Xbox sales are better than Gamecube

[Ted Cikowski]

For whatever bizarre reason a few people here have said the xbox is going the way of the dreamcast. Almost everyone I know owns an xbox (and a ps2 to be fair).

http://xbox.ign.com/articles/380/380934p1.html

"According to the NPD Group, one of the most respected market research firms in the industry, November marked the seventh consecutive month Xbox outsold GameCube in terms of hardware and has outsold GameCube in software in all thirteen months of its existence. Selling nearly 500,000 consoles in November, Xbox nearly doubled its sales numbers from October. Xbox consoles have edged GameCube by 20% in total sales, a considerable gap, especially when you look at the great first-party titles Nintendo has managed to release this year.

In November, Xbox saw it's second best month of software sales to date, with 2.4 million units selling. That's 10% more than the GameCube, but still far below the might of PS2"


and....


"Though Microsoft has yet to come close to the PS2 in terms of installed base, the big MS can take comfort in knowing their online programs has bested PS2 from the get-go. Comparing their first month of sales, Xbox Live outsold PS2 Network Adapters by 14% and the three major Live titles (Ghost Recon, MechAssault, and Unreal Championship) sold over 300,000 copies combined in just the last half of November and managed an astounding attach rate of 80%.

With far bigger titles on the horizon for Microsoft next year and very few big franchises left in Nintendo's bag for 2003, it could be an even merrier X-Mas for Microsoft a year from now. Of course, we'll be back to let you know how this little ol' console war is turning out. "

[dtoste]

I was reading and if I'm wrong somebody correct me. PS2 has sold about 30 million units to the Xbox's 4-6 million. I was reading that If an Xbox unit is sold at $199 which most are Microsoft loses about $150 bucks per unit. This is not a matter of Xbox against PS2 or game cube but history has shown that there is not enough room for 3 consoles. When I was growing up there was Atari but then came Sega Master, and Nintendo and Atari was soon gone. Then later there was Sega, and Nintendo, and then came Playstation and Sega went under. I just don't think there is room for 3 systems. If the PS2 continues the way it has been it will hold about 70% of the market and thats huge!!! And I don't think Nintendo will go under because it has a rep for goood kid games like Mario, and Pokemon not to mention Gameboy Nintendo is a very if not the most powerful and influential game comapany. And in looking at the PS2 they have become a force to be reconed with targeting teens and adults in the early and late 20s. Games like GTA are targeted and older audiences. I think if Microsoft had jumped in the Video Game either 2 or 3 years ago they would of been fine. But now was probably the worst time to do it with the economy. PS2 was very smart in getting the haed start and the shortage of units at the begining was a great move as all it did was create hype and free advertising on every News Station.

[Lucid]

In that past I would agree that there was only room for 2 console systems, but now gaming is drastically different from even 5 years ago. Nintendo is clearly the choice for under-15 year olds I would say. Them and any girls above that age. I don't know any girls that have a playstation or XBox but I know a few that have GameCube. Nintendo will never die just because of it's name. The real competition is between PS2 and XBox (duh) and with online gaming now taking place and will probably become a huge factor in the future for gamers decision on which system to buy. Playstation is going away anytime soon simply because of the titles it has backing it. Hell... as long as GTA is around exclusively on playstation, it will exist. XBox isn't going away anytime either because of the financial backing it has. We have at least another 5 years of good competition between these three. Past that I won't speculate because 5 years ago the state of gaming today was very hard to predict.

[dtoste]

I will agree with you that Xbox defenitly has the financial backing. And I'm sure Bill Gates would pump in millions of his own pocket before he would fail. I think with the PS3 about 3 years away and only about two more years until they start promoting it we will see if Playstation can become a household name. I think if Xbox wants to keep making system they need to get away from that Big bulky PC attitude. Granted that the Online play and internal modems and hardrives are good but PC and consoles are two different worlds. One of the things that I don't like about it is it's size (it's huge). When looking at your Gamecube, PS2, PS1, N64, dreamcast, they were all very small and could easily be stored in an Entertainment Center or under your TV. I think Xbox looke at what was wrong with system and tried to make a system which had those changes implemented. Now I think they need to look at what has made the other systems so succesful and implement that as well, such as design, and titles. I am 25 years old and about 15-20 of my peers who are between the ages of 18 and 30 all own PS2's including my girlfriend because of games like GTA. Hell you give me a game with violence, drugs, sex and we all gather around drinking beer and partying. When it comes down to it nobody wanted an Xbox for 2 reasons. 1 was it was too big and the other was because everyone had a PS2 so it's easier for everyone to swap and borrow games. If the battle is purely PS2 and Xbox and the PS2 has a 70% share I think it will ve very hard for the Xbox. The key will be to stick around for a while and become a trusted name. (In the cosole world not the PC world)

Please don't think I'm Xbox bashing because I'm not. If I had an extra 200 bucks lying around I would get one. But I don't.

[VON9905]

The games industry is big enough now to support 3 systems. I still think Nintendo will eventually go the way of Sega and be a third-party publisher. Nintendo is competing with Microsoft fairly well around the world, but that's the problem. Nintendo has been around forever and Microsoft is just getting started, so the Big N isn't really doing that well by comparison. Sony is living of the hype of the PSone, and being the first next-gen console out. They also sold lots of systems because DVD was new when it came out and every kid told their parents they could watch movies on it too, so at the time it just made sense. PS2 has been in the gravy years since launch and could screw everyone and still sell millions to clueless parents who think,"The first Playstation was good so this must be too." They don't bother to do research, then make an informed decision. I like all three systems, but just hate it when I'm forced to play watered-down games on a more powerful system just because one system is over-hyped by people who don't know anything about games.

Xbox is a great system that has some truly awesome games that no other console could pull off. Look at Splinter Cell on Xbox then look at it for PS2 if you don't believe me. Getting a free hard drive so you never have to buy memory cards, can have custom soundtracks,faster loading times, and massive, populated environments without slowdown is a big reason to get it over another system. Plus not having to purchase a multi-tap.
To be fair you have to buy the DVD Kit for movies.

PS2 is great because Vice City, and for RPG's. These are the only reasons I still play it. PS2 has more games only because it came out first and had name recognition. The online service is disorganized and weak compared to Xbox Live, although it's hard to compete with a strictly broadband service. PS2's popularity is stifling the innovation of developers who go for the mass-market lemmings, than go for a more powerful system capable of giving a richer experience if done right. PS2=pop music on TRL.

Gamecube has Nintendo games and not really anything else but Capcom rehashes. That looks to be changing this year with some original stuff on the way. Nintendo games aren't what they used to be, but their target market shouldn't really notice. They basically have no online plans and that is going to hurt them in the near future. At least they have the monopoly that is GameBoy Advance.


-VON

[TheCrew04]

Remember, An X-Box is just a computer. With a microsoft motherboard and a microsoft processor and a microsoft NIC, and a microsoft Operating System, so that means that the parts are:

a MSI K724266
An Intel Pentium whoknows or cares.
Etherlink NIC card
Linux.

Okay, so maybe it wasnt that funny. but still its true.

[Kaiser]

I've been a video game junkie since PONG on a Magnavox device and that was all it played. I've kept up over the yers and now I stick to my gaming PC. I rented a PS2 unit from blockbuster to see what all the fuss was about. I thought it sucked. The first games that year sucked, the graphics are no better than dreamcast and those controllers are for dwarfs. My godson got an Xbox last Xmas and it is a far superior machine. Halo was great as were the sports games. On the same title Xbox games rule over the PS2 counterparts. But then came Vice City. He traded in the Xbox for a PS2 so he could play Vice City. I played it, I wasn't impressed. The games all hype. Microsoft has developed some great titles for ther PC so it's only a mater of time until they have that "Killer App". What people don't realize is is that the PS2 is very difficult to program for where the Xbox is essentially a PC. The next Xbox will be a piece of cake for MS to produce, all they have to do is plug in the latest CPU and GPU. That will happen before, yes before we see a PS3 and it will still be superior to anything SOny can produce. I see the Xbox eventually overtaking Playstation. I don't see consoles 5 years from now, I see cheap PCs and as long as the hardware supports MS DirectX whatever then it'll play the games. Want proof? Walmart has a $199 computer.

[TheCrew04]

Very true, but the $199 computers are not windows, they're Lindows. Xbox and GCN are far superior, and PS2's are overrated. Yes, i admit, the titles for Cube are limited, but what titles we do have, are awesome. We get splinter cell soon, we solely get Enter the Matrix, and we have Metroid! Na-Na-Na-Na-NA!!

[TheCrew04]

Oh yes, i love building gaming computers with modded cases. so much fun!!! BTW, if you're in the columbus area, the best lan party is in worthington.
www.whempys.servehttp.com

[Benedict XVI]

all consoles are just essentially specialized gaming pc's. what's the big deal? i don't see how that's a slam on xbox.

and the people who whine about xbox's size - it's about the size of a vcr. big spiel.

[MikeLastort2]

The people who rag on the XBox are the same people who rag on .NET, or Windows XP, or Internet Explorer. Basically, they hate Microsoft, and want the company to go away.

Well, it (and the XBox) isn't going anywhere. Tough.

[Ted Cikowski]

on a scale of 1-10 I rate my overall experiences on these systems:

Xbox 9.3 out of 10
Gamecube 8.8 out of 10
PS2 8.8 out of 10
dreamcast 8.8 out of 10

all great machines with great games on each console, but the xbox is just slightly better in my opinion.