Sick of sales figues yet? These are from CSFB--Xbox closing fast! (1 Viewer)

[Dave Falasco]

Hey, all. Yes, another thread about sales figures, but these are from the CSFB, which hopefully means a little less "spin". Here's the article:

Mugwum [19-Dec-2001]
The CSFB has finally produced independent sales estimates, which give a good picture of the console industry in the United States since the launch of Microsoft’s Xbox and Nintendo’s GameCube.
According to the report, Sony leads console sales by a hair’s breadth, having sold 962,000 PlayStation 2 consoles between November 11 and December 8. Meanwhile, Microsoft have sold 934,000 Xbox consoles since November 15th, and GameCube may only have sold 602,000 since its launch date the 18th.
In a separate release, Sony claims to have sold a staggering 1.5 million PlayStation 2 units since Thanksgiving week, giving them a total of 6.5 million since the launch of the console in October 2000. Nintendo on the other hand claimed sales of over 800,000 units, and said it would “ship 1.3 million units by Christmas,” as it continues to restock retailers at the rate of 100,000 units a week.
Microsoft took over where the others left off, with spokesman David Hufford’s rather embarrassing “Xbox has caught fire since launch,” leading to all sorts of amusing quips about campfires in the new housing extension and covering of ventilation holes. Microsoft has invested $500 million in advertising the Xbox. Presumably they have no money left to vet their press comments for this sort of thing.

And here's the
link

 

[RANDY FISHER]

"Sony leads console sales by a hair’s breadth, having sold 962,000 PlayStation 2 consoles between November 11 and December 8"...
Hmmmm...not bad for a year old console during a time frame considered to be a prime launch of (2) new competing systems.
It's a great time to be a gamer..no
Randy

 

[Jeff Chiusano]

Hmmmm...not bad for a year old console during a time frame considered to be a prime launch of (2) new competing systems.

Considering the way SONY stepped in and took over the console market, I am not too surprised by this. They have done a great job establishing themselves as the console to beat. Although , I think everyone can agree that is largely due to SONY's extensive library which is undoubtedly the best of the 3 at this point. I think a year from now will be the real test, when all 3 players have had a chance to stock their libraries.

Jeff

 

[Todd H]

The CSFB numbers don't include figures from Wal-Mart. And from what I understand Nintendo is shipping a LOT of consoles there. So my guess would be that the numbers are probably a lot closer than that report claims. Which means basically we have three successful consoles being sold in the U.S. at the moment. It's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out within the next year.

 

[Kelly Scott Rickards]

Are you trying to suggest WM sold 400k GCs and no XBOXs or PS2s???

Wall Mart sells XBOXs and PS2s as well as GCs...

They probably have a similar sales ratio as seen above...

 

[Jeff Chiusano]

Are you trying to suggest WM sold 400k GCs and no XBOXs or PS2s???

Wall Mart sells XBOXs and PS2s as well as GCs...

They probably have a similar sales ratio as seen above...

I have to agree with this. Without sales figures to show what Wal-Mart is doing, I don't think we can get a good bead on how their sales impact the overall numbers one way or the other. In fact, when I previously sold pharmaceuticals and was paid commission based on prescriptions filled in my territory, Wal-Mart figures were guesstimated based on the avg for all stores in the area it was located in.

I also question the level of impact of Wal-Mart's sales on the console market. For both the PS2 and XBOX launches, it seemed pretty apparent that the quantities Wal-Mart stores received were much less then say, a Best Buy. This is just my opinion based on limited observation, but if it held true then the Wal-Mart sales, while important as a whole, may represent a much smaller percentage of the overall console sales sold than someplace like a Best Buy.

Jeff