Currently, they have 5 million shipped, but only 3.5 million sold - that's 1.5 million left still catching dust on retailer's shelves!
I seriously doubt they can convince retailers to build even bigger dust-catching piles, especially not enough for 11 million.
Having 11 million sold is totally far out there and completely illusory. He really needs to cut back on smoking crack.

MajoShinpan

Ixero

Nonsense.
I bought mine on day one, and its been working perfectly since then. And I use my 360 every day.
Get off the crack"

Really??? Someone Refresh my memory who is Robbie Bach? President of Microsoft Enterntainment and Devices... oh wait your a shareholder, you know more?

[www.fastsilicon.com]

But wait! Heres an excerpt from their investor call, funny, I saw bank of america on that call, but not steverayburn... hmmm

Charlie Debona (Sanford Bernstein): I was wondering if you could comment on whether this was a design issue or an assembly issue. And to the extent it's an assembly issue, do you have any recourse to your manufacturers?

Robbie Bach: You should think of this as an issue that's Microsoft's responsibility. The partners who have done assembly and component work for us have done good work; we're very proud of working with them; we're going to continue to work with them. So you should think of it as a Microsoft design issue.

You sir are a troll, you need to get banned. You make statements that have no factual basis, and you do nothing to be insightful or helpful in this community.

The 360 has a great game lineup, and a good headstart, but its a poorly designed, cheap piece of crap as far as the design goes, and thats the fly in the soup. Even microsoft realizes it, and is doing its best to fix things.

Belain

Imagine how many more units the PS3 will if the price comes down even further this year, as Capcom Chief Financial Officer Kazuhiko Abe has strongly hinted might happen.

SteveRayburn

Nonsense.
I bought mine on day one, and its been working perfectly since then. And I use my 360 every day.
Get off the crack.

" Market Watch reports that filings lodged with the Securities and Exchange Commission show Bach sold $6.2 million in stock between May 2 and last Thursday when Microsoft officially acknowledged it would be necessary to fork out around $1.15 billion "

# 1. Microsoft execs sell stock all the time. Bach has been at Microsft for along time, he has to sell his stock at some time, not after he's dead.

# 2. Micrsoft stock's actually gone up since May. It was up 2% just yesterday. Microsoft's results/stock prce are going to depend on sales of Vista, Office, Windows Server, Exchange Server etc which generate huge profits for Microsoft, rather than the XBOX divisison.
You got any more disinformation to spread?

SteveRayburn

TheIrishNinja

satanyoka

Some fair points made (especially bargerg about big games and install base), i think Kaz expects the japanese market to open after MGS, FF and some of the others this fall. Those of you still saying "no games" are kidding yourselves or not watching yesterday...that's definitely gonna shoot sales up, along with the price slash.

I appreciate the optimism, wish him the best there. If it turns out they actually do go to $450 or so around the holidays (rumble, new cheaper chipset/diodes etc) id say he's got a better shot than id wager otherwise.

TheIrishNinja

Even if its the latter (for both), that's still hard to believe. The Wii isn't going to meet the 10 million mark that fast, and it continues to sell out quickly.

But hey, if this causes Sony to get nervous and do another price drop, then I'm all for letting them hype themselves up early. As you can tell, I'm pretty much calling for nearly anything/everything to force another price drop.

Next-Gen-Gamer

Kreean

k4polo

I was the same for both the PS2 and the Dreamcast-- I eventually bought one of each, but really, not until they both had so many huge titles that I just couldn't resist NOT having access to them.

No game is worth $500 (not including game price)

RiceBandit

Good point, they were working on the even less spectacular Jade Empire.

God damnit, I really hope Mass Effect is good.

Belain

It seems to me that the best way to bring in new buyers is with new games, not continuations of metal gear or final fantasy. That could just be me though. I've always been a little OCD when it comes to continuity.

Someone else said offering Xbox 360 and GTA 4 would be a good strategy, but I would think the more brazenly microsoft strategy would be halo 3 and system for 350. I'm not really a fanboy of microsoft or nintendo, but I'm still kind of pissed at sony for pushing blu-ray so a vindictive part of me wants to see them crash and burn.

deviantCharles

Lanky Bugger

I HOPE and PRAY its great, cause I have been waiting on it for months, but theres the outside chance we are let down.

Belain

Singstar? Really? Did anyone even buy the ps2 version? (I didn't even know there was one until three months after it was out).

Anyways even with this problem, I think Microsoft is safe for the Holiday Season. I mean they have both Halo 3 and Mass Effect which will effectively destroy anything Sony throws at them.

Kemuri

Lanky Bugger

PS3- Haze, FolkLore, Lair, Warhawk, Heavenly Sword, Haze, Little Big Planet, Stranglehold
360- Halo, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Blue Dragon, Eternal Sonata, katamari

And thats without including non-exclusive games!

I wonder if EB games is looking for part time help! haha JK

Belain

What like fixing the console? Seriously, they need to fix more than the overheating RRoD. A die shrink will only fix one problem with the system.

You might as well say Singstar is more potentially damaging to Microsoft than Halo 3 is to SONY at this point. Microsoft needs to fix their console, and then expand out into new genres before I take them seriously -- personally. The new line up announcement was tepid at best.

I think Microsoft is in a pickle with retailers due to returns and flooding the shelves with product to exclaim 'we got 10M first'. I don't see the arguement Microsoft is in a strong position going forward -- when you also consider the lower number of exclusives combined with the limited genres. It seems like they're hobbled, but we'll see in the next few months I suppose.

Mongoosekun

EB/Gamestop is the devil. I prefer to support the lesser demon that is Best Buy and Circuit City, or Amazon, or for that matter, I would rather buy my games from a guy named shifty eddie out of the back of a truck.

Belain

Kaz is the fucking man, just look at that grin... hell yeah!

BigChiefSmokem

I'm helping out a good company. :P
And I KNOW I'm buying a quality product(cough points at xbox360 and laughs).

Plus, that 5 BluRay movies is calling for me, not 'too great' of movies, but they're still, FIVE movies for FREE.

PS3 has built in bigger-upgradeable HDD, and BluRay, and Wifi, so that's $300 in crap right there, for only 100 more than Xbox360... not bad :D

SliceWarriorX

There you go I've outlined the next two years of Sony strategy...oh and a genuine price cut will arrive once they realise that ordinary people aren't stupid enough not to notice that having a system at 499 and one at 599 is exactly the same as the Sony was charging at launch.

penhalion

Dont apologise, spread the word on those fishy pre-orders.

Irenicus

Avinash_Tyagi

Agreed on 2 & 3, though.

Lanky Bugger

Wow basing demand for a game off preorders at one local eb games, thats about as statistically significant as looking out the window, seeing its raining, and assuming its raining everywhere on earth.

No one with half a mind gives EB games money to preorder a game unless its an absolutely guaranteed possible out of stock situation. The last game i recall being sold out when i wanted to buy it launch day was GTA:SA. Add to that pretty much you NEVER need to preorder a game on PS3 or Xbox because of the amount of stock, huge retail presence and massive ordering.

All that preordering does is give EB games a 0% interest loan of 5 bucks and helps their largely brain dead buyers to figure out what to order besides halo and madden.

List of stupid things to do with your money:
1. Rustproofing/undercoating cars
2. Extended warranties
3. Preorders

Sorry about the rant on preorders!

Belain

He has a vision, I'm sure he's convinced about it, but he needs to convince the consumers. And this is the hard job.

slimky

The fact of the matter is that I've had an Xbox for four years and the only time I've used Xbox Live was when I got a free subscription for a year with my purchase. I wound up playing a couple games online but didn't really use it.

Now I suppose you could argue that the PS3 is only the cost of an Xbox 360 and two games... But why give up two games when the platform is getting practically all the same releases and a few exclusives besides?

Lanky Bugger

almattitude_v1

Irenicus

And that's when I stopped reading. . .

Lachoy

Digitalguardian

As for 11 million units sold? Lofty, very lofty but we'll see, I like Kaz.

Samster

d4t4

GTA IV: October 16

Waiting until after GTA for a price drop would be a mistake IMO. Offering Premium + GTA for $349 would be a good strategy to keep people waiting on this title away from the Sony camp. At the very least the cut needs to come before most of the top cross platform titles are released: CoD, GTA, Madden and AC mainly.

Irish.Exile

jacksons98

Source? I searched CNN and Google News, and they turned up exactly nothing on that.

baberg

Vrba79

Hahahahaha... Lewis Black

chip5541

Vrba79

What Lair can do is appeal to players who *want* Lair, which is a flying simulation fighter. It is not a shooter like Halo, so it wouldn't have appealed to the same consumer sub-population in the first place.

It is possible and probable that Microsoft will drop its prices, but that doesn't change the fact that many gamers are just still waiting for Sony to drop its price again. If it happens in the next 8 months before Apr2008, the PS3 will sell regardless of how much cheaper the X360 is - because it doesn't have the same portfolio that the PS3 has.

Depending on MGS4 and several other titles; notably Final Fantasy XIII, that will see whether PS3 will sell 11 million units in the next 8 months. It's a very very feasible number. If Sony drops its price again in Nov/Dec, they are going to hit it doubtless. Maybe surpass it. Yes, I called it.

What Sony should have done is include multiple microtransactions ala Microsoft's $50/year Live service and vehemently dropped its PS3 price. The current pricing is already *extremely* competitive but fact of the matter is there is a psychological barrier for gamers and that price. They can't see beyond the fact that the $100 difference cannot possibly constitute the difference between an "affordable" X360 and an overpriced" PS3. It's not out of their reach. FFS, $100 is a year's worth of Live service and a single game. These gamers are going to spend hundreds of dollars on games. They can afford the PS3 easy. It's just the mentality.

littleman

Right now, gamer see that the entry level price for the PS3 is still $499. Sure, you get more stuff for that $499 which does make it a better value, but the bald-faced truth of things is that the entry price for the PS3 has not changed. So you've got those people who wanted to buy a premium PS3 now satisfied with a price cut for them, but those gamers who just want a PS3 without bells and whistles aren't seeing the $399 PS3 we'd like to buy.

Lanky Bugger

imdaman

scottyboy218

2: You do realise that he's still got a bunch more shares. Appreciate that seems like a lot of money but SEC would have been ALL OVER HIM LIKE A RASH if they suspected he had done something wrong. Those guys don't mess around.

Or do you think that employees shouldn't be able to sell their shares just in case there may be some bad news that comes out?

Psychotext

imdaman

edgeblade

rodsky

Balance_In_Life

They don't need to have an ace up their sleave to counter this news. They're playing a nice game of war and they've got their cards showing. For every move Sony's making, Microsoft has an equal value card-- or a trump one.
The price drop puts Sony directly in Microsoft's price-range if you look at the Elite version, right? Who wants to place bets that by the end of the year, Microsoft is out of the PS3 price range by $120 bucks again? It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Microsoft's upcoming 65nm chips are going to allow them to do that, and that they will, just to keep competitive.

Then, we innevitably come back to games and if you just look at this fiscal year (from the previous March to next March, Microsoft is still coming out with more exclusive, amazing games. I say this praying for more PS3 games (I'm pretty excited about MGS4 staying PS3 exclusive), but the two lists of upcoming games are stacked heavy in the 360's corner. At this point, don't even throw Lair into the mix-- I've yet to hear a positive reaction from any trusted source saying this game is going to be anywhere near as good as the hype it's trying to whip up.

Microsoft may have an ace up the sleeve too, but they'd be smart to save that stuff for when they really need it. Right now, PS3 is going to have a litte run until Bioshock, Halo 3, Mass Effect, et al come out, then the innevitable price drop...

Also, FYI-- here's a great way to determine if a game will be massively successful. Call someone who knows nothing about video games. Ask them, "hey, have you heard about .....". If they say yes, that means that non-hardcore gamers know about the game and it'll be pretty big. By this method, Lair will be but a piddle in Typhoon Halo 3 (Okinawa is getting hit by a typhoon as I type this, which is why I used that particular type of storm).

Phenix

I predict that Microsoft did not drop the price now as they are waiting for the holiday season to attempt a coup de grace. They probably feel no need to drop the price now at kind of a slow selling time anyway. Microsoft is commonly beset by internal mistakes, so all conjecture tends to go right back to square one.

deviantCharles

Did you read my post? I'll just repeat this again:

"Please don't quote European/UK prices directly converted into dollars, either; the dollar is exceedingly weak at the moment, and is made more so by direct comparrison with a strong pound or euro."

Blinded220

1. All 11.6 million Xbox 360s are faulty (CNN article dated today)

2. Market Watch reports that filings lodged with the Securities and Exchange Commission show Bach sold $6.2 million in stock between May 2 and last Thursday when Microsoft officially acknowledged it would be necessary to fork out around $1.15 billion to cater for an "unacceptable" number of Xbox repairs. Bach had sold no stock for eight months prior to May.

MS has some major major damage control needed.

chip5541

Warhawk's lack of pre-orders is hardly suprising since it's available online. I mean, people don't actually need to buy the retail version since they must already have an online connection to even play the game... and thus they can purchase it through PSN.

I think the previous poster's general point is correct, although the sales boost by each title is really hard to call. The truth is, each and every one of these titles released on the PS3 will enlarge and richen its portfolio; deflecting previous accusations of a lack of titles and such. The consumer base will grow steadily, and it will surely because some gamers will buy it for this game, some for that and etc. The big PS3-unique system sellers are almost all poised for next year, but I won't be suprised if one of the pending titles for the PS3 turns out to be a bigger hit than expected. Hard to tell.

littleman

markusdragon

rodsky

Something tells me that you have no idea what you are talking about. If Microsoft had a trick up their sleeve, this week would have been the time to let it fly? Instead, what happened? Nothing. The only business I see Microsoft is denting is their own.

a7knight

fumar

Is it possible that they ship that many by march next year? Yes it is. Will they? We'll just have to see won't we. They have a strong line up coming up this fall and Q1 2008 so the chance is very good.

Heihachi.vs.Kazuya

lordofsword

as far as the computer gamers buying a ps3 so they dont have to upgrade their pcs for UT3, computer gamers usually HATE console controllers, nothing beats a keyboard and mouse, also they can also play CRYSIS

this will be even harder to achieve if MS does lower the price of the 360 (when Halo 3 launches would be a great time)

rodsky

EmeraldDragon

nya-chama

Europe always gets screwed over and are expected to spend more than the rest of the world.

At least the 360 cares a more but that's not saying much either. RRODs are annoying.

nya-chama

Bloo

Zanch

I am quite sure LAIR will sell quite a few PS3s.

heavenly Sword will sell a lot of PS3s.

Warhawk may be a big shocker and sell PS3s.

Ut3 will definitely sell PS3s with its superior support OVER the Xbox360 version. I wouldn't doubt PS3 may sell over 1 million for UT3 because millions of PC players may not want to spend hundreds on an upgraded PC when they get an Identical experience on the PS3. With KB/M and PC Mod support, there really isn;t anything distinguishing the PS3 and PC version besides having a beast PC that can play the game on a higher graphical level."

Wow, keep dreaming, on every single point.

I work at an EB games, there is barely an interest in any of those titles at all. I think we've gotten 2 pre-orders on Lair, and maybe 3 on heavenly sword. 0 on warhawk. And none on UT 3. Motorstorm was more of a system sellar than any of them, we had alot of people actually genuinely interested in that title. And if you think a million people are going to buy a ps3 because they don't want to upgrade their pc, you're insane. Unreal is a fairly big name, but it's not THAT big.

scottyboy218

maybe if we switch it around to another product. if bmw dropped the price of the M3, fully loaded, AC, sports suspension, bigger engine, ect, down to the price of the 328i (the cheapest, bog standard in the 3 series), would you see that as a price cut?

triplehelix

Tezs

What's so shitty about the Europe bundle? You get the two best games currently available for the system, and an extra controller. The total value of all of that far exceeds the $100 price drop we recieved in the states. Please don't quote European/UK prices directly converted into dollars, either; the dollar is exceedingly weak at the moment, and is made more so by direct comparrison with a strong pound or euro.

Blinded220

Btw there is a pretty huge difference between sold to retailer and sold to consumers. This is a product that thrives on complimentary goods. The console itself is actually bad for profits. If they sell a ps3 to a retailer they have made a loss, if that Ps3 gets sold to a consumer who also buys multiple games with it then it is a profit. Im sure developer would much rather look at how many people can buy their game rather than how many consoles have been shipped.

Zim

if they can do this while constantly improving their online store and embedding home into the system there might be a decent chance.

ittekimasu

Grael4

Remember, every time you release a big game (to the same audience), the list of potential *new console* customers shrinks. For example, let's say MGS4 gets released, and 2 million people (who didn't already have a PS3) were waiting for that game.

Now FF13 comes out. How many *new* PS3 customers are there? I'd wager a large amount of FF13 fans have already got a PS3 because they are early adopters, or MGS4 fans, etc.

This is a problem that both MS and Sony have. So far only Nintendo has figured out how to produce new customers out of thin air.

FlapjacksAreTasty

But who cares if you have tons of units on the shelves? What matters to me is only the number of units sold to consumers. That dictates what software is being bought. Micrsoft has sold maybe around 10 million and shipped about 12 million last I heard from Gamasutra. And if you believe Wikipedia, the Wii has sold about 8 million.

So to sum up, good for them, they will ship that much, but unless the shipment sells out, who cares?

xkc20d

RedFive

11 million install user base in homes = impossible.

I do not see any way in hell, with near 4 million sold now, they will push that many by March of 08 or whatever. I would be absolutely shocked if it happened.

VonDante

Bloo

The Xbox 360 hasn't sold 11 million yet and it's been out for about the same amount of time as Sony is allocating for the 11 million number. Of course, the Xbox 360 has Japanese sales numbers that would make anybody cringe, so there's a major market that's in-reach to Sony but out-of-reach to Microsoft.

They can do it, but it's going to be hard to convince enough people that the PS3 is worth it on potential alone. All of Sony's exclusive mainstream heavy-hitters (with the exception of Warhawk) aren't due out until 2008 at the earliest. That still tells me that Sony is banking on the potential of the PS3 this holiday season. An Xbox 360 price drop would be devastating to Sony's chances, especially if the price drop comes before GTA4 is out.

Time will tell, but it's an achievable goal.

baberg

Psychotext

I am quite sure LAIR will sell quite a few PS3s.

heavenly Sword will sell a lot of PS3s.

Warhawk may be a big shocker and sell PS3s.

Ut3 will definitely sell PS3s with its superior support OVER the Xbox360 version. I wouldn't doubt PS3 may sell over 1 million for UT3 because millions of PC players may not want to spend hundreds on an upgraded PC when they get an Identical experience on the PS3. With KB/M and PC Mod support, there really isn;t anything distinguishing the PS3 and PC version besides having a beast PC that can play the game on a higher graphical level.

Vietone

JR

ManekiNeko

Retailers wouldn't buy if they in turn weren't shifting their consoles to John Q. Public.

firelogic

TOCATL

itcomesinwaves

I thought the Wii wasnt "competing" with the other 2 powerhouses though?

Nintendo's words not mine!

EnigmaNemesis

itcomesinwaves

Noid_80

Custom Reality

*stone cold silence*

humilitybecomeshim

metab_lomics

Hitokiri151

Huckleberry

Brokenlynx

chip5541

Kuraudo

Kyle81

Kirakun

Darwyn

Yer thats possible Metal Gear Solid will shift a fair few,

then monster hunter, resi5 will shift loads in japan

Singstar will in europe

and then the xmas period will be good for sales. Not to mention another price cut between now and then

Im not saying they will do, however im not saying its impossible

jip100

Neon

Calhoun

adventchild08

Psychotext