A report from the Yankee Group, a Boston-based research firm, has the PS3 “winning” the console war by 2011 with a total of 30 million units sold, followed by the 360 with 27 million units and the Wii trailing with 11 million units. Boo hoo. Looks like we lost the console war, fellow Infendo readers, I think we should close up the blog and start saving our $800 buy-in for the PS3.
But wait, what’s this? The Yankee Group you say? My my. Here’s the portion of the post where I reveal what I do for a living outside of Infendo. I am an IT journalist. I write about things like computer software and Linux and Windows, and the Yankee Group is a company very well-known in tech circles. Very well known for being a shill for Microsoft. They love sponsored research, which basically means the research was bought and paid for by a vendor like Microsoft to point out all the bad things about the competition, like Linux. My boss, an industry veteran for the better part of the last 20 years, told me on the first day of work three years ago to avoid using quotes from the Yankee Group because some analysts there had an axe to grind.
So, I have some questions for Yankee Group:
- Is this research sponsored by any vendor, including Nintendo, MS, or Sony?
- How were you able to generate numbers on a system, the Wii, that has not had a release date or price confirmed by Nintendo?
- How was the data generated? Was it solely based upon last-gen hardware and software sales?
- The data says fewer consoles will be sold in next-gen because of higher console price — yet Nintendo has confirmed Wii will sell for less than $250, much less than both the basic and premium consoles of Sony and MS. Is there a logic error here?
- The report cites data regarding price cuts from MS, yet neglects to mention that the Wii could sell for $250 or below. How is this not also “pricing pressure” that could cut into these purely hypothetical PS3 sales over the next 5 years?
- The data supports a rise in in-game advertising, yet MS titles such as Fight Night have extensive advertising and still remain at typical $60 Xbox360 price levels. How does this help the end user (gamer)?
- Did ya go to E3 this year? Did ja?
This research reeks, and until the Wii has a confirmed price and all consoles have been at market for one year, you should all ignore these silly page view whore headlines as the unscientific, unproven, kneejerk research that they are. /rant
