Good news for X-Box boys

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Sinzer

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XBOX OVERTAKES GAMECUBE IN UK!

Following a dramatic surge in sales, Xbox now claims a larger installed user base than Nintendo's hardware, racing into second place in the console race

18:17 After nearly seven months at retail, Microsoft's Xbox console has finally muscled its way into the number two spot in the UK, boasting a larger installed user base than GameCube.
Despite releasing almost two months ahead of GameCube, Xbox had a slow start in the UK and Europe, with brand loyalty allowing Nintendo's console to hit the ground running.

But with the vital Christmas period approaching, Xbox has confounded expectations by pulling well clear of GameCube in weekly sales, while edging past Nintendo's machine in the all-important yearly totals.

UK figures for the week ending November 2, compiled by ChartTrack, show Xbox shifting an impressive 10,371 units, marking a rise of 42 percent on the previous week's sales, with GameCube tailing on 6,657 units - an increase of 15 percent.

The cumulative totals for 2002 make even more interesting reading, with GameCube on 230,876 since launch, and Microsoft just ahead on 233,503. But on the back of a successful new Xbox bundle, this trend seems unlikely to change, with the gap expected to widen in the run up to Christmas.

Microsoft is understandably delighted by the results, a spokesperson telling us: "We are really pleased with the positive momentum we have going into the Christmas period and are delighted that more and more gamers are experiencing the superior gaming offered by Xbox."

But this will make sobering reading for Nintendo, now faced with a much bleaker Christmas than it surely would have anticipated.

Super Mario Sunshine, despite big early sales, has simply not shifted GC units in the numbers Nintendo anticipated. Furthermore, it's no secret in development circles that bringing a title exclusively onto GameCube is a less profitable exercise that it is for PS2 and Xbox.

How Nintendo will respond to the new figures is unclear. A spokesperson for the company was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.

The ChartTrack figures as a whole, however, represent a positive overall sales rise in the run up to Christmas, with PS2 in an unassailable position, shifting a massive 39,719 units last week, up 35 percent, and GBA clearing 13,693 units - a weekly increase of 26 percent.

The fight for second place is well and truly on and Xbox is winning. We'll keep you updated on all developments.

From PCzone/C&VG.com

Hehe, no accounting for gaming taste.

Of course this pales into comparision with the Japanese markets

System Oct 7 - Oct 13 Total Sales in 2002
GameBoy Advance 38,252 1,946,902
PlayStation 233,271 2,974,179
GameCube 11,509 691,648
Xbox 2,973 283,936
Swan Crystal 1,705 96,654
PSone 1,468 211,480
GameBoy Color 663 95,404
WonderSwan Color 648 92,292

Looks like it should be an interesting christmas, Nintendo are shooting themselves in the foot with the constant delay in Europe over consoles and games. PS2 and X-Box do not face such huge delays, however all of Nintendos big games take years to come out over here.
 
Not overly surprising really since the Xbox has dropped in price by some margin since its launch plus its quite a decent Sega deal. I'm still waiting for the news that the GC will drop to £99 for Xmas which should make things interesting. I'm still waiting for a certain chip for the Xbox though so right now its just sitting there >_<

Still, that should quiet down the over enthusiastic fans elsewhere that think the Xbox is selling on par with the PS2 since its launch.
 
Anyone who thought that would be a plonker. I would guess MS have no expectations of catching Sony for at least 3-5 years in terms of console sales. The PS name is just too powerful at the mo. I can however, see the GC being pulled at some point purely because Nintendo don't have the financial clout of Sony or MS. that would be a terrible shame as it would mean less choice and less competition.

S
 
Hey, at least the XBox is outselling the Swan Crystal... whatever the hell that is. :D

Good point on the PS2. Rumors are abound now that Sony will delay the PS3 because of the market stronghold the PS2 has. Obviously, they are going to milk the system for all it's worth, which is a smart decision.

The real fight will most likely be XBox II VS PS3. Microsoft is just going to continue to do whatever it takes to sell machines in preparation for their online plans, and for the next console. As the PS2 ages and the much anticipated XBox games start coming out, they should be able to bridge the gap, but there just aren't enough potential customers left to beat out the PS2.

What should really make the fight interesting is backward compatibility. I think Sony realized how valuable it was for the PS2 to play PS1 games, so I expect this to be a standard until the media changes. The PS3 should play PS2 and PS1 games, and the XBox II should definitely play XBox games. A company doesn't start from scratch anymore when rolling out a new system. Market share and games library will still be important.
 
Nintendo could possibly pull out of Europe, but as you can see they are outselling X-Box 3-1 in Japan, coupled with strong sales of the GBA puts them in a very strong position.

I am a little tempted by the current X-Box package offered by Game... 199 for JSR, Sega GT, Halo and Conflict:Desert Storm. Shame I have to spend all my money on Wavebirds, Godzilla, Eternal Darkness, Tony Hawks 4, Super Mario Advance 3.

Also trying to resist the temptation to buy the Gundam Wing boxset for christmas.
 
Apparently You can now get an Xbox in exchange for a
Bag of chips and a warm can of Tango!!

Microsoft Insiders have informed us however that they will be reviewing the price (for the 4th time this week) and that by Friday they expect the Xbox to be available just for the can of TANGO!!


With more crisis meetings to be had over the coming weeks even more spectacular XBOX savings are expected.
rumours abound that soon Microsoft will be paying for each customer to have broadband installed (no matter how remote the location) and will pay the bill for the first 10 years, Bill gates will personally deliver your system to your door and then come in and clean your house.
The LUCKY 10TH customer !! will be given Bill Gates's house , car and kids.

Microsoft say with these inducements and special price drops they expect there Business Plan for the Xbox to reach fruition and start making a profit in around 3050, sadly due to the likelhood that earth will be destroyed by a Comet, they may give up the Xbox dream and focus on making hideously overpriced operating systems that dont work.
A spokesman said well at least we sold 2 more than NINTENDO!!
 
Just when I thought this could develop into a decent adult conversation something pops up...

Anyway I just hope Nintendo does become a lot more transparent, especially since the power at the top is now shared by key members of staff. Remember the awfully long silence about the GameCube? Sure it made SpaceWorld good but Nintendo lost a lot of fans during that peroid.

BTW Swan Crystal is the colour "WonderSwan" I believe and has only survived thanks to SquareSoft and Bandai's animé licenses. I agree with Azrikam that the platforms should be backwards compatible since I'm sure that by the time the PS3 and Xbox 2 comes out that emulating the pervious consoles should be a walk in the park. Pretty sure that they could take up the blue-ray media too but the last I've heard about the PS3 is that it'll use a propriety disk media just as an attempt to slow down the piracy scene... But we all know what piracy did for PSX hardware sales.

I've got the Xbox package myself actually but its doing nothing atm until I get the X-Ecuter II... Then I'll just turn it into a MAME box and run Linux off it. Should be fun.
 
Cmonmate we are talking about games consoles for gawdsake
lighten up dude have a laugh!!cracka smile, etc etc

its nearly Xmas !! by the new year , you will probably be able to get an XBox in a bubblegum machine!!
 
Microsoft are doing ok at the present time, but nintendo will never pull out of the console wars at the moment, look the n64 did basically crap, but nintendo still made their share out of it the gamecube is exceedeing the n64 in every manner etc etc.
nintendo still has the capital to run their business they have 2 great console out in the market with the gba nearly as a handheld monopoly, but im still waiting for the boom anouncment before saying anything and also it would be intresting to see the figures for this christimas and early first few months of next year.
WWW.cube-europe.com
have posted a news on their site claiming a jap magazine have said that capcom are set to release 5 titles which are disclosed at the mo for the gc and that nnintendo have anouncement to make.
sony wont be beaten with the ps2, as they will be no1 but i know nintendo will top the xbox even if it doesnt at the present time here in the uk just wait till both thoses consoles are out of the market then we will see the figures.
 
Cunningly, Microsoft are actually making money from the console part of their business. They know that hardware is less than half the story. The box will get cheaper until MS are happy that enough people are buying them. It's the software they will make money on.

MS know what they are doing. Fools have underestimated them before. The Xbox is superb value now, almost throwaway money. Great. I'll have one for a start.

S
 
Spacecat, I've got the flu and I'm not exactly in a jubilant mood right now ^_^ Of course humour is needed in life however I have left childish remarks about things with no basis of fact or logic behind me in primary school. With this forum having a higher average age than other gaming forums I wouldn't regularly expect de-contructive comments everytime this forum is loaded into IE, just so one can have a laugh.

If I wanted to see such comments I would just go into AOL's "UK Gaming Chat" and watch lovely faders lagging my connection, kids playing .WAVs because they think its cool, scrolling, polls on "PS2 RULZZ!! PRESS 123 IF U AGREEE" and flaming without cause.

Alternatively I could visit other forums and watch how elitists think that they are god's gift and ignore newbies because they cramp their style and are not worthy of their time. Or I can pop here and read certain threads to be "amused".

Hopefully now you know my take on the situation. Sure I'm up for a laugh but when a comedian delivers poor content, they expect to be heckled and I'm not going to disappoint.

Just to add... nVidia has lost millions of USD thanks to Microsoft's "improved" v1.1 security against mod chips and guess what? nVidia are not best amused... The fact that nVidia even filed a lawsuit against Microsoft because of it shows the strained relationship between the two. While Microsoft lowers the price of their console, its Intel, AMD and nVidia along with MS bearing the grunt of lost revenue due to the pricecuts... Have they started making a profit yet? I don't believe they have but then neither did Sony when the PS2 was launched.

There is no doubt that competition is superb for us gamers because it means more content for less cash (hardware). The fact that Microsoft are willing to drop their prices so low, so quicky illustrates how desperate they are at obtaining something from the market. No doubt that they will gain market share thanks to the bold moves as Sinzer pointed out but can Microsoft maintain it? Only time can tell.
 
Paiger, I am not sure what you mean by MS making a profit from the console side? They were losing money on the X-Box without the price cuts!

All console hardware manufacturers lose money on console production, the only way they make money is by selling software. You have noticed the SONY symbol on every PS game? That is because they licence EVERY single game, making money off each one. This is the reason why DC failed, because there was not enough machines selling enough software.

Also, Nintendo tend to make a lot of money off their games, because many are internal development giving them 100% of the cut, also another reason why the Nintendo 64 did well without the huge market penetration.

This blip in sales will be interesting to watch, like Neoblade I am all for competition, however I am not sure they will be able to sustain the sales. I was tempted by the new package, but then I remembered, once I bought it there would be no other games I would want to buy for it :)
 
Yeah, I'm a little worried about propietary (how the heck do you spell that?) media. It's one of the reasons why I don't own a GameCube. (not a big reason, but a reason nonetheless)

I think game companies (just like music companies) are too hard on games piracy. I really don't think it's as damaging to them as they would like to make us think. The more powerful games consoles get, the more viable they are as PCs. Running homebrew software and stuff like Linux is a plus for a console, but it's something that will be virtually nonexistant with custom media.

nVidia have MS to blame for the cost of the XBox mods. I can understand them wanting to keep cheaters off their XBox Live system, but I think people should be able to run whatever they want to their systems at home. (and that includes modifying them to run homebrew or multi-regino software)

Course, I still believe that if a game is good, people will buy it, regardless of how easy it is to get a pirated copy. (maybe I'm naive)

Back on topic, MS is banking on XBox Live, so every discounted console they sell is (potentially) another Live subscriber. So, in addition to game licences, they can cash in on online games fees. It's also a great selling point for games developers as well. MS will be diving into the online console pool, so they may get a jump on Sony in that area. Whether or not that will be able to compete with the PS2 market share is another matter. But regardless, it'll be fun to watch. :)
 
Piracy did do well for the PSX... Just look at the asian market ^_^ If there wasn't a boom there then the global sales wouldn't quite be as large as it was. However piracy does harm the videogame industry quite badly... If you look at the current development costs for a single videogame it would cost a hell of a lot more than £1 million... Add R&D before that then manufacturing, marketing and then support... And the costs just go up and up. If we all bought copied games then we will just see videogame companies die quicker than our grassroots football teams.

I can see the angle that Azrikam is looking at but homebrew software is indeed homebrew and not commercial. If codies write up a product for free then they would want to see it all distributed for free and to gain acknowledgement and respect from fellow gamers. I remember the superb HL bot during its development... Now that bloke is working for a company in the A.I sector so I'm all for the dev scene since many are passionate gamers wanting innovation, or clever codies wanting to improve a certain aspect - But its hardly piracy. Just reverse engineering (of which is sadly illegal over here unless you follow guidelines).

I'm all for import gaming and freedom of speech but piracy is like a long term cancer to the videogame market IMO and it could seriously shape the way we play videogames in the future. I'm also a strong advocate for multi-region gaming as I am for multi-region DVD players because as a consumer we should have the freedom of choice. More often than not in the UK and Europe we don't which is why many of us have either decided to buy an import product or to modify it... Or both.

I'll end up on a happier note anyway and say that the dev scene should be encouraged to grow and expand because that is where the core creativity is. Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure a certain online FPS in Half-Life was even more popular thanks to a mod...
 
Hi all,

I'm quite new to the games console scene, I have an xbox and my son has a PS2.

When the first Playstation came out was there similar discussions/arguments about which was the best games console available, and that the PS1 would never be any good etc etc.

or was it clear from the start that the PS would be the best thing since sliced bread?

Just curious as I don't have a strong view on which console is better. Personally I bought an xbox because I wanted that one and my son got a PS2 because he wanted that one.

Mike
 
XBOX live your having a laugh!
apparently due to the slow take up in broadband all over europe ,there will not be a viable broadband profit making business(FOR CONSOLE GAMING) for at least another 3-4 years!!
 
Mikeq,

In terms of hardware PS2 was a big disappointment, at the time of release it's main competitor was the dreamcast, which could manage to produce similar graphics (see Soulcaliber).

The games on the PS2 have generally sold the console because they offer a huge back catalogue. I bought one initially because I liked the fact I could play my PSX back catalogue on it, I still bought PSX games for it, ie RPGs.

Currently, I sold my PS2 to get a GC, what I would call my first real next gen console over the PSX.

The whole, which is better argument is pretty useless, it is based on beliefs rather than real measurable factors. You can compare on a hardware level, in which case X-Box is better, but that means nothing because it is down to the games.

If you and your son are happy, then it makes no difference, you have made good purchases, and in any case you can enjoy the best of both consoles.

Although, I would point out that if you bought a GC you would blow them both away :p hehehe
 
Originally posted by Sinzer
Mikeq,

In terms of hardware PS2 was a big disappointment, at the time of release it's main competitor was the dreamcast, which could manage to produce similar graphics (see Soulcaliber).

The games on the PS2 have generally sold the console because they offer a huge back catalogue. I bought one initially because I liked the fact I could play my PSX back catalogue on it, I still bought PSX games for it, ie RPGs.

Currently, I sold my PS2 to get a GC, what I would call my first real next gen console over the PSX.

The whole, which is better argument is pretty useless, it is based on beliefs rather than real measurable factors. You can compare on a hardware level, in which case X-Box is better, but that means nothing because it is down to the games.

If you and your son are happy, then it makes no difference, you have made good purchases, and in any case you can enjoy the best of both consoles.

Although, I would point out that if you bought a GC you would blow them both away :p hehehe


no I think Devil May CRy, PES, GTA3 etc sold the PS2 alot more then back catalogue, and I have not seen any gfx on the Borgcube that are better then Burnout 2.


sorry but its true.
 
'Borgcube'????
Jesus wept...

Thread closed.
 
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