The VGChartz Gap Charts - November 2009 Edition - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 04 December 2009 / 8,105 Views
Xbox 360 v PS3
Here we have three charts representative of the three main regions as recorded by VGChartz, and a global chart which brings all of the data together. The line on each graph represents the gap in install base in millions (sales through to consumers), and the title indicats which console is in the lead in the particular region covered.
Americas
Japan
Others (Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia)
Global
HD Consoles (360 + PS3) vs Wii
For the Wii to reach 50% market share the graph line must drop below zero
Commentary
The PS3 continues to make significant inroads to the 360 lead in Others and Globally. The gap in Japan, in favour of the PS3, is now growing rapidly.
The turnaround in Others and the sustained high sales in Japan have caused a marked difference to the Global chart. The turnaround is very similar to what the 360 managed in a similar period last year and it appears that the gap may end up where it was prior to the 360 price cut of 2008. In other words the major price cuts of the PS3 (and slim launch) and 360 have cancelled each other out as far as the gap is concerned.
The Others gap chart will definitely be a "PS3 Lead" chart by the end the year, there can be no doubt now. The 360 did well to hang on for nearly three years in this region where Sony has, in the previous two generations, dominated.
The effect in the Americas is much different, here it seems to have merely halted the march of the 360. The 360 lead here is immense and I believe that will not change much before new consoles appear. The holiday period in the Americas (particularly the U.S.) will continue to be a hard fought battle.
The gap between the Wii and the HD twins increased again this month despite the Wii price drops and the high November sales the Wii managed. The substantial increased in PS3 sales and the year on year drop in Wii sales being the primary reason. There is a definite shift now and it is difficult to see how this trend can change back in favour of the Wii, considering recent price cuts have not helped.
So now we enter the biggest month of the year. All of the three consoles will sell well, and the Wii will sell the most for a single console. But how will the gap charts change?
The charts may look very different again when I report back in 2010.
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@jneul: Lot of Sony's Black Friday deals were mostly made up of Blu-Ray bundles and the likes of PC World and other retail outlets WW still advertise the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player
@Xoj: Can u back that up with a reliable source?
I like how PS3 and 360 are only comparable to Wii when lobbed together as 'HD Twins.'
These graphs show that Sony excels at sales tactics (well sometimes), but the bump in sales attributed to the price-cut will not be long-term. Microsoft and Sony are very much still fighting a war between themselves - Wii is still very much sitting on a higher playing field.
The danger is they are both potentially about to undermine themselves by focusing attention into new motion controls and casual games - what they used to dismiss as a 'fad' and have finally adopted 3 years too late. They couldn't even rip-off the Wii completely as Nintendo had already patented the Wiimote style controls. On the other hand, Wii shows a highly promising line-up of core-market games next year.
2010 will be an interesting year no doubt about that.
Nsanity - they don't because a stand alone blu-ray player is cheaper, the buy ps3 for games and blu-ray, i wish people would get with the times lol
I think we're at a period of slightly distorted data, due to the recent price cuts (especially the PS3 one which had a huge effect).
On the Wii vs HD battle particularly, we may have to wait a while to see where the trend goes. I think the Wii will at least manage to keep its gap vs the HD consoles, even if it doesn't decrease it.
Go HD Twins GO!
Lol @nsanity.
even if that was true, sony get royalties due blu ray.
@TheKarateKid: Lot of those PS3's were bought for the Blu-Ray player alone not the games...which means less software sales for Sony and you should try looking up other sales comparison between the 2 systems instead of shooters
@Silver-Tiger: Not sure if the PS3 can keep up this momentum for long and i wouldn't be surprised if everything goes back to normal after Christmas in this order
Wii
360
PS3
Go Go Go PlayStation 3.
I made some small math with the global PS3-360 gab. I used angles and I extended the PS3 trend with a line. If the trend continues, the PS3 will outsell the 360 between July and August.
I don't think the trend will continue this strong, though. I also made a lessened trend and in this the PS3 outsells the 360 in October to November globally.
So here's my prediction: Xbox 360 will be outsold by PS3 in august 2010, exactly one year after the introduction of the PS3 Slim.
@libellule since when???????? do you even know what the word 'accurate' means?? percentage aren't less accurate. saying 10% of 100 is no less accurate then 10 out of 100.
you want to compare the gap between the consoles in the current market to the market 2 years ago.
saying for example that the gap now is 6million and 2 years ago it was 6million. If you just say that it could be interpreted that console A is still out performing console B when in fact what it means is over the last 2 year console A & B have both sold the same number of units. And given the increased total number of consoles out there the 6 million gap is now less significant, where as saying that the gap 2 years ago was 10% of the market compared to now being 5% of the market better represents the situation.
pic #3 Asia*
Europe is almost playstations :)
@MozBlue,
% are always LESS accurate that complete absolut datas ...;
So not counting the Wii
PS3 >>>>>>>> 360 in Japan
PS3 >>>360 in Other
360 >>>>>>>> PS3 in N. America
I wonder which region is most important.
Would be interesting to see a percentage gap chart. As surely the gap expressed as a percentage of the total market is a more accurate indicator. as a gap of 6 million in a market of 30 million units is far more substantial then a gap of 6 million in a market of 60 million units.
PS3 slim is a beast. Its selling like 3-4 times faster then the PS3 fat
funny, that the piece cuts for the xbox360 and ps3 just canceled each other out. the only difference is that what gap increase the xbox360 made over the ps3 in almost 1 year, was almost erased by the ps3's price cut an slim launch in just 3 months
sept did mark the ps3's arrival back to the race.
"llewdebkram says:
Why no Wii v 360 and Wii v PS3?"
Why? because there's nothing of interest there, it isn't even a contest. Those comparisons are so far away from being a contest you need to combine both HD consoles to make it a race against the Wii.
Wii has the gold medal already. The interesting race is between 2nd and 3rd. Last gen if you did gap charts you'd be doing XB vs GC only, there would have been no point in putting PS2 in the mix. Same sort of thing with the Wii this gen. There wouldn't have even been any point in putting up a XBCube vs PS2 gap chart, but at least this time round Wii marketshare is interesting to see how things change.
Why no Wii v 360 and Wii v PS3?
360 will win americas, no doubt, but im predicting a longer shelf life for the ps3, so it will be close nonetheless....
in others and japan, it will be sony-domination starting 2010 until the next 360 price cut and the arrival of natal, which will change it up a little bit.
let the battle begin!!! =]
"hehe, I'm pretty sure the PS3 will be closer than ever before to the 360 after this december making the PS3 price cut/slim launch more effective than the 360 price cut(s)"
Na Na Na Nah !
4 month PS3 price cut
16 month 360 price cut + Elite price cut
It is funny how MS has to make twice effort to get less
in france, current 360 offer :
360 Elite + 2 games : 269 euros - 40 euros = 229 euros !!!
would be interesting to see the Wii vs each individual HD system too WW, to get an idea of the bigger picture. Until MS & Sony share their profits, the concept of HD vs Wii is somewhat limited to games that are multiplat
The hand held business is going great. The PSP is not at war with the DS lol. It's basically in a market of it's own unless you want to add in the IPhone. Also the PSP has not recieved a price drop in over two years, you got to know that sony will be dropping the price of the PSP sometime in the spring to spur sales. Sony will not stop selling the PSP until it reaches 100 million sales I'm sure of it. Also I believe the PSP is selling at a profit, and I believe their is pretty huge margins as well.
It's nice to see the guys at Sony finally starting to turn the ship around. They started the generation with such bravado and arrogance that it turned off many loyal customers (like me).
In the last 6 months or so, the QUALITY of their work has improved, which has led to better sales it seems. Nice job of getting the early mistakes corrected (very high initial price point, poor ports of multiplatform games, weak lineup of exclusives). Looks like 2010 will be a defining year for Sony.
Now if only they could figure out the handheld business...
"In other words the major price cuts of the PS3 (and slim launch) and 360 have cancelled each other out as far as the gap is concerned."
hehe, I'm pretty sure the PS3 will be closer than ever before to the 360 after this december making the PS3 price cut/slim launch more effective than the 360 price cut(s)
After this month...There will be CHAOS!
Cant wait to see these charts come January.
@the thunder
only I get to call kowenicki "kownicki" by accident!
revise your post & delete it
thank you!
XBOX 360 will maintain it's lead in USA until the next generation but the software ratio should change significantly. If you notice when the PS3 was priced at 499, 599 the software ratio gap was huge in favor of 360. When PS3 dropped to $399 that gap got smaller. Now PS3 is $299 and outselling 360 by a huge margin in USA the software gap will get even smaller. many of the 360 solds are prior owners who got RROD. It's amazing on how much of a lead 360 has over PS3 in Americas but their isn't a huge gap in software ratio to match the lead. The only titles that shows a significance gap is the HALOS, GEARS & CALL OF DUTYS. That has to be concerning for \Microsoft. In Fact, I predict Madden 2011 on PS3 to outsell it's 360 counter part next year for sure.....
Nice work Kownicki. The HD vs Wii battle is really interesting.
Excellent charts nice work.
America will stay as it is, its lose to playstation imo
Europe I agree
Japan.....looool can you start a PS3 Wii gap chart there kownicki? lol j/k
Worldwide....by the end of december we should be where 360 began increasing the gap back in 2008, this gives PS3 most of 2010 (till the inevitable 360 price drop) to make this lead greater.
Also Wii's 50% marketshare mission is looking unlikely.....in fact as PS360 are considered as one platform by many devs....there really isn't much of a reason to stop developing on them & shifting to the wii
Yeah...everything changed radically since Aug 09
