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Sony: 360 Ahead in Sales, but Software Performs Better on PS3

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They claim Portal 2 as a victory because the 360 version sold 1.6 times as many copies, but most shooters go nearly 2 to 1. That's hilarious.
 
"As much as people might associate Call of Duty and the shooting genre with 360, we donÂ’t see that as a cause for alarm right now. What weÂ’re hoping for, given the announcement we made at E3 with Battlefield (full Battlefield 1943 game included on disc), we believe that we are going to have a major player here with EA on our platform

I'm sorry but how is that a selling point?

Early access to new modes and maps for the PS3 version of BF3 yes. An old game thrown in? No thanks.

You have to hand it to EA for their canniness if Sony is paying for this.
 
Portal 2: Index ratio of 1.6
Sony's comment: "While the 1.6 index ratio is on par with the hardware index ratio, it is below the total index for shooting genre title on both platforms of 1.9. The PS3 version exclusively included a PC version of the game and Steam integration. Also, important to note, that Valve had a heritage on Xbox and this was the first title in this generation that shipped day and date on both platforms."

Was that comment really written by Sony PR? They're championing a 1.6 index ration over the average 1.9 for shooters because of those reasons?
 
Truespeed said:
I don't think Sony threatens publishers, though. That's still exclusive to Microsoft.
For all the threats some say MS does Sony still gets exclusive perks 360 only owners buying the same game do not get ever so maybe they should be more forceful.
 
Penguin said:
Wait I'm confused, and probably answered, but is this a chart showing games that sell better on PS3.

Or is it like, some games sell better on the 360, but not as well as one would expect with their lead?

Basically the second part of your post is what he is going for.
Unless I misread:

<1 -Sold nominally more on the PS3

>1 and <1.6 - Sold better on 360, but he's considering it a win because the install base sales are 1.6 in 360's favor

>1.6 - Sells exceptionally well on the 360
- if shooter replace 1.6 with 1.9

Classifying Portal as win for being 1.6 instead of 1.9 is pretty lolworthy though.
 
Penguin said:
Wait I'm confused, and probably answered, but is this a chart showing games that sell better on PS3.

Or is it like, some games sell better on the 360, but not as well as one would expect with their lead?

Games sell better on the PS3 relative to the ratio of consoles sold in North America. They're spinning the numbers to make their numbers look good even though more units are moved on the 360.
 
Interfectum said:
gotta love voodoo math

magic-everywhere.gif
 
Dabanton said:
Does Sony pay for exclusive content?

Of course they do.

Graphics Horse said:
That's some awkward PR. Portal selling
60% more on 360 is spun as a success :/

LOL. Is he actually saying: "for every 100k copies of Portal we sold, MS sold 160k, but speaking of shooters in general the ratio is actually 1.9, so of course this was a success for us" ???

I don't get it. (the ratio that is)
 
Wat. Portal 2 isn't a shooter.

Edit: If anything, it's an action-adventure game with strong puzzle elements.
 
Should we be reading this.... I feel a little sorry for this Dyer guy. It feels like he was forced out on stage to make a fool of himself.
 
Well, there's a couple things.

1) There is software the the PS3 : 360 ratio is above 1 (IE PS3 sells more). There is software where the PS3 : 360 ratio is below 1 but above the hardware ratio (IE 360 sells more, PS3 sells more per capita). There is software where the PS3 : 360 ratio is below the hardware ratio (IE 360 sells more, 360 sells more per capita). He does mention this, but it bears repeating. Borderlands is an example of a high profile game where 360 obliterated PS3 by every measure. Basically every fighting game is an example of the reverse.

2) Software does not grow linearly with hardware. Otherwise, games at the end of the generation would sell tens of millions of copies in the US. This is true with every system and every territory. So it would make sense for Microsoft's hardware lead to not necessarily translate into a software lead of comparable magnitude.

Just to give an example of this: GTA SA is the best-selling SKU on PS2 in the US with 8.5 million sold. Halo is the best-selling SKU on XBOX in the US with ~4.5 million sold. The PS2 outsold the XBOX by significantly more than 80%. Unfortunately there are fewer simultaneous-launch multiplatform titles last gen to compare, but I hope you can see my point.

If I were to distill what Sony has said into something more useful, I'd basically say: "Since the PS3 slim, the PS3 has been very much in the ballgame in terms of software sales, often exceeding the 360 on a per capita install base basis. While exact software figures vary, PS3 tends to perform better in titles that have exclusive content for the PS3 version."
 
At the time of Dante's release wouldn't the index had to have been different the acceleration in sales for the 360 occurred months afterward? What was the ratio at that time or release?
 
""If you have a choice between buying a PS3 version and an Xbox version of Mortal Kombat, which one are you buying? YouÂ’re buying the PS3 version because you can play as Kratos."

Hahahaha.

Sony PR is always good for a laugh or three.
 
quickwhips said:
If any good information was given I wouldn't have wrote that. But being able to say your item sold more copies with less system but still less copies of the game over all means nothing.

If games that sell better proportionally are the same games that have exclusive content, then it suggests that making deals like that contributes to improved sales, but you're right that more information is needed to make a convincing case to publishers. The fact that 360 still sells more in raw numbers is still probably the simplest and most important one.
 
Dabanton said:
Does Sony pay for exclusive content?

According to Jack Tretton, they don't pay for exclusives... They "earn" them. Also, he said they would not "bribe" developers to keep content off other systems.
 
I would have never imagined they would come close to the 360 in the first place, considering the situation they were in 2009. The Slim really turned it around for them, but they need to be a bit humble.
 
watership said:
Is NPD this week? This sounds like early PR damage control.

This. And, "Index Ratio"??

One day my friend and I went a bar. I asked ten girls for their numbers and got five. My friend asked seven girls and got four numbers. OBVIOUSLY, my friend is better at macking than me!
 
Mr Sony guy, I didn't buy MK on PS3 for Kratos. I bought MK on PS3 to use my favored controller for fighters. Just want to clear that up.

In fact, I forgot Kratos was even in the game. And I don't want Sony going out trying to invest time or money in getting exclusive characters in games or anything else equally retarded.
 
CrazedArabMan said:
I also am confused on the index as well, for the games does that just mean amount sold on each console, or amount sold per console as in 50 copies for every 100 PS3's or something of that nature. I ask this as I though MOH still sold more on 360 even with the exclusives on the PS3..

He is saying that MoH sold 20% more on 360 than on PS3. But this is a success for PS3, since there are 60% more 360 than PS3...

By that statistic the PSP Go might be a huge success too...
 
I know when I think of my PS3, I think of its high index ratio and I get all warm inside. It makes games more fun knowing that my favorite console has a better index ratio than its competition. 360 is doomed.
 
It's good that these exclusive content deals they are paying money for seems to be working, but that doesn't mean more people are buying the PS3 version like this "index' is claiming.
 
boingball said:
He is saying that MoH sold 20% more on 360 than on PS3. But this is a success for PS3, since there are 60% more 360 than PS3...

By that statistic the PSP Go might be a huge success too...

lol, yeah this whole thing is just confusing, gotta love public relations sometimes.
 
Stumpokapow said:
Well, there's a couple things.

1) There is software the the PS3 : 360 ratio is above 1 (IE PS3 sells more). There is software where the PS3 : 360 ratio is below 1 but above the hardware ratio (IE 360 sells more, PS3 sells more per capita). There is software where the PS3 : 360 ratio is below the hardware ratio (IE 360 sells more, 360 sells more per capita). He does mention this, but it bears repeating. Borderlands is an example of a high profile game where 360 obliterated PS3 by every measure. Basically every fighting game is an example of the reverse.
From what I see in the article, you have this backwards. (unless you were just talking in general and not in relation to this article)

Although Microsoft has a 1.6 to 1 index ratio against us [on hardware], we outsold them on Mortal Kombat nearly at a 1 to 1. So that is due in large part to the exclusive content that youÂ’re getting on disc. YouÂ’ll see that happening on almost every case where weÂ’ve had a game that theyÂ’ve supported with on disc content or with exclusive DLC."

Portal 2: Index ratio of 1.6
Sony's comment: "While the 1.6 index ratio is on par with the hardware index ratio, it is below the total index for shooting genre title on both platforms of 1.9. The PS3 version exclusively included a PC version of the game and Steam integration. Also, important to note, that Valve had a heritage on Xbox and this was the first title in this generation that shipped day and date on both platforms."
 
Skiptastic said:
From what I see in the article, you have this backwards. (unless you were just talking in general and not in relation to this article)

His math is right, he just switched the ordering from 360:PS3 to PS3:360.
 
Lazy vs Crazy said:
They claim Portal 2 as a victory because the 360 version sold 1.6 times as many copies, but most shooters go nearly 2 to 1. That's hilarious.

Seriously, I don't get what Sony trying to achieve here, they just come off as desperate.
 
KorrZ said:
*Slow clap* Public relations doing it's thing people.
And you gotta hand it to them. We might have fun here with numbers but PR is mindblowingly hard, even when things are going great for you. I can't imagine what's it's like when things are bad you need to pull a rabbit out of your hat.
 
Stumpokapow said:
Sony is Sony-centric. I'm not :p
What's weird is that if Sony was really Sony-centric, you'd think they would use your numbers. Making Microsoft the 1.6 to Sony's 1 makes them seem smaller. I guess making them the denominator is centrism, but it's one of those psychological things I don't think works for them.
 
My god.... the spinning on these numbers. Good show champ.


Index ratio... I reckon we are going to have this nonsense pulled out frequently in sales age in the future. He doesnt realize what he has done.
 
watership said:
And you gotta hand it to them. We might have fun here with numbers but PR is mindblowingly hard, even when things are going great for you. I can't imagine what's it's like when things are bad you need to pull a rabbit out of your hat.

Definitely, you have to give them credit for being able to make anything that happens somehow sound even slightly positive. I do not envy anyone working in PR, especially Sony's PR department atm.
 
Mammoth Jones said:
Performance is irrelevant when the XBL "ecosystem" (thanks for that term, Apple :P) contains all my friends that are into gaming. When a game comes out that's multiplayer I don't even bother asking which console it performs better on. I simply get the 360 version because that's where my friends are.
Yep.
 
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