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Microsoft's Greenberg: 'PS3 Business' Is 'Hemorrhaging At Retail'
by Chris Remo
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March 20, 2009
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Following the release of NPD sales figures, Microsoft trumpeted its significant 53 percent year-over-year Xbox 360 sales boost -- and slammed primary competitor Sony.
Speaking to Gamasutra, Xbox 360 product management director Aaron Greenberg largely pinned the gain on continuing momentum, and said it outperformed external expectations.
"That exceeds even the high end of what analysts projected we would do for the month," he said. "I think the highest I saw was roughly 30 percent. We've had multiple months now of sustained year over year growth, which is fantastic."
As in past months, Greenberg highlighted the critical success of its titles -- "We have over 130 titles rated over 80 on Metacritic; no other platform even has 100 at that level," he pointed out -- as well as a per-system average software attach rate of 8.2, along with exclusive online content.
Chief among that exclusive content in February was Rockstar North's Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost & Damned expansion distributed solely through Xbox Live. Greenberg did not reveal specific numbers, but did reiterate that it was "the most successful game add-on content we've ever launched."
"If that content was sold at retail, it would be one of the best sellers across all platforms," he added. "It would have outsold Killzone 2."
(Guerrilla Games' PlayStation 3-exclusive Killzone 2 sold 323,000 units in February, but while The Lost & Damned was on sale for nearly two weeks in that month, Killzone 2 was on sale for only several days.)
Greenberg declined to share specific sales data for any Live content, but noted that EA Canada's NCAA Basketball 09: March Madness Edition, recently launched over Xbox Live, has also been "very successful," in part due to the promotional mechanisms built into Live's current interface.
"It's another example of a great way to leverage Live to provide content that's very timely. You could never really deliver that kind of experience at retail," he said. "When people get [their games] in the Spotlight channel, it's in the millions of people who are clicking and looking and downloading. With our community being over 17 million, the scale when we get into some of those featured items is pretty big."
The executive painted a particularly bleak picture of the PlayStation brand at retail, saying retail partners have characterized it as "hemorrhaging," in part because many existing PlayStation 2 owners are migrating to Xbox 360 rather than PlayStation 3.
"You can't underestimate that we're half the price of the PS3 at a time when consumers were looking for great value," he said. "The PS3 was down in February two percent even with the launch of Killzone 2 -- that's months of year-over-year declines. Xbox continues to head north while the PS3 is heading south. We're gaining share."
"But what we hear from our partners is that it's not just PS3, it's also PS2 down 62 percent year over year," he continued. "With that business declining, and with the PS3 business declining, it's been described to me as hemorrhaging at retail right now, and it just keeps getting worse.
"What we're finding in our research is that a large portion of the volume we're driving with Xbox 360 purchasers is actually PS2 owners choosing Xbox for the next generation. We're switching people from the PlayStation brand over to the Xbox brand."
The Xbox 360 version of Street Fighter IV outsold its PlayStation 3 counterpart in February, but only by about 11 percent; the two games occupied the second and third places in the month's software top ten. "We're hearing the same early returns for Resident Evil," Greenberg noted. He said what's more important is the growing perception that brands formerly associated with PlayStation are now also available on Xbox.
"Not only is [Resident Evil 5] selling more, but we did a limited edition Elite bundle with that as well -- so we've obviously benefited from having this deep partnership with Capcom, and we're excited to have the Resident Evil franchise for the first time ever on our platform," he said. "That follows in the steps of [franchises like] Grand Theft Auto -- and we all know Final Fantasy is coming -- that have been historically associated with PlayStation."
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Sony, numbers continue to be down year over year for all your platforms, what exactly will you do about that? Your "value" campaign doesn't seem to be working itself out and you certainly have proven that you don't care about marketing. 2009 fiscal year is right around the corner, I think you have stretched your value spreadsheet as far as you can for fiscal 08...
Hmm, no other platform? PS2 seems to have 320 games over 80 on Metacritic. Microsoft again with the deceit.
There are a few prominent reasons.
One being the D-Pad on the 360 controller being very poor (there is an issue with the sensors [can be resolved with a tape mod] and the responsiveness [can be resolved with a "shave" mod]) for use in any game quite frankly. The PS3's D-Pad is far more responsive (though less comfortable than D-Pads of other consoles). This makes SF4 more playable on the PS3 if you stick with D-Pads (the analog sticks work very well for the game on both consoles).
Secondly, all tournaments and tournament training for SF3 was done on the PS2 (despite the game being on the Dreamcast and Xbox), so it's a natural move to the PS3 for many of these tournament players.
And also as Jay has mentioned PS3 owners gravitate towards fighters, Soul Calibur 4 sold much better on the PS3 than on the 360, IIRC something in the range of a 2:1 ratio, initially.
I expected the PS3 version to slightly outsell the 360 version because of these 3 reasons.
The success of GTA4: The Lost and the Damned is very interesting as it is something that may change the industry, as it is something that has gotten more attention than the similarly ambitious DLC Mass Effect received. This could be in part due to the widespread advertising campaign that went behind it. I wonder if it will send a signal to Publishers that Digital Content (whether games on PSN/XBLA/Steam...or DLC add-ons for retail games) can sell very well with that extra advertising push to make consumers more aware of them.
My hope is that because of this recent success that services like PSN and XBLA and their games get a bit of an advertising push to make gamers more aware of them (attention I think these games deserve). Frankly speaking the sales of 99% of PSN/XBLA games are no where near comparable to the sales of The Lost and the Damned (judging by estimates for both because neither have solid numbers).
I think it is obvious that he was specifically referring to the current gen consoles. The PS2 does have a very high amount of quality games but the system is also nine years old.
What you refer to as deceit I would argue is merely an issue of common sense. Perhaps he should have clarified his position but given the context of his comments I think he was fairly clear in making his point.
I’ve gleaned a significant amount of enjoyment from all three systems but in my estimation, which includes about 30 years of playing games, I can say without hesitation that Microsoft’s XBOX 360 console has been the superior conduit for gaming this generation. The only real blight on their legacy is the ridiculous and unacceptable hardware failings that are a direct result of their desire to rush the console to market.
Hardware aside, the output of quality software has been staggering and they have done a commendable job of securing some excellent exclusives, including downloadable content. They also continue to offer a sublime online experience for what I think is a paltry sum and despite the aforementioned hardware reliability issues, the console has proven to be elastic and malleable for programmers and capable of generating tremendously satisfying graphical output. The console is also currently priced to move.
By contrast, Sony has made so many mistakes this generation that any real recovery, other than a solid showing in third place, seems unlikely. As much as I love my PS3 exclusives and the Blue Ray functionality, Sony’s insistence on foisting this technology onto consumers and subsequently inflating the price tag of the console ensured that the PS3 would stumble out of the gate. Couple this fact with their stubborn refusal to price the console competitively with Microsoft and Nintendo and you are left with something that is literally the exact opposite of what Sony accomplished with the previous two Playstation consoles: a small market share and a product that completely alienates the casual consumer.
The fact is a developer can write a game for the PC and the XBOX at the same time with very little friction. It's so much easier that Microsoft has released tools so average developers can write games for the XBOX for free. This is the same thing they did for the PC during the IBM/Apple era and we see what happened. You will have a whole generation developing games for the XBOX and the gap will widen even more. Developing for the PS3 is an expensive nightmare.
please take a look at following page http://www.metacritic.com/games/ps3/scores/
The PS3 has 139 "good" games you could choose from (approx 45 exclusives) (approx 90 80+games).
The reason people bought so many SFIV copies is because of the better D-pad and because "fighters" sell at a better ratio on this platform (see Virtua Fighter 5).
Back on topic. I'm getting sick of Mr. Greenbergs smacktalk. Doesn't he know anything about honor and dignity? A man in his position should know better.
honestly I think that Sony has done a horrible job of managing the ps3.
while its clear Greenberg is trying to drum up the 360 (that's part of his job) Sony is really making his job easy. if Sony doesn't do a price drop, marketing campaign and release phyre (sp?), I bet I could sell 360's just as good as Greenberg and I don't even own a 360!
It's like shooting fish in a barrel except Sony filled a barrel with fish and gave Microsoft a gun.