When you're selling an average of 5.1 software units per console, you're pretty much screwed. Selling fewer games per console is way better. Wait what?

That's the argument that analysts Jason Kraft and Chris Kwak of the Susquehanna Financial Group make when describing what they call an "increasingly unhealthy console growth rate" for the 360. They point out that the console is strictly limited to hardcore gamers, which is not the market most beneficial to publishers and developers.

Ready for more doom and gloom?

If the Xbox 360 sports an attach rate of ten by holiday 2007, it will probably be because it has failed to gather critical momentum. What does it benefit publishers and investors if ten games are being purchased by a total audience of 10 million 360 owners? It doesn't take effort to see that a console with an attach rate of 8 and an installed base of 50 million is superior to a console with an attach rate of 12 with an installed base of 20 mln.

Before this turns into a next-gen pissing match, keep in mind that Kwak and Kraft foresee a similar (or worse) fate for Sony's PS3. Wow. Next-gen sucks. Michael McWhertor

Opinion: Xbox 360 Software Attach Rate Is 'Alarming' [Gamasutra]