So… what are the actual sales figures?

Everyone wants the old ps3...

the spike during the week or two after the price drop isnt going to tell us alot, as this just shows the PS3 capturing those customers who have been sitting outside the original higher price range and now find the PS3 within their affordability.
What will tell is the longer term sales comparison to the 360 (and also the Wii), which will indicate whether the PS3 ha**** the correct price/value ratio, and is successful in capturing the broader consumer base.
Will be alot closer thats for sure.

No not really - Its now at more of a price that it should have been many months ago - it has just been too expensive apart to all apart from the die hards, but now its more 'man in the street' friendly price wise, but don't be fooled by this lower price - the 40 GB Console costs less to buy but you also get less than in the 60GB model... Top-Tip - If you have been waiting for a lower price to buy then get the 60GB at £349 while you can - its actually overall better VFM than the 40 GB with the bundle deals around.

This extract from my blog written about 3 weeks ago before the revised price point, written from the consumers view I add.

"So I weighed up the PS3 and the XBOX 360 Elite and decided to go for the XBOX 360 Elite. Why? Hmm. Well I think the PS3 looks really good, but the Elite also looks pretty nice as well (the original XBXOX looked appalling and was the size of a tank!), but capability-wise they are similar and although the technology in the PS3 must be more advanced than the Elite as it is newer, I cannot think that they when it comes down to it what you see on screen is not that different or even actually noticeable. Do I want Blu-Ray? Yet another format? Do I need it? Will it make my life better? No. DVD is fine for me thanks.

A lot comes down to cost. Purchase cost – PS3 is way, way to expensive – Sony need to lower the price now – all the people who were going to spend £424 have done so and sale swill not increase until the price comes down. Forget bundle deals – people want a lower base cost of the console itself. 360 Elite price? £299 and you can actually get a lower spec’d XBOX 360 for £179.00. Running costs? Seems to me that on average the PS3 games look a decent bit more expensive – in the stores they are around £50.00 Way to much for a game these days. Variety of games available – 360 Elite wins again – tons of games and the older ones are available at lower prices V/S the PS3 that has not many games and prices are not low as they are not that old yet. Accessories – Virtually none for PS3 – tons for the 360 and at reasonable prices. The 360 and PS3 can also be used as a media centre as well which means that you can show your PC stored movies and pictures on your TV and also play music as well – that’s a useful function.

So who gets the console consolation prize – well for me at this moment in time it is the PS3. Sorry Sony, your late to the next gen-party, you don’t have enough games or accessories, you’ve backed the wrong format; Blu-Ray (you can’t even spell blue), your games are overpriced and worst of all your just to darned expensive and to add salt to the wound you don’t even supply a HDMI cable for the outrageous price!"

The sales appear to be very high because it was a very low performer, now the price has gone down with a cheaper model hardware sales are up however what about the software sales?

In regards to the overall content online, games etc the 360 still is ahead.

Sony need to start bring out some decent content on the PSN and more exclusives!

Instead of buying an Xbox Elite, why not buy a core machine (£140 ish second hand) and buy a 120GB hard disk from Ebay for around £50/60?

Interesting that only a few weeks ago the reports were saying the PS3 and 360 were even for 2007 so far.

I don't get the complaint about blu-ray personally; I saw someone the other saying "i'll buy a ps3 when I can it comes without blu-ray"; what a fool; if you do that you can't play ps3 games.

Those that have a memory will remember the ps2 was slammed for including DVD as it was "not needed" and the ps2 survived. A similar thing was said when CD's started to replace cartridges.

Compare the Elite and a 60GB PS3
First of all is safe to assume if you buy a console you buy a game as well otherwise why buy the console.

Elite at £320 gets you

120GB hard drive
Halo 3
A headset
HD cable
Access to some online content - full access for 1 month (unless you pay the subscription)

A 60GB PS3 at £350 gets you

60GB hard drive
2 games (take Resistance and Heavenly Sword as an example)
2nd controller (with built in battery packs)
Unlimited online access
An HD Movie Format
Wifi

That's the hardware compare - yes you can get a 360 for a lot less but you loose a lot too. These 2 are pretty much the same price as is cost to buy a ps2 with a game at release 6 years ago. And if you don;t want HD games stick to your ps2's and xbox's because that is next-gen gaming (although the wii may challenge that in the long term but only time will tell on that one.)
People will argue for ever on which one is better value.

Games is another ball game though:

There's a few things to consider:

1. Games current out
2. Games coming out
3. Exclusives

1. 360 has more games out - and it should considering it's been out over a year longer but what does it have to show for 2 years: Halo 3, Bioshock, Gears of War, Lost planet...
about 8 games have broken the million sales mark
PS3 (much like the PS2) has only a couple of games worth buying.. Resistance, Heavenly Sword.

1-0 to the 360

2. Games coming out is a bit different though; the majority of games are out of both machines and in the end any differences will have little impact.
360's line up for next year (this is from the play.com release list) shows little that that PS3 doesn't offer apart from Halo Wars.
PS3 on the other hand has a list has a lot of big hitters coming out over the next year.. haze, Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy 13, Rachet and Clank, The getaway, Gran Tourismo 5, Little Big Planet plus the usual addons like buzz, singstar and the eye toy.

1-1

3. At the end of the day the console that wins (and will be be bought) will be based on what it's got game wise that the other hasn't. A lot will depend of preference of games and genre's

360's exclusives Halo 3, Bioshock and Gears of War will be enough for some
where others will prefer the PS3 exclusives Haze, Metal Gear 4 and Gran Tourismo will send others to the PS3

the ps3 may have the upper hand in some respects because more of it's exclusive have a long reputation for some but others will look for something fresh that games that Bioshock have to offer.

No one is going to know which console will win for another 3 years; the dreamcast came out first last time and lost badly to the ps2, xbox and the gamecube.

Before that the early released ps1 beat the saturn and n64 hands down.

You won't know for years so just pick the one you like and enjoy it; if you don't like swap it for the other one - it's not rocket science.

Well done JD - sensible analysis. I prefer 360, but someone else may prefer PS3. The fact we have a choice is what keeps both consoles at the forefront. Sony and Microsoft both have too much to lose so will both keep the consumer happy. So we all win.

When they bundle the DualShock3 and amalgamate the Emotion Engine and Graphics Synth chips of the PS2 into one (to reintroduce hardware backwards compatibility), release GT5, MGS4 and FF13. That's when I might consider coming back into the fold again.

@ JD.

If it's not "rocket science" then how come you've got your so-called analysis so badly wrong?

i tryed the wii played it about 2 times in 3 months the game range is so **** so i sold it when it was rare for £350 on ebay got myself a ps3 ace console cant wait for devil may cry i dont want to try the 360 that red lights of death thing puts me off a mate over the road send his back 6 times in 1 year

@ ZedZee

"If it's not "rocket science" then how come you've got your so-called analysis so badly wrong?"

And what is so wrong about it? He stated the truth, the PS3 is more expensive, but offers an overall better package and better hardware than the 360's. The 360 has more games out right now but the games coming out next year, so far PS3 has better and more. MGS, FF are tried and true franchises, Bioshock is new at it proved its worth. And whatever console you pick is your own preference, so I really don't see any flaws in his analysis, and you didn't even give reasons as to why he is wrong, so your logic seems out of place and just the voice of a fanboy rooting for his console of choice.