Now I’d wager that the average Xbox 360 owner actually spends more on gaming than the average PS3 owner. The console is really just a Trojan horse, afterwards, gamers have to buy games, accessories, and Xbox Live is not free so they would have to pay a yearly subscription to that as well. Then once they’re on Live, they have to purchase arcade games, game add-ons, movies, music … the spending does not stop at the console. The PSN is free, so it partially makes up for the high cost of the console. But the PSN is less of a success than Live, and so there is less money being spent there – Microsoft is very keen to make this point.

From an economic point of view, every PS3 sold loses money for Sony, and this is one the primary reasons why they are not keen on cutting prices. Every PS3 sold hurts Sony in the short term, especially for those that are using it to play Blu-ray versus actually buying games (yes, Sony gets Blu-ray licensing fees and of course they have their own studios, but it’s still games that make the most money). Game hardware usually don’t make a lot of money, it’s the games that make money, and the Xbox 360 dominates software sales in the US.

I’m not sure about the cost of the Xbox 360, but given that’s it’s been out for so long and the lack of a costlier Blu-ray drive, Microsoft probably makes some money off each Xbox 360, or at least loses less. And since this analysis is US based looking at US figures, then obviously buying from a US company will be more beneficial for the US economy, as opposed to buying a console from a Japanese firm (although all of them make their consoles in China). Nobody makes as much money as Nintendo though, since they’ve been able to profit from every Wii console sold since release (thanks to its inferior hardware).

Note that there is a rumour that Microsoft is going to cancel the Arcade bundle, replace it with the Pro and and the Elite the new Pro (with the Natal pack being the new Elite). It is unclear, if this rumour is true, what the price points would be. But it’s a well known fact that the HDD add-ons for the Xbox 360 are way overpriced, and so I wouldn’t be surprised if the “new” bundles replace the old ones at the same price point (so the current Pro will sell at Arcade prices, Elite at Pro prices, and so on).

Isn’t 164,700 people spending $399 in this economy somehow better than 240,600 people opting for a cheap $199 box that does not even have a hard drive?