publishers that there are far less buyers. The people who are buying are just the hardcore gamers- meaning MS havent been able to expand the market.

4* The lateness of the Playstation 3 is perceived by the mainstream press as an indication that it is the most recent and the most powerful technology. eg. more powerful then 'last-gen' 360.

5* Microsoft UK has gone on the defensive when advertising the 360. UK ads say 'The next-generation is now.'

6* The innovative controller of the Wii makes it seem more powerful than the 360 to the mainstream market.

7* The UK market is now aware of HDTV, HD-dvd, and blu-ray. They also understand that blu-ray is included in the Playstation 3.

8* Microsoft believe the public may perceive the PS3 as more powerful. However if they release an updated 360, they fear it will be perceived as an admission of its inferiority.

9* UK Supermarket retailers Tesco & Asda (owned by Wal-Mart)have slashed the price of many NEW 360 games. There is a real perception that there is less value associated with the xbox lineup. This will be compounded when the 360 price cut happens next christmas.

10* Microsoft had one year to dominate the next-gen market. They squandered their lead.

Microsoft originally said 10million by the end of 2006.

Then they said no, we expect it to exceed 12million. Something along the lines of that.

What happened? They sold 10.4million.

Now they are cutting down to 12million for June.

Why? Cause the 360 sits on the shelves during the year.

MS is doing "ok" and it could be doing better, as above stated. At this rate, the WII and ps3 can catch up, depending upon how good the games are. The battle for 2008 xmas awaits us my friends.

Consoles sell over time people, we know this. Why are we acting like the numbers now show how good the system is?

Sony may have batched there "2 Region launch" pretty bad but it would appear M$ one year lead being world wide aint really doing crap either. They are well in passing range. As oppose to the PS2 that by the time the competition was released they were so far ahead catching up would of been impossible. I said it before and i'll say it again. 360 is in the lead by default. Not because of bigger demand or fanbase. If anyone thinks 360's lead has pulled to a point of no catching up then your pretty sold on M$. There biggest sales boost didnt even come at launch(where ps3's launch did outsell 360's btw) it was in December 2006 due to what "shortage of PS3" leading to alot of frustrated buyers saying. "Ahh what the heck i guess i'll take this then." People love to say Sony fans are in denial but i believe a large river of denial runs on the Microsoft team as well. Just look at how fast the Sony flamebait comes in and not to mention if positive sony news comes it its made negative. that shows worry and frustration to us "non 360 owners". No one is trying to "console war" just enjoy our console without the flame wars. But since 360 people like to throw numbers and put people against a wall in all honesty you are really in no position. If history repeats then remember "The Dreamcast was praised and the PS2 was flamed" im not dreamcasting the 360 im just showing people that as Sony fans we are pretty used to the B.S and flaming out there door. Less than 2 months to prove itself and its already deemed a failure to a well seasoned console thats been on the market goin on 2 years. hmm what does that say?

It's still too soon to tell. I am a big M$ fan, and I know they don't have it in the bag yet. Nintendo threw a big curve ball in my predictions. However, one thing to consider about the Wii is that it is opening up a new market. Most of those sales wouldn't have happened but for the Wii controller appealing to mothers and non-gamers. That could actually be good for M$ and Sony, because now Nintendo really is competing anymore for the same market. Gamers don't really see Nintendo as a viable option.

Why won't M$ drop the price already? I fall into the category of those that are just not willing to pay $400/$300 for a console. I just wont do it. As soon as they drop the price, I'll take my $100 gift card to Best Buy and purchase a 360. How many more of us are there that are like that? I can't be the only one. In addition, it's all about Halo 3 for me- and everything else is gravy. I am looking forward to recreating my law school days where me and my buddies get online and kill each other. We all plan on buying an Xbox 360 when Halo 3 comes out, regardless of the price. If M$ drops the price now, I'll buy the freaking console adn get a few games with it. I'll pick up Halo later. If they don't drop the price, I'll pay full price and just get Halo.

I wish M$ would just freaking drop the price already. Another factor that weighs into my decision is I would like the new CPU and the possible larger hard drive. Maybe M$ doesn't really care to much about customers such as me, because M$ doesn't make too much money- I only end up buying 2-3 games a year.

My 2 cents.

and i have 7 360 games, 2 pads and the ms wheel.

i have the least games of my friends.
there you go.

There are 13 games that sold over 1 mil+ in 14 months, with GOW at 3.27+ mil, I went threw and added up the totals just for these 13 games alone and it was 18.81 mil(conservatively) -now there are 4 other games that are close to surpassing 1 mil sold, but lets just say that they account for 3 mil sold (conservatively) then that would bring the total for these 17 games to= 21.81 mil sold or basicly 22 mil (conservatively) now I'm not sure how many games have been released so far but lets say if there are 80 other games they would have to average close to 400,000 to reach the 54,000,000 attatch rate. So its quite possible the attatch rate is accurate or pretty close, remember I used conservative numbers, also I think there are more than 80 games available and I didn't include arcade titles AT ALL. This link provides info for the previous numbers I mentioned and before you say its biased make sure you checked the supporting links listed on the same page.

BTW, Korbeaner....yes my jumpshot is killer but don't underestimate my "all around" game, I'll put the "D" on your "fake D-Wade game" -you don't stand a chance.

http://forum.teamxbox.com/s...