N’gai Croal on Michael Pachter: Xbox and PS3 sales

N'gaiPachter’s a pretty stand-up guy. He’s the type who knows that he’s in a position where he can say things and people will listen to him – and boy does he say things. Pachter’s got cred – analyst, money-wise, business-y cred. N’gai Croal on the other hand, has a nice mix of journalistic and gamer credibility. So when the two meet, you just know that something blog-worthy is bound to come up.

The N’gai – Pachter interview covers everything from N64 and the DS all the way to the PS3 and the Xbox 360. It’s a bit long so we’ll show some of the more amusing from the interview. Let’s start with something about the PS3:

Because of the phenomenal success of PlayStation and PlayStation 2, it’s safe to assume that Playstation 3 has started at a higher point on the demand curve than Xbox 360. But it’s also started at a lower point on the supply curve than the 360, and it’s $200 more expensive than its main rival. Are you predicting the PS3’s sales growth to be faster, slower or identical to the Xbox 360’s?
I think PS3 sales will be similar to the 360 (around 200,000 a month in summer), primarily due to the price point and light lineup. Also, the PS3 has two other competing consoles, so it is unlikely that it will be far ahead.

And here’s a little something about Pachter’s high (a bit too high) expectations for the 360:

You recently told Gamasutra, “I’m pretty disappointed in the Xbox 360. I think Microsoft is doing everything right: Games are good; Xbox Live is amazing, and the console is not prohibitively expensive. Yet people are just not buying. The console is lagging behind my initial expectations by at least 200,000 units per month in the U.S., and I don’t know why.” Why did you have such high expectations for the consumer demand for the Xbox 360?
I thought that there were enough hard-core gamers indifferent to pricing to support much higher 360 sales at holiday. I truly thought “Gears of War” would be a driver, thought high-definition monitor sales would be a driver, and thought light PlayStation 3 supply (and high price) would work in the 360’s favor.

For the rest of the interview, you can use the URL in our read-link below.

N'gaiPachter’s a pretty stand-up guy. He’s the type who knows that he’s in a position where he can say things and people will listen to him – and boy does he say things. Pachter’s got cred – analyst, money-wise, business-y cred. N’gai Croal on the other hand, has a nice mix of journalistic and gamer credibility. So when the two meet, you just know that something blog-worthy is bound to come up.

The N’gai – Pachter interview covers everything from N64 and the DS all the way to the PS3 and the Xbox 360. It’s a bit long so we’ll show some of the more amusing from the interview. Let’s start with something about the PS3:

Because of the phenomenal success of PlayStation and PlayStation 2, it’s safe to assume that Playstation 3 has started at a higher point on the demand curve than Xbox 360. But it’s also started at a lower point on the supply curve than the 360, and it’s $200 more expensive than its main rival. Are you predicting the PS3’s sales growth to be faster, slower or identical to the Xbox 360’s?
I think PS3 sales will be similar to the 360 (around 200,000 a month in summer), primarily due to the price point and light lineup. Also, the PS3 has two other competing consoles, so it is unlikely that it will be far ahead.

And here’s a little something about Pachter’s high (a bit too high) expectations for the 360:

You recently told Gamasutra, “I’m pretty disappointed in the Xbox 360. I think Microsoft is doing everything right: Games are good; Xbox Live is amazing, and the console is not prohibitively expensive. Yet people are just not buying. The console is lagging behind my initial expectations by at least 200,000 units per month in the U.S., and I don’t know why.” Why did you have such high expectations for the consumer demand for the Xbox 360?
I thought that there were enough hard-core gamers indifferent to pricing to support much higher 360 sales at holiday. I truly thought “Gears of War” would be a driver, thought high-definition monitor sales would be a driver, and thought light PlayStation 3 supply (and high price) would work in the 360’s favor.

For the rest of the interview, you can use the URL in our read-link below.

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