December NPD: hardware sales push industry to new heights
by Ludwig Kietzmann 
{ Jan 11th 2007 at 10:24PM }
The latest numbers escaping from poorly guarded NPD holding cells indicate that the gaming industry enjoyed a 27.8% sales increase in the month most closely associated with holidays and reckless spending. Strong hardware sales in December helped push the industry up to an annual $12.5 billion, a sizable increase compared to last year's $10.5 billion.Contrary to the figures cited in a CNBC report earlier this month, the console winner of Christmas 2006 was not the Xbox 360, but the Playstation 2. Unsurprisingly, the Nintendo DS reigned supreme in the portable arena, as well as in overall sales.
NPD console sales for December 2006
- DS: 1.6 million (9.2 million life-to-date)
- PlayStation 2: 1.4 million (37.1 million life-to-date)
- Xbox 360: 1.1 million (4.5 million life-to-date)
- PSP: 953.2k (6.7 million life-to-date)
- Game Boy Advance: 850.7k (35.1 million life-to-date)
- Wii: 604.2k (1.1 million life-to-date)
- PS3: 490.7k (687.3k life-to-date)
Check out the full Gamedaily Biz article for further details, numbers and invaluable fanboy ammunition.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
glitched @ Jan 11th 2007 10:32PM
Now we know how many of those "1 million shipped" Sony claimed were actually sold -
687,700. (30% left on shelvs?)
Even still, the PS3 isn't doing THAT bad, as it seems the PS3 managed
to sell more than both the PS2 (578,799) and 360(607,441) did in their respective first 2
months. However, wasn't able to even come close to the 1 million SOLD
by the Wii!
http://videogamecharts.com/page3.html
Mister Disco @ Jan 11th 2007 10:35PM
The fact that the "waggle free" version of Twilight Princess sold more than the other is not surprising or interesting at all. More people own Gamecubes than Wiis. It's as simple as that.
Brandon Paddock @ Jan 11th 2007 10:35PM
Perhaps the PS2 sold the most - but in the next-gen arena, the 360 outsold the Wii and PS3 combined in December.
Caveman @ Jan 11th 2007 10:39PM
Wow. I knew this industry was the biggest in media, but 12.5 billion? Just the first time I've seen the hard numbers.
As far as Twilight Princess is concerned, I played the Wii version for about an hour or so on a friends console, and while I was really suprised at how Link handled and such, I didn't quite get the satisfying feeling of his sword action by merely waving the remote. I purchased the GC version, and I don't regret it at all, save for the lack of widescreen report.
In retrospect, how much more could the Wii and PS3 have sold if they were able to keep a steady supply? More so with the Wii, as even before Christmas I was able to spot PS3's still resting on their shelves.
komoka @ Jan 11th 2007 10:39PM
360 stil could not be N01 in that chart? and it is still crush by ps2 which is 6 year old? Wonder how xbox fanbois react about this?
Btw,can not wait to see the Japanese sale report so that i can have a good laugh at 360 fanbois again...
icruise @ Jan 11th 2007 10:40PM
As for the PS3 numbers, keep a couple things in mind:
1. NPD only tracks sales for the US, while the 1 million shipped figure was for North America as a whole.
2. NPD doesn't track all retailers. In particular, they don't include Walmart.
I have no idea how many PS3s were sold by Walmart and other retailers that NPD doesn't track, and I also don't know how many PS3s have been shipped to Canada and Mexico, but the point is that there's no way that there are 300,000 unsold PS3 sitting on store shelves.
deagleman @ Jan 11th 2007 10:42PM
Before the flaming starts, keep in mind that these are U.S. numbers. The numbers nindento, microsoft and sony released were mostly global sales. That is all.
oe @ Jan 11th 2007 11:02PM
My sister gave me Gamecube TP for Christmas but I have yet to crack it open. I'm too busy at the moment to commit the hours necessary. It's killing me though. Playing a little Paper Mario when I can, but otherwise a lot of DS... as far as Wii and TP:Wiimote goes, I played it at the Nintendo store, liked the widescreen, controls were okay but I'm just not an early adopter. Metroid, Mario, Smash Bros.-- the Wii exclusives are going to be the games that get me, not a GameCube Zelda.
Ritz @ Jan 11th 2007 10:51PM
Too bad NPD doesn't track the world's largest retail operation.
JJ @ Jan 11th 2007 10:52PM
yeah it goes for all systems really, NPD doesn't account for at least 20-30% of sales from what i heard, so those numbers could be even higher than NPD results, so i wouldnt be surprised if there's a few more thousands or tens of thousands of units in there from the companies NPD doesnt count.
But wow those early estimates of 2mil for 360 and Wii were way off huh?
VampireHunter Z @ Jan 11th 2007 10:58PM
@4
Here are the Japanese numbers for the last week of 2006.
DSL 176,219
Wii 96,332
PS3 71,727
PSP 68,675
PS2 38,169
Xbox360 16,909
GBM 2,082
GBASP 1,743
GC 847
DS 102
GBA 51
Xbox 4
Not much to laugh about. The 360 has been selling 10x per week more than what it has been doing all year.
Duscrom @ Jan 11th 2007 11:03PM
How do Xbox Fanboys explain why the PS2 still sells so well?
$129.99
Hundreds of games at $19.99 or less.
New console color released
Guitar Hero 2
I don't know why everyone is expecting the PS2 to just drop off the face of the earth...
BPM? @ Jan 11th 2007 11:01PM
It's really interesting how different a picture is painted by NPD (US only? Or all of North America?) and Media Create (Japan).
NINTENDO:
GameCube seems to be pretty much dead in both regions.
GBA is alive and well in North America, but on life support in Japan.
DS is best selling in both regions, but the margin between 1st and 2nd isn't as wide in North America.
Wii seems to mostly sell out completely in both regions.
SONY:
PS2, still doing well after 6 years. Not a surprise. High install base = developers flock to it = more games = more buyers. It's cyclical how these things work.
PSP, doing better in America than Japan, it seems.
PS3... could be doing better, for being such a new system.
MICROSOFT:
360 going strong in NA, and still weak in Japan (maybe an RPG flood could help that... And some anime games... And some dating sims...). It's no surprise PS2 is selling better, despite its age: it's cheaper (excluding tax, there's a $270 difference!) and has a MUCH wider library of games, plenty of good ones at that. But, as it stands, 360 is currently winning the current-gen war (PS2 = last gen). But, I wonder what'll happen once PS3 interest picks up (needs more games) and Wii is more widely available (needs more systems).
Where are the Japanese charts? And how come we don't see European, or at least for the UK, charts? Or maybe even Australian charts?
JJ @ Jan 11th 2007 11:02PM
But even so Vampire... those aren't exactly "good" numbers even the "failed" psp is selling more than the 360.
But then those are better than the numbers it WAS selling, but dang if the 360 doesn't need another booster shot or somehting over there
komoka @ Jan 11th 2007 11:08PM
oh, that the big laugh, because with the help of blue dragon...it is still can not compair to PS serise, Nintendo DS,wii... That is shame...that make big laugh....
Frankie @ Jan 11th 2007 11:08PM
@6
I think you overestimate the North American market outside of the USA too much. Canada only has about 10% of the population of the USA, and Mexico is virtually non-existant because most units probably count towards the USA market. Even though it has a much bigger population than Canada, only a very small number can really afford it, especially with import taxes and exchange rate that inflate the already steep PS3 price tag by at least 15%.
And do you really think Walmart sells more PS3 than Wiis? Especially since both systems are sold in bundles ($500 for the wii vs $1000 for the PS3).
VampireHunter Z @ Jan 11th 2007 11:09PM
JJ, I don't think anyone is expecting miracles in Japan, especially MSFT. They just need to get to the 1 million install base there as soon as possible.
twism10000 @ Jan 11th 2007 11:11PM
@ komoka
PS2 outsold the 360 by 300 thousand.
PS2 outsold the PS3 by almost 1 million.
I would say that the PS2 crushed the PS3 in sales.
Tyler @ Jan 11th 2007 11:14PM
@16 I don't think he's trying to say PS3 outsold Wii, merely trying to explain the overall numbers
Hannibal @ Jan 11th 2007 11:15PM
I'm surprised at all the people saying this is bad news for Microsoft. They're the only company that has met their target (10 m shipped in 2006, 1 m sold in December).
Aran @ Jan 11th 2007 11:20PM
OMFG these latest Japanese software sales! :O
(First week of January)
1. (NDS, Square-Enix) Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker - 266,827 / 860,820
2. (Wii, Nintendo) Wii Sports - 166,011 / 732,719
3. (Wii, Nintendo) Wii Play - 141,702 / 664,512
4. (NDS, Nintendo) New Super Mario Bros. - 128,211 / 3,986,506
5. (NDS, Nintendo) General Knowledge Training - 109,752 / 1,063,093
6. (NDS, Nintendo) Brain Age 2 - 99,320 / 3,805,787
7. (NDS, Nintendo) Animal Crossing - 94,917 / 3,843,832
8. (NDS, Pokemon) Pokemon Diamond - 94,370 / 2,479,819
9. (NDS, Nintendo) Kirby Squeek Squad - 93,522 / 836,588
10. (NDS, Pokemon) Pokemon Pearl - 78,398 / 2,054,443
11/ Mario Kart DS (NDS, Nintendo)
12/ Jump Ultimate Stars (NDS, Nintendo)
13/ DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (Wii, Bandai)
14/ Wario Ware Smooth Moves (Wii, Nintendo)
15/ Brain Training (NDS, Nintendo)
16/ Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops (PSP, Konami)
17/ Zelda Twilight Princess (Wii, Nintendo)
18/ Oshare Majô Love & Berry (NDS, Nintendo)
19/ Yakuza 2 (PS2, Sega)
20/ Kanji Test (NDS, Rocket Co.)
21/ Tamagotchi 2 (NDS, Bandai)
22/ DS Menu Collection (NDS, Nintendo)
23/ English Training (NDS, Nintendo)
24/ Pokémon Battle Revolution (Wii, Nintendo)
25/ Tales of the World (PSP, Namco)
26/ Seiken Densetsu 4 (PS2, Square-Enix)
27/ Yakuza - The Best (PS2, Sega)
28/ Momotarô Dentetsu (PS2, Hudson)
29/ Magic Taizen (NDS, Nintendo)
30/ Tetris DS (NDS, Nintendo)
TOP 15 ALL NINTENDO! :O
http://eg.nttpub.co.jp/ranking.html
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5307746&postcount=1
komoka @ Jan 11th 2007 11:26PM
Where are all 360 titles? i can not find Lost Planet Extreme Condition or Ble dragon that many 360 fanbois are talking about, show me.....!!!!!
LoveHertz @ Jan 11th 2007 11:34PM
Why do people tout sales figures to say one thing or the other is "better"? Pyschonauts sold pretty poorly, but was still very good and innovative.
Jeff @ Jan 11th 2007 11:39PM
"I'm surprised at all the people saying this is bad news for Microsoft. They're the only company that has met their target (10 m shipped in 2006, 1 m sold in December)."
I thought the "shipped" spin was supposed to be limited to Sony's PR department? No?
MS probably did ship that many systems. But they've actually sold 4.5 million units in the US to date - slightly more than the Dreamcast had at this point in its lifespan. In Europe, they've sold a bit less than that (I'm thinking around 3 million? Anyone have the actual #'s?). They haven't broken 300,000 in Japan.
Sony bested both MS's launch numbers in both the US *and* Japan, and by pretty significant margins. Nintendo, of course, blew them away.
Sony has already *sold* 1/10 of the number of systems MS has *shipped* worldwide - in a little more than one month. They've sold around 1/8 of the number of systems MS has actually sold. And it's not just the launch, because they outdid MS's launch too. Of course, Christmas doesn't come every month, so it's not like anyone's going to be selling 1 million systems in April... but you can expect a real race from here on out.
On top of that, the PS2 juggernaut continues unabated. It can't be good for MS's ego that a six year old piece of hardware continues to outsell the Xbox 360, even if it is only in one territory. (Especially considering it's MS's home turf!)
So, yeah, it *is* bad news for MS. Sony did better than most had expected or predicted on a global basis, MS has barely even made their shipped goals, and have fallen short of their sales goals (if for no other reason than Japan). And both Nintendo *and* Sony are already well on their way to catching and surpassing the Xbox 360's installed base. I mean, the Wii is 1/4 of the way there already, the PS3 1/8... and both have been on the market for about seven weeks.
Sid Icarus @ Jan 11th 2007 11:41PM
komoka....
Give it up fangirl, Sony is going down in flames.
The PoS2 is like the Justin Timberlake of game consoles;
Really, really popular despite the fact it blows
Nick @ Jan 11th 2007 11:45PM
Every PS2 sold is a PS3 left on the shelf.
Steve @ Jan 11th 2007 11:52PM
Jeff, I like how you ignore the fact that MS launched with fewer units available than either the PS3 or Wii and remained unattainable until March 06. People like to bring up how Wii would sell more if it had more supply, well, that applies to the X360 launch as well. The PS3, well, not so much.
Rubang B @ Jan 11th 2007 11:52PM
Ya know, the greatest film of all time didn't make any money when it was first released, and it wasn't decades until everybody decided it was the greatest film of all time. So yes, sales numbers don't equal product quality.
But then again, Orson Welles wasn't starving for 3rd-party support of his new system, so I guess this analogy doesn't work.
v1cios @ Jan 11th 2007 11:53PM
and just when i was about to commend people for remaining civil in this thread. thanks Sid and Nick
Toki9 @ Jan 11th 2007 11:56PM
PS2 sales number isn't necessarily a good news for PS3 since it's fairly probable that that's another PS3 potential buyer who'll wait 3 to 5 years before moving on to the next generation--but it's definitely a good news for Sony corporate since each PS2 hardware sale makes a nice profit at this point.
grimmps3 @ Jan 12th 2007 12:04AM
360 was being sold out as soon as they hit the shelves when it launched plus it was worldwide remember that; speaking about 360s launch; NPD senior marketing manager David Riley said the only thing holding back the 360 and PS3 was production capacity. The 360 was selling like hotcakes even after the holiday season.
"Sony announced that it had managed to ship one million of the highly coveted consoles to North American retailers in 2006. This met the company's projections for 2006. Sold' to Sony has always meant what the consumer has actually purchased."Karakker also clarifies Sony's stance on "shipped" numbers versus "sold" numbers.Sony lies a lot, emmy award, numbers they lie a lot, did you hear them trying to rebut NPDs numbers.
MS in the US Xbox 360 (1.1 million units sold), in canada 280,000 units plus, so who was on the money about estimates.
All these fanboys seeing how bad the PS3 is doing have all of a sudden oh oh look look the PS2 is beating the 360 oh oh... well welcome to nextgen
grimmps3 @ Jan 12th 2007 12:13AM
OH wait the Ps3 fanboys and the sony reps "oh oh wait they don't count walmart" I guess 360s and wii will be included there to HUH... "OH OH wait" they didn't include canada and mexico" I guess 360s and wii will be included there to... 'YOU know NPD sucks they don't know what they talking about but all you fanboys do...
jeffsucks @ Jan 12th 2007 12:14AM
Jeff I know you are the leader of the sdf, but would you just give it a rest. Sony said they SOLD over a million ps3's in NA, and NPD shows how much they sold to consumers. I know you are a sony employee butt a $600.00 console is bad for the business. If it was a success what is to stop them from making a $1000.00 ps4.
Evan @ Jan 12th 2007 12:23AM
There is no way that Sony sold 1 million if NPD reports only 687.3k life-to-date PS3s sold in the U.S. NPD estimates sales data for the stores that they don't collect hard numbers from. And Canada only adds another 10%.
grimmps3 @ Jan 12th 2007 12:29AM
What was the reason MS didn't have as many in the US as the wii and PS3 had at launch, "wait for it" "wait for it" because they did a worldwide launch. The only company to pull it off. So stop talking about how the PS3 US launch was better than 360s, there were no 360s sitting on shelves I can tell you that much.
"ahh hello is this bestbuy? do you have any PS3s? yes we have a quite few actually." do you think you will be sold out in next 5 days I doubt it...
grunken @ Jan 12th 2007 12:43AM
Honestly, do you guys work for either Sony or Microsoft ? Or maybe people have invested stock in said companies? Otherwise ... who cares!
Just go play your corresponding system, and stop defending this shallow affiliation you have towards a piece of material consumer technology.
samik @ Jan 12th 2007 1:17AM
The PS3 launch is close to the 360 sales (over 1mn sold despite no Europe, 1.5mn for 360 worldwide) - and despite PS2 cutting its sales. Next xmas - Sony pulls the plug on PS2, 100USD price cut on PS3 - thats the end of 360. Couple of facts that 360 fans gloss over - with the cost of 4 years of Live added, the core system costs 499, same as PS3 but no hard drive, HD player, wireless. And if you dont have Live, you need great single player games and PS games are simply better - Case in point - the much longer, plot driven Resistance single player campaign . More than that the massive PS1 / PS2 library blows the 360 out of the water. Either way 360 loses out as all 360 does well is multiplayer shooters (Halo2, Gears) which end up on PC anyway!
grimmps3 @ Jan 12th 2007 12:51AM
by the way guys HD-dvd just won the format war; from tomshardware.com
CES 2007: HD DVD versus Blu-ray - The porn industry says HD DVD
Aaron McKenna
January 11, 2007 12:39
Las Vegas (NV) - Knowing their audience quite well, the adult entertainment industry holds their annual get together in Las Vegas to coincide with the CES. There is also a very pertinent crossover between the adult and tech industries - porn has a tendency to drive, and be driven, by technology. Which means HD DVD when it comes to high-def.
KawF @ Jan 12th 2007 12:55AM
@Evan#34
Where do you get the "And Canada only adds another 10%" number from? Source please.
Earl @ Jan 12th 2007 12:59AM
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
HahahahahahahahahahahahahaPS3hahahahahahahahahahaha
HahahahahahahahahahaSuckshahahahahahahahahahaha
HahahahahahahahahahahahahaNow!!hahahahahahahahaha
Al @ Jan 12th 2007 1:33AM
Canada only has about a tenth of the population of the United States so a conservative estimate would be around a tenth of the amount of units gets shipped to us.
Rubang B @ Jan 12th 2007 1:48AM
@40 Why in the hell would Sony pull the plug on the PS2? It (unlike the PS3) makes them money, and by the dickload. The amazing PS2 sales right now are paying for the losses caused by the PS3.
grimmps3 @ Jan 12th 2007 1:50AM
samik.. so there are no good single player games for 360 ( Fable 2, Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom,Elveon, Too Human, mass effect, Blue Dragon, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent, Alan Wake, Assassin's Creed, Bullet Witch, Condemned: Criminal Origins, Eternal Sonata, Forza Motorsport 2, John Woo Presents Stranglehold, Kameo: Elements of Power, Lost Odyssey. Do you want more, live simply give the games extra life and more fun... Welcome to nexgen, that's what we're talking about
Sly @ Jan 12th 2007 1:50AM
There were a lot of returns on the PS3. Was there any adjustment for that. I got a friend who doesn't help matters out. He buys everything many times over. He buys something, plays it, sells it or returns it and buys again repeating process all over again with everything new or old. Nothing wrong with any of them. Yes, he pads these numbers. He's an addicted compulsive buyer. And its not curiosity. He's had at least 8 PS2, 6 Xbox, Gamecube, 2 Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3. Only has the PS2 silver and Xbox 360 bought recently. Along with 5 different TVs in a 2 month period, 6 different sets of $700 golf clubs plus $300 a wood various combinations, and a new vehicle every other year on a income of $32,000 a year, this guy basically pathetic. I'm sure everybody knows of someone who has the same problem. They need help!
Sonic_Extreme @ Jan 12th 2007 2:02AM
XBOX 360 sales are pretty much equal in the first year to XBOX 1. 4.6 to 4.5. 360 starting not as good as 1 but beaten it every month after January. To eventually making it almost equal. At 400$ with 60$ games in todays economy and two new next gen markets in the last months they pulled even after the bad start. Not bad. Now the WII, in the first two months compared to the Gamecude is doing the same. Selling almost 1.2 mil. Not bad to start another next gen. But back then the gamecube then fell completely down to only manage to sell in the first year 3.5 mil. 1 mil lower than xbox 1. Now lets see if the WII can keep higher numbers than the gamecube and hopefully passes it and gains higher than 3.5mil by dec 07. Only time will tell but I think they can do it easily. Now the PS3 sold in the first two months 690k. The PS2 sold in the first two months of 00 1.46mil. Thats a big difference. And yes back then you couldn't get a PS2 in Jan. Now the PS3 you can. Now the ps2 sold in the first year sold 9.87. The big ? is now, can the PS3 sell from now till Dec 07 9.1 mil?? to match its first year sales? I don't think it can. At 600$ I think it will do around 150k a month for the first 10 months putting it at another 1.5mill by October 07 total of 2.2 mil.? + Nov and Dec 07 still left. And with 1.3 mil total so far (japan and US)they expect to sell 6mil by March 31 07? They are in for a hard first year. Can developers keep on waiting?? UMMMM is VF5 to 360 a clue? Is Konami rumor canceling 4 more PS3 titles another clue.? http://www.joystiq.com/2007/01/11/rumor-konami-cancels-ps3-gradius-several-others/ Only time will tell. This is not a flame but just the truth. My opinion that is all.
For x360 and gamecube first two months #'s
http://forum.pcvsconsole.com/viewthread.php?tid=11067
For PS2 first two months numbers.
http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdataps2_e.html
samik @ Jan 12th 2007 2:02AM
Well remove the non-exclusives (which means shared with otehr consoles or PC - you could have added GTA4 otherwise), the absurd (Kameo?) and copies of PS classics (Forza, the three FF clones) you are left with Too Human, mass effect and Lost Planet - Thats with a year head start, while the exclusives on the PS3 are - Motorstorm, Heavenly sword, Warhawk, MGS4, FF13, Tekken 6, Resistance, Mercenaries 2, The Getaway, Killzone, Lair. So in One year, the PS3 would have caught up with 360 in terms of exclusives - and thats before you add the PS1 / PS2 library. I can count 20 great PS-exclusive titles - versus not a single one for the 360 - thats the problem you have when you rely on multiplayer and graphics - who will play Halo2 when halo 3 comes out? but MGS3 and RE4 will remain classics
grimmps3 @ Jan 12th 2007 2:30AM
Mercenaries 2; not, VF5 and DOA4 we have don't need tekken, Who will play Halo 3? are you new to gaming kid?
Ninja Gaiden (the new one not the rehash you're getting), Mass effect, Halo 3, Too Human, Bioshock, GOW, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007, the next splinter cell, Viva Pinata, Dead Rising, Lost Planet, PGR4, Forza 2, Blue Dragon(orig title, not some rehash sequel), Lost Odyssey (original title, not some rehashed sequel), Fable 2, Halo wars, Banjo 3, Marvel Universe Online, crackdown, shadowrun, Alan wake,Eternal Sonata , Windows is microsofts platform also they make money from people there to so of course they are going put some games on it...
dsub @ Jan 12th 2007 3:14AM
komoka-
The PS2 outsells the PS3, Wii, and 360...WORLDWIDE. Want to know why? It's $129. It doesn't take rocket science to figure that shit out. Dumbass.
dsub @ Jan 12th 2007 3:23AM
samik- you forgot one VERY important game. Gears of War.
Warhawk? Killzone?
these are hardly proven exclusives and ARE NOT system selling games. Neither are unproven franchises like Too Human for that matter.
The point is, when you look back on the previous generation, what were the 5 biggest system-selling exclusive franchises?
1. Grand Theft Auto
2. Final Fantasy
3. Halo
4. Resident Evil
5. Metal Gear Solid
Sony has already lost Resident Evil, and Grand Theft Auto, and are losing other games like VF5 as well. Meanwhile, MS has created a whole new sytem-selling franchise in Gears of War and Blue Dragon, and they are also rounding up some other great exclusive titles like Bioshock.
Then there's the greatest exclusive of them all-
Ninja Gaiden 2. The reason why I bought a 360, and once Playstation fans get their hands on the absolute awesomeness that is Ninja Gaiden this spring...don't be surprised when many many more gamers get hooked and buy 360's just for that game alone. Ninja Gaiden was, in my opinion, the greatest game of the previous generation, and maybe even of the greatest game of all time. Play it...you will see...
dsub @ Jan 12th 2007 3:30AM
samik-
I'd also like to add that your BS tactic of "adding on the cost of XBOX Live" has been done time and time again. At least MS gives you HD cables for the machine that they DID NOT tout as the end all be all of HD gaming. The point is, the cost of entry, to play an XBOX 360 game, is $299. XBOX Live! is optional, but not required by any means. Sure, the PS3 may sound like this great value on paper, but you and every other Sony fan for that matter has somehow forgotten that we buy these systems to play games. The price difference between being able to PLAY GAMES on an XBOX 360 and a PS3 is $200. No matter which way you spin it, that's just how it is.
The PS3 is expensive. Get over it. Stop trying to justify it's cost.