XBox 360 Sells 607,000 in 2005

[bapenguin]

The NPD group has released stats (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6142565.html) for the 2005 gaming year. Prior reports had the XBox 360 only selling around 350,000 units in North America, but the NPD reports it just over 600,000 for 2005.

The single-biggest reason for the falloff of Xbox game sales was the introduction of the Xbox 360. Having already sold more than 326,000 units by the end of November, the hard-to-find next-gen console saw another 281,000 ship during December, bringing the total to around 607,000. By contrast, hardware sales of the original Xbox plummeted 60 percent, far ahead--or below, depending how you look at it--of the GameCube's 26 percent slump. But while its current-gen rivals floundered, the PlayStation 2 saw a massive increase in sales, up 48 percent compared to December 2004.
It still amazes me how many people are buying a PS2. I mean...who DOESN'T have one of these?

[Borys]

Jesus Christ, 1.5M people bought PS2 in December 2005, 5 years after it's launch.

And that's in US alone.

Borderline insanity.

[Cool AN]

It still amazes me how many people are buying a PS2. I mean...who DOESN'T have one of these?

I don't, though if the PS 3 is coming out late for my liking, then I probably will get one.

[fitbabits]

I think the reason so many people are buying PS2s is because of the high failure rate - they are repeat buyers, not first-timers! :rolleyes:

And I even remembered the sarcasm smiley!

[saran_js]

at least they are buying it for some reason. For another reason, some people in Japan seem to be returning xbox360s to the retailers and even selling them second hand.
What's with that ???
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/xbox-360/a-month-later-used-xbox-360-appears-in-japan-149969.php

[bapenguin]

at least they are buying it for some reason. For another reason, some people in Japan seem to be returning xbox360s to the retailers and even selling them second hand.
What's with that ???
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/xbox-360/a-month-later-used-xbox-360-appears-in-japan-149969.php

Ol' reliable Kotaku. They can make ANYTHING seem like news. :rolleyes:

[Doctor Setebos]

It still amazes me how many people are buying a PS2. I mean...who DOESN'T have one of these?
I don't. And I don't plan on getting one anytime soon. Or later. Or ever. There's nothing on the PS2 that interests me.

I'm holding out for my Revolution! :D

[Borys]

Ol' reliable Kotaku. They can make ANYTHING seem like news. :rolleyes:

Haha, yeah, it looks like ONE guy is selling his 360 and they spin it as some social movement.

[fitbabits]

at least they are buying it for some reason. For another reason, some people in Japan seem to be returning xbox360s to the retailers and even selling them second hand.
What's with that ???
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/xbox-360/a-month-later-used-xbox-360-appears-in-japan-149969.php
I think I'll create a story about how my local game store has a used Xbox 360 in it and see if anyone picks it up. I mean, it is news - right? :mad:

[AspectVoid]

I think the reason so many people are buying PS2s is because of the high failure rate - they are repeat buyers, not first-timers! :rolleyes:

And I even remembered the sarcasm smiley!

Funny enough, my PS2 (which I bought used 3 years ago, btw) still works like new. I did, however, have to replace my X-box (which I bought used 2 years ago) earlier this year when the DVD-Drive croaked on it and it stopped reading disks. Go figure.

[Kelegacy]

Sony is a goddamn war machine with the PS2. They can creep slowly into the next gen and continue to steamroll anything in its path. The PS2 can keep Sony aloft for a while, seeing how they greatly outsold a next-gen system during the holiday rush (360 shortages didn't help, admittedly).

I'm also surprised by that many PS2's being sold. But when you think about it, there MUST be millions of families and people that don't own one yet.

[Salamande]

I think the reason so many people are buying PS2s is because of the high failure rate - they are repeat buyers, not first-timers! :rolleyes:

And I even remembered the sarcasm smiley!
Ah, memories of the ol' upside-down PS1. The strange looks I used to get were always priceless.

At least the slimline PS2 doesn't seem to have as many problems, what with the fewer moving parts and all.

[saran_js]

Ol' reliable Kotaku. They can make ANYTHING seem like news. :rolleyes:

apart from ?!!? I do seem to remember that EA did post some news which was not verified and was actually false. There was the retraction eventually of course.
:D :p

[fitbabits]

apart from ?!!? I do seem to remember that EA did post some news which was not verified and was actually false. There was the retraction eventually of course.
:D :p
You've just stated the major difference - Kotaku will post anything as news (especially if it's scandolous) without verifying the source and hide under piles of excuses if and when the news turns out to be nothing more than some 'source inside the company/store/etc.' with a grudge.

[Banacek]

I don't. And I don't plan on getting one anytime soon. Or later. Or ever. There's nothing on the PS2 that interests me.

I'm holding out for my Revolution! :D

Well that's a stupid opinion. If you like games there's something on the PS2 for you...

[BabyJesus]

360 could have been a massive hit, had they shipped enough units. Now the best you can say is they did well.

[Citizen Philip]

I would imagine that a family on a budget a PS2 is a solid purchase with a wide collection of games for all ages. And no, I don't own a PS2, but somewhere there is an Xbox laying about.

[Reanimated]

Over a million people bought Bullet Proof...

I will say no more.

[Steele Johnson]

Jesus Christ, 1.5M people bought PS2 in December 2005, 5 years after it's launch.

And that's in US alone.

Borderline insanity.

That's because there are still great new games coming out for it (2005 was a great year for PS2 games). It makes a lot of sense to me.

I have no idea why anyone would run out and buy an xbox 360 at this point. There's hardly any games for it. Maybe it's because people just like the latest and greatest hardware even though they can't do anything with it. Must be an ego thing. ;)

I won't be interested in any new consoles until there's a good variety of fun games that supports more than one controller. If there's one thing I hate about my xbox (which I bought 2 years after release) is that there are too many single-player games (unless you play sports games, and I don't). Whatever happened to consoles being a multiplayer system?

[Reanimated]

I'm going to momentarily set aside my seething hate for sony and just say that Grandia III is a perfectly good reason to pick up a PS2 if you don't already own one. At least I think it will be... I mean I haven't exactly played it.

[Schnoogs]

Still have yet to see a 360 for sale in my town...

[Kelegacy]

I'm going to momentarily set aside my seething hate for sony and just say that Grandia III is a perfectly good reason to pick up a PS2 if you don't already own one. At least I think it will be... I mean I haven't exactly played it.
Wow, this is totally unlike you, Reanimated. But I'll shock you right back: I AGREE! The planets must be in alignment: we are doomed.

I'm a Grandia fanboy. I didn't really like Grandia 2 "feel" much, and I haven't played Grandia Xtreme.... Well, I guess I'm not a fanboy after all, but I can't wait for III to hit in February. It's my most anticipated game right now.

[agentgray]

It still amazes me how many people are buying a PS2. I mean...who DOESN'T have one of these?
I don't.


Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit.

[drakkarim]

sony was smart, they knew MS couldn't deliver quantity, so they knew there's be a lot of pissed off gamers that would want to stick it to MS for not letting them buy a 360, so they'd snatch up a ps2 that was conveniently close by, in a huge pile... they're still doing it.

as soon as the 360 rolls out in force i'll be finally able to snatch a used ps2 for really cheap :)

[Kelegacy]

I don't.


Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit. Rootkit.
Why? And don't say rootkit, because that's nothing to do with the Playstation and the kit was only this past fall.

[TacoBellMan]

I think the reason so many people are buying PS2s is because of the high failure rate - they are repeat buyers, not first-timers! :rolleyes:

And I even remembered the sarcasm smiley!
Its so true. I never even bothered to get a PS2 for that very reason Sony's quality when it comes to game systems seems to be so bad. I know 4 people with a PS2 and 3 out of the 4 had to get a new one already, since there old ones died on them. The only reason its not all 4 is because the working PS2 is my dad's and he has only used it like 12 times. So it doesn't get used much, but I am noticing that it is starting to scratch my PS2 game I have been playing. So its about ready to go.

[fitbabits]

Why? And don't say rootkit, because that's nothing to do with the Playstation and the kit was only this past fall.
He did say rootkit, but he hid it in black writing. :)

[Wraith]

It still amazes me how many people are buying a PS2. I mean...who DOESN'T have one of these?

I picked one up this weekend. While there have been a few earlier PS2 titles I've wanted, now there's Shadow of the Colossus, Soul Calibur III, Grandia III, Okami, Phantasy Star Universe, Final Fantasy XII... The PS3 (or 360 for that matter) hasn't really shown me anything to get excited about yet, and by the time it launches, PS2 games will have only gotten cheaper.

On the survivability scale:
My PSone is about 5 years old, hasn't had any problems.
My 3+ year old Xbox has a wonky DVD-ROM drive, and I haven't gotten around to buying a replacement drive on eBay. (Using it as my primary DVD player for 3 years is most likely what killed it.)

[Genital Eclipse]

Still have yet to see a 360 for sale in my town...

Same here.

Seriously, can I just get a friggen 360 already?

[Somefool]

My six closest friends have had their PS2s break on them, some opted to replace them and some just said fuck Sony. I have also had to replace mine, it died after one year. It seems that once you hit a certain point, cleaning the laser just doesn't cut it any more. Here's the question- am I a chump because I'll probably be in line waiting for a PS3 when it launches? :\

[Phades]

My six closest friends have had their PS2s break on them, some opted to replace them and some just said fuck Sony. I have also had to replace mine, it died after one year. It seems that once you hit a certain point, cleaning the laser just doesn't cut it any more. Here's the question- am I a chump because I'll probably be in line waiting for a PS3 when it launches? :\

Yes. Although I am also apparently a chump.

[Zanzibar]

I don't have a PS2. I didn't get one originally because I had a Dreamcast, and I barely had enough time to play those games as it was. Plus there were no good games for the PS2 around launch.

When Dreamcast development was winding down, at E3 2001 I saw Halo and a bunch of other kick-ass games in development for the Xbox. Plus, we were developing a PS2 title at the time, and our debug kits (which were basically regular PS2s with some software/hardware tweaks) were dropping like flies - I went through two of them in a 6-month period. Instead of buying a PS2, I decided I was going to get an Xbox, and figured at some point I'd buy a PS2 when the quality got better.

Since that point, I've decided to stick with the Xbox and Xbox 360. My library of games was large enough (including half a dozen as-yet unplayed games) that I didn't feel I was missing out on anything. Plus, just about everything I wanted a PS2 for eventually got ported (with a better-looking version) to the Xbox. A lot of Japanese titles look fun, but they're not entirely my style.

Oh, and I hate Sony as a company. We had to submit our games for their review before they will approve the concept, and they're just arrogant bastards. Then, they gave us almost no support for their crappy hardware issues; also with arrogance (THEM:"You must be doing something wrong." US:"No, we did it exactly as you said, here's more debug info, we're pretty sure it's a hardware issue." THEM:"Oh, yeah, that's our problem, let me get back to you in three weeks or so with a hack to work around this.")

By the way, I went to my local Best Buy yesterday, GTA:San Andreas for the Xbox was marked down to $19.99; my hand involuntarily nabbed a copy before my brain was able to catch up with how good of a deal that was.

[Dracula-X]

I must be lucky - my launch PS2 is still holding up nicely, and I did buy a second one because I wanted the slim version, and gave my nephew my original. I honestly can't recall anyone I know buying another to replace a failed PS2. The only console failure I've had was my 1st XBox (craptastic drive failure), but after replacing that, it has worked solidly since. My 360 is coming in today, and I *hope* that holds up :)

[Lord Dongkey]

Having worked as a retail manager before with a certain now-behemoth game-selling chain, I can tell you that the blue-disc problem and the wonky PS2 issues were a *big* problem. So much so that every store that I knew of had regular dvd-games, blue disc games, and many times PS1 games on hand to test all of them on a traded in used system. And the number of times that issue came up? Once every other week or so, and that's with two or three systems a week coming in for trade.

The Ratio? Bad.

Oh, and Reanimated? For your earlier post regarding bullet proof: You go to hell. You go to hell and you die. /sob

Some things, I wish I didn't know, and now I know one more. Thanks. ;)

[Zanzibar]

Same here.

Seriously, can I just get a friggen 360 already?

I just got a call from my local Gamestop. I preordered a copy in August, and it's now available for me for the next 48 hours. Funny thing is, I cancelled the preorder when Activision offered their studios Premium 360s at launch at-cost. But at least they're starting to show up more regularly.

Also, my brother said he was in an Los Angeles Target on Monday and they had just gotten a shipment in; they had 8 Premiums and 2 Cores.

I bet by the end of February we'll start seeing them on the shelves regularly. Probably another ad campaign too.

[ElectricMonk]

I got a ps2 at launch and it barely functions now. I suppose I'm one of the lucky ones to have it last so long, but I'm holding out for the ps3 (as opposed to buying another ps2) and see how it's backwards compatibility is.

[Banacek]

Somebody let me know when I can just walk into a store and buy one, I'm not calling around like a madman just for a video game console :)

[mister_slim]

I wonder if the GC will pull back ahead of the Xbox worldwide by the end of it's lifetime?

[Banacek]

I finally got my Xbox 360 today from Target. Way to go me!