The VGChartz Gap Charts Monthly Update for February 2010 - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 06 March 2010 / 3,473 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 the install base in millions (sales through to consumers), and the title indicates which console is in the lead in the particular region covered.
Americas
360 Lead is 9,111,029
Japan
PS3 Lead is 3,592,525
Others (Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia
360 Lead is 174,639
Global
360 Lead is 5,709,979
HD Consoles (360 + PS3) vs Wii
For the Wii to reach 50% market share the graph line must drop below zero.
HD Lead is 2,589,356
Commentary
The holiday sales performance is long gone now and as a result most of the gap charts show less volatility. These charts are right up to date and take into account the recent adjustments due to sales announcements and financial reporting.
In the Americas the 360 has maintained its lead in the face of onslaught from the PS3 Slim. Having said that the PS3 has been pretty much matching the 360 since the holiday period and there is somewhat of a stalemate at the moment. It looks likely that the 360 will slightly outsell the PS3 here though, certainly in the near future. However, as it is so close it is possible that certain game releases may be the deciding factor. The release of God Of war III should sway one or two weeks in the PS3 favour for instance.
Japan continues to be dominated by the PS3 in the HD battle... actually it isnt much of a battle any more. Despite a relatively slow start by the PS3 it has taken off and is currently outselling the 360 by 10:1. Microsoft continue to try and make a difference with their recent campaign of three apparent new Japanese focused games. The first was announced as the Monster Hunter MMO and the second of these has recently been teased. Nevertheless it is unlikely to make much difference.
In Others the excellent sales since the Slim launched and the holiday boost has helped push the PS3 very close to the 360. The PS3 is currently outperforming the 360 and will pass the 360 by the end of March if things continue this way.
The Global gap chart is now just over 5.7m which is still around 300k above the size of the gap that was in place the day the PS3 launched.
The Wii performance has been enigmatic this last few months... heavily outsold in the lead up to the holidays due to the PS3 performance and then dominating over the Christmas period. Now it is being outsold by the combined HD sales again. The gap is 1 million higher in favour of the HD machines than it was a year ago.
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@Tridrakious
i don't think the PS3 will outsell the Xbox 360 consistantly in the americas. Not with games like Halo Reach and Fable 3 coming out. Thus it will likely be a stalemate until both the Arc and Natal comes out.
I can see Xbox 360 sales decreasing in japan and others , thus giving the PS3 a chance to cut the gap between them. I can also see M$ cutting the price and sony will also do that to keep the PS3 competitive. However it is impossible for the PS3 to be ahead of the Xbox 360 WW.
The way I see it, PS3 has not let up since August 2009.
It's just been a fury. In a week or two the PS3 will pass 360 in the Others market.
Japan will always be PlayStation.
America is the real war of the consoles.
If Sony can continue to match and every now and then outsell 360 in the Americas and consistently outsell 360 in Japan and Others. Then by the end of 2010 PS3 will be ahead of 360.
Microsoft has Halo: Reach, Sony answers with Socom 4.
Microsoft has Natal, Sony has PlayStation Arc.
Microsoft will drop the price of the Elite by $25-$50, Sony will drop the 120 gig PS3 to $249 and the 250 gig to $300/with Gran Turismo 5 being bundled with the 250 gig. 120 gig will be phased out, but will be packaged with the Arc.
Cool to compare, but I see the PS3 really starting to break away from the 360 these days. Sony first party studios are unmatched both in quality exclusives and the quantity of them. We're seeing first party exclusives being released at a 2:1 rate compared to Microsofts. I think in the long run this will win the battle for the PS3 as it slowly drops in price.
There are so many factors that have artificially made 360 look like it's performing better than it is. For example, people buying multiple consoles because of RROD, or hackers buying them to play burned games (which ps3 has yet to be hacked). Let's not forget the joke Arcade version with no hard drive to suck people into buying them or in my eyes, allow RROD owners to buy a second machine on the cheap and just swap over their hard drives (I always believed that was the true purpose of the Arcade).
@heywoodjablome:
You are right, but i may be in the oposite side :P (It is just a "May be", cause i m still considering buying the X360 instead of the PS3)
The X360 has good JRPGs, i know i wont sell anything in Japan, but i m very interested into getting japanese-style games here in the americas and as i can compare, Microsoft has done it better than Nintendo with the Game Cube (i can only remember Baten Kaitos and Tales Of Symphonia, with this last one, it was Nintendo the one that forced Namco to sell it in the americas and europe, ironically it still is the best selling Tales).
microsoft can support the jrpg all they want it won't get a significant number of japanese people to buy an american console...
I think it is true about the US-centric focus on the X360, but i think MS is trying really hard to erase that idea of the gaming market. I like their support in JRPG and how they bring it here in the americas.
I know it may not be enough, but good for the overall gaming market. I even think that the X360 has got more japanese-style games than the GCN had in its time.
I got the Wii expecting to receive lots of RPGs as the PS2 and the DS had it their time, but even with his sucess, i can only see not-so-good games and some of them are even worse than the GCN version(tales of symphonia)
Another reason that so many in the US have it is because of the online. If most your friends have a 360 and you want to play games with them it's easier to get a 360 then to convince them all to pick up a ps3. It's one of those things where having the lead helps perpetuate it. So being on the market a year more helped it further.
The thing I don't understand the announced sales from both companies for the end of 2009 the gap was smaller then its 5.7 million. As well the PS3 has shortages, and has outsold the 360 each month WW so far.
I think either the 360 is over tracked or PS3 is under tracked.
@Quickdraw McGraw: Thanks. I think you're probably right about the US-centric shooter genre and strong Microsoft marketing. The interesting thing to me is that ps3 has come out with very good shooters in recent years, only to see those shooters sell half as much as their MS counterparts. This means to me that when MS and Sony target the same audience in the US, MS wins. And when MS and Sony target the same audience in say Japan, Sony wins. It's interesting.
@enragedorange: I did not mean to imply that the ps3 has outsold the 360 in Others. Just that the trend has been in that direction lately. I agree with you about the exclusive lineup being more balanced with Sony, vs the more US focused MS lineup.
Of course, much of this discussion is moot as the Wii currently seems to be ruling the roost.
So if the xbox launched the same time as the ps3 there would only be about 300k differance?
PS3 is like the metric system, clearly superior and used every where else in the world... but the United States doesn't want to hear about it. Silly Americans.
That was mostly a joke btw... mostly.
What are you talking about, the 360 is only "preferred" now in the United States. And the sales aren't even that much higher, probably the difference is people re-buying 360's due to it's high failure rates (33-37%).
@MarshmallowMan
while the ps3 is catching up to 360 in others it is still behind. I don't see how you could say they prefer the ps3 unless it takes the lead and holds it. So for now at least only the Japanese prefer the PS3. Probably due to the 360 having few exclusives that are geared towards Japanese customers.
The 360 is outperforming the ps3 in America though because their exclusive lineups mainly focus towards usa customers, while PS3 exclusives usually are more balanced, selling similar amounts in both Europe and America.
@MarshmallowMan
Likely a combination of US-centric games (ie. shooters, Halo and Gears in particular) and Microsoft being a popular US company with a strong marketing presence.
I like this...get to see how the ps3 has gained 3 million on the 360 since June of 2009...hehe
What is it that makes the 360 more appealing in the Americas? The rest of the world seems to prefer the ps3. Any ideas?
it did in japan, then others almost and and when will Americas?
@DrPollit
it already did like 5 times or so. :-D
in "Others" they're equal.
PS3 is about to catch 360 in Europe. It taked a long time.
I expect PS3 to takeover 360 in Others the week GOW3 releases and PS3 to outsell Wii in japan the same week(Yakuza 4) and PS3 also to outsell 360 in america the same week as for GOW3
too bad we dont have news/infos about how the PS3 is/was out of sock in NA ...
