Online searches for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console have outnumbered those for Nintendo Wii, a recent Hitwise report indicates.
Possible reasons for this overturn are the extensive, three-year warranty period issued for the gaming rig, the amounting reports about “red-ring-of-death” problems, Microsoft’s admittance that virtually every Xbox 360 suffers from defective design or the impressive line-up of games presented at this year’s E3 (including, of course, Halo 3).
Bill Tancer, the General Manager of Hitwise's Global Research division, has provided gaming-oriented sites with statistics that revealed the Xbox 360 is the most searched of the three new systems.
“The Xbox 360 has overtaken the Nintendo Wii as the most searched for gaming console based on share of US Internet searches for the first time since the Wii’s launch in November 2006. The Xbox 360 is #1 console based on sales volume but the Wii has enjoyed the fastest growth in market share.”
Tancer believes the “red-ring-of-death” problems are not the culprit for X60’s sudden rise in popularity on the Web, and he provides further details to support his allegations.
“Searches for ‘xbox 360 problems’ and ‘xbox 360 repair’ figure at #13 and #15 on the list. I found the term ‘xbox 360 price drop’ (#6 on Tancer’s list) particularly interesting. Since Sony announced a drop in price for one of the PS3 models two weeks ago, rumours have spread about a possible price drop for the Xbox 360, with the latest rumours predicting a price drop in August.
Demand is high for a price drop - in the past four weeks, the top search term with the words “price drop” was ‘xbox 360 price drop’. There were 70% more US searches for ‘xbox 360 price drop’ than for ‘ps3 price drop’. “
Rumor has it that the Redmond behemoth is weighing a possible price drop for its next-gen gaming rig, which should be around $50. However, a recent Joystiq posting suggests that despite Microsoft’s declaration ("No. Xbox 360 Core remains an important member of the Xbox 360 family,"), Best Buy is considering the suppression from its sales chain of the Core system, which apparently is not doing very well.
However, Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Redmond, claims that the company’s confidence in the console’s well being on the market has never been at higher levels.
During a meeting with investors from last week, Bach had this to say: "...certainly if you think about the year and the warranty issues, you have to say, Gosh, that was a tough year and something you're going to have to move beyond. But even in this case I want to make sure people understand some fundamentals of where that business is, since the fundamentals are very strong.
"Our attach rate is an all-time record at this stage in a life cycle. We are at 6.1 games per console in the U.S., and almost four accessories per console in the U.S. Those are amazing record-setting numbers.”
"If you think about consumer spending on the platform, compare since the launch of the Wii and the PlayStation 3 to date, so a little over, what, seven or eight months, people have spent $2.6 billion in the U.S. on Xbox 360 all up during that period.”
"That's almost double what they spent on either the Wii or PlayStation 3. There's a lot of traction with consumers around this product. We've launched in 11 more countries. We're now in 37 countries worldwide. We're in a very good position on the fundamentals of that business."
