Well, your phrasing is a bit different there, chief.

Did a majority of Halo 3 buyers already have the system? Clearly. Did Halo 3 push 360 sales? Yes, it approximately doubled the 360's monthly average. So, like, we're both right!

I really expected more 360 hardware to be sold. I knew at least a couple people waiting for Halo to drop before picking up a console, though none of them actually did, sadly.

True, but at the same time, Halo's a game with long legs, not just first-month sales. I expect it will be a healthy boost for 360 sales throughout the holiday sales season.

The overwhelming positve reviews of Halo 3 should benefit 360 sales this holiday season. Seriously, what game will be putting kids in a postion to beg their parents for a PS3 this year? The trick is, how many parents, and PS2 (and to a much lesser degree, Xbox owners) owners decided to wait and see on the 360 vs. PS3?

What happens to the PS3 if it is destroyed in sales thoughout the entire holiday season? Is there any hope for developers still making commitments tp the PS3?

I used to miss the PS3 haterade thread. But I have now realized we get a new one every month!

Sure, but Halo didn't drop until the 25th of September.

So instead the kids will be begging their parents to buy them an Xbox 360 so they can play Halo?

Halo 3 is rated M.

I seriously hope any parent buying this for a child would think twice about it.

Eh, Halo doesn't do very much to earn its rating. Outside of the occasional space marine cursing, it's a fairly fantastical kind of violence. When I played through the first game with my seven year old cousin I explained, "It's okay to curse when you're being shot at. We can't right now because we're not actually being shot at, we're just playing a video game." The only thing that distressed him was where everyone was going to live once we blew the Halo up, which in retrospect is pretty empathetic for a seven year old.

I hope that the kids don't get Live accounts. I wouldn't want a kid mixed up in all the unfiltered bigotry.

I'm not saying every kid should get Halo, but I'd say any teenager is fare game. The point is, kids will want to 360 for Halo 3, even if they tell their folks how much they want to play Viva Pinata. Discussion of whether kids should play Halo 3 is not really relevant. It may be worthy topic in another thread, though.

But you failed to answer the question you included in my quote. What game will drive kids to want a PS3 this holiday season?

I don't think the PS3 is doomed yet especially since the big games haven't been released yet, if they don't do really anything this christmas season it is a bad thing but it's not the end of the world for the PS3, now by the end of 08 if the PS3 isn't selling than the PS3 is doomed but not end of this year.

now I also don't think if the 360 sales don't stay around where they are than that's a bad thing for the 360 in general, even though it's a great system when the biggest game on the system comes out and the sales of the 360 don't stay up there than that's really telling.

I found the following statement very telling when it comes to the current state of the PS3.

Halo 3 sold more copies than all games made for the competing PlayStation 3 console for the months of May, June, July, August and September combined.

Source

Wow the 360 outsold the Wii. I know in Japan a few weeks or months back the PSP outsold the DS during the period that Monster Hunters was released. I think it's the same thing here. I mean this is probably the biggest title that will ever be released on the 360 and yet it barely pushed the 360 ahead of the Wii. Also MS spent a ton of money on marketing H3. So given that and the Wii is still hard to find I'd have to say it's a 1-time lead for the 360 in the ongoing console wars.

Jason Jones to world: Woo.

Gotcha. Apparently I was misinformed.

This October, November, and December are going to be critical months for the PS3, I think. Brand loyalty, a more reasonable price, and a much better library should help. But if Sony can't accelerate its install base growth with a $399 console during its second holiday season--ouch.

It'll be interesting to see if this month's upward trend for the 360 will continue through December. I'm inclined to believe it will. The 360's got a lot going for it. The RROD fiasco seems to have quieted, and I think it'll get a lot of mileage out of its exclusives.

As for the Wii, I'm pretty much convinced that it'll sell like hotcakes for another couple of years at least, almost irregardless of the quality of its software.