Ok, yeah, I get what you are saying about Crackdown/Titanfall. They aren't 'saviours', though to be fair, I wasn't trying to say they were. My point is that Xbox has a lot more exclusive games and content in the first-person-shooter space, and that is going to help drive sells in the long run, little by little. No one title will be the savior, but I think it will build up to make up a software library that is more appealing to US gamers.
I count 2.
Playstation on the other hand does not have ANY big household shooters like halo and gears. They have tried with games like killzone and Resistance, but I think it should be obvious by now that those games never were meant to be big players (even if some of them are fairly good games in their own right).
The last Killzone sold 2M copies, but overall, I'd agree. I'd also say that by the same token, MS has nothing that stands up to God of War or Gran Turismo. If you say Forza, go have a look at the sales numbers before you do.
Now, I don't know what you mean by 'sales curve', but I think I know what you are going to say about why the PS3 came back.
Yes, I will admit that Europe and Japan had a big part in it, BUT, a big reason why it sold so well in those regions is due to the fact that a lot of their exclusive software & library appeals very well with those audiences.
Actually, a lot of it was price and brand--the PS3 has outsold the 360 ww every year on the market. A year to itself helped quite a bit, as did the superiority of Live, 3rd party games being better, etc...none of this is in their favor this time. No one was running to get Heavy Rain if that price wasn't right. Quite the opposite.
Also, I think that a big reason as to why it didn't ever quite come back in the US is due to the fact that it always had a higher price tag.
I think that the price has a huge effect on US sales, and while it doesn't always equal success, I would argue that when we Americans see two similar products, we usually go for the cheapest one, UNLESS there is some specific reason as to why we want the more expensive one...
I agree. Price is a big factor, but so is perception. That's actually a large part of the Xbox's issue now for most--there's always going to be a segment that will not forgive/forget their original plan, will not buy inferior hardware for 90% of the shared games, and have no interest in it as anything else other than a games machine; but they have a perception problem with the greater market which they need to solve.
Having said that, I think that Microsoft has woken up to the fact that they need to be cheaper to the PS4 to do well here in the US. And I think that the November results will show a clear difference.
I can't/won't say they will win for sure, but I can say that they will do a lot better than they have in the past two months where they got outsold 2-1.
Define clear. If you basically have to reduce the price by 100-150 to get slightly better sales for a month in one region, then you are in the very definition of deep shit.
I'm not sure who wins November, but it's not going to erase any deficit completely, nor make an impact ww. If you get outsold 2:1 in your strongest region and have to fight tooth and nail for the last 2 months, then you'll never catch up, let alone pass.
Amazon probably ain't that great of a indication for software but I'm still surprised CODAW is below AssCreed currently for November. Has the brand collapsed that badly?
I doubt it. I'm fairly curious to see how much digital they sold this year, but by BF and end of the month, I expect to see the brand as still healthy. AW is quite good.
And personal anecdote, I accidentally hit start for GTAV instead of DA:I, about a quarter of my friends are playing it. I quit because I know when I start playing it, every other game fades for a while.