USA: PlayStation 3 Sales Down

Sales up for Wii and Xbox 360

Posted by Staff
Sony CEO, Sir Howard Stringer.
Sony CEO, Sir Howard Stringer.
Sales of the PS3 fell by 19% year-on-year in November according to NPD figures reported in The Wall Street Journal. This figure compares with an 8% rise in sales for the Xbox 360, and the Wii doubling its sales compared to last year.

The WSJ is an opinion former for business analysts, bankers and stock traders the world over, so its piece entitled, 'Hope Fades for PS3 as a Comeback Player' will make unpleasant seasonal reading for Sony CEO, Sir Howard Stringer. For the Welshman, whose plan was to bring all of Sony's different divisions work with each other, the games division (Sony Computer Entertainment) and the PlayStation brand was going to be the bright spot in a global economic downturn. Tradition has it that video games ride out recessions.

The following statement from the journal of record will do nothing for Stringer's strategy or position, "If Sony doesn't close the gap with its rivals, it could risk making the PS3 an afterthought to game publishers, who focus most of their resources on the machines with the most users. At the end of September, the Wii had a wide lead with nearly 35 million units sold since its launch in 2006 compared with about 22 million Xbox 360 consoles and 17 million PS3 machines. Nintendo last month sold 2 million Wii machines in the U.S., while Microsoft sold 836,000 Xbox 360s and Sony sold 378,000 PS3s, according to NPD."

Like SPOnG, the august WSJ looks to price for the reason that PS3 is - according to NPD - tanking. It also examines game exclusives or the lack of them, stating, "Sony used to have a stable of exclusive games. But in recent years, Microsoft has persuaded most game publishers to release highly anticipated games to it and Sony at the same time.

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Comments

SuperSaiyan4 29 Dec 2008 12:03
1/11
Am still rather ammused on how many folk out there still buy a Wii where it sells as well as bread does...Well almost lol.

Looking at the total sales between 360 and PS3 they are both doing pretty good if the total sales are anything to go by I had no idea PS3 had sold 17million I think thats pretty good.
Yoik 29 Dec 2008 12:41
2/11
Dear Sony,

Drop the effing price already.
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Spungo 29 Dec 2008 14:09
3/11
XBOX laid a serious beating on the PS3. I've been wanting a next-gen console for about 6 months now and finally decided I'm going to go with the 360. PS3 is a total rip-off.
benq 29 Dec 2008 14:27
4/11
i got bored of gaming but brought the misses a wii for xmas so that i could spend time doing man things while she played.
but i had a sneeky go and it has opened my eyes again to the fun of gaming and a new way of playing its actually fun again!
HyperTails 29 Dec 2008 16:43
5/11
Its no suprise they are down! In the current economic climate, people cannot and will not choose a PS3 over a 360 when the only difference, in all fairness, is the Blu-ray player. Loads of games are now multi-format. Sony's exclusives like LBP and Resistance 2 are not doing as well as anyone predicted. Its all well and good saying that they won't lower the price because they are showing value in hardware but its all a pipe dream. Drop the price £50 and sales will increase, though not through the roof. Drop it £100 and it'll sell a hell of a lot better than its doing now. I've been a long time Sony fan so it pains me to see the way Sony has effectively given the market to Nintendo with the PS3 and just decided it can't be arsed with the PSP anymore.

Sony, just drop the price. Stop releasing different SKU's and just drop the price of the 80Gb model.
Mike 29 Dec 2008 17:14
6/11
I had my first taste of playing Wii games this Xmas when my niece recieved one as a present, i played bowling, tennis, Mario Kart and some other mini games i don't recall their names.
I consider myself more of a casual gamer than hardcore, i play a lot of games but prefer simple games that don't require every button on the controller to be used with pinpoint accuracy or in overly complicated combinations and i'm not a graphics whore so logically i expected to get some entertainment value out of the Wii.
Unfortunately that was not the case at all, playing the sports games i was never rewarded for doing things the right way and had to resort to whatever illogical controller movement got the best results, this is not my first time with motion sensitive controls, i've used a fishing rod controller from the Dreamcast era and a PC joystick that a friend of mine used with flight simulations, while the technology was old, clunky and hardwired if memory serves they both controlled more accurately than the Wiimote.
Mario Kart was also very disappointing, back in the days when owned a Megadrive and pocket money was hard to come by, i saved every penny i could to buy a SNES just for the superb Mario Kart which i believe stands up today as one of the most playable games of all time, Mario Kart on the Wii using the Wii wheel or whatever it's called was a frustrating experience that i'm sure was compromised in a failed effort to make the motion sensitive controls work.
Maybe there are better games that do the Wii more justice but i'm unlikely to find out as i don't plan on playing it again any time soon, i've always understood why hardcore gamers found it hard to understand the unprecedented success of the Wii but as an experienced casual gamer who prefers simple, fun and less challenging games, i can't for the life of me understand how the Wii has dominated this generation of consoles.
Even with all the hardcore shooting games that are released on the 360 there is still more than enough casual fun games to keep me entertained and i'm sure the same applies to PS3 owners too.
RADterraX 30 Dec 2008 06:47
7/11
Mike...it's very simple. People buy the Wii because 'sex sells'. HA, just kidding (could be true). Seriously, the Wii sells because it's cheap, simple, and gimmicky. Once suckered into buying it, they play with it (no pun intended) for maybe a week, maybe a month, and never play with it again. Some even purchase it thinking it's an exercise machine that they can actually use to lose weight with and have fun at the same time; however, it never happens. It collects dust. And by the time you know it, it is stored away, somewhere in the attack, or under the bed. The proof is in the Wii online activity. When was the last time anyone talked about a Wii online experience of some sort? Never! It is a TOY!! Like the Rubbick's Cube (I hope that how you spell it).
SuperSaiyan4 30 Dec 2008 08:58
8/11
HyperTails wrote:
Its no suprise they are down! In the current economic climate, people cannot and will not choose a PS3 over a 360 when the only difference, in all fairness, is the Blu-ray player. Loads of games are now multi-format. Sony's exclusives like LBP and Resistance 2 are not doing as well as anyone predicted. Its all well and good saying that they won't lower the price because they are showing value in hardware but its all a pipe dream. Drop the price £50 and sales will increase, though not through the roof. Drop it £100 and it'll sell a hell of a lot better than its doing now. I've been a long time Sony fan so it pains me to see the way Sony has effectively given the market to Nintendo with the PS3 and just decided it can't be arsed with the PSP anymore.

Sony, just drop the price. Stop releasing different SKU's and just drop the price of the 80Gb model.


What have you done with the real HyperTails? lol

Anyhow yes with anything if you drop the price then more folk will purchase it and you have made a very good point there to HT, the only difference now is the blu-ray player in the PS3. You can get a Premium 60gb Xbox 360 with all the cables including HDMI cheap games, cheaper bundles etc vs the PS3 which still is pricey even though you can get an 80gb PS3 with 3 or so games for like £290 or so.

But overall developers are going multiplatform as you said anyways and the choice becomes easier for those wishing to buy a games console - £130 premium 360 or £300 PS3 with the same games...

Also it boils down to which company you prefer also the which controller you prefer too as I prefer the 360 pad.
OptimusP 30 Dec 2008 11:02
9/11
RADterraX wrote:
Mike...it's very simple. People buy the Wii because 'sex sells'. HA, just kidding (could be true). Seriously, the Wii sells because it's cheap, simple, and gimmicky.

well, it's not cheap anymore, the Xbox360 is the slut now, simple, sure, but simple things are far more fun then trying to figure out some 13-button config for a lot of people. Gimmicky, hmmm amazing how people keep use that word even after two years of absolutely smashing the competition. Fear sure makes for some nasty irrational reflexes.

RADterraX wrote:
The proof is in the Wii online activity. When was the last time anyone talked about a Wii online experience of some sort?

And you have some kind of magic acces to Nintendo's online statistics to prove this right? So tell me then, why do WiiFit, Mario Kart Wii and Wiiplay keep on selling? Because people get bored of them? Or because Nintendo is able to tap into the most powerfull way of marketing ever aka word of mouth? What's the logic in the premise that people keep buying stuff that's boring...none, logic that people keep buying it because they heard good things of it...a lot more likely.

The truth is, the Wii sells because Nintendo has been able to create an entire perception around the Wii of being family-friendly and best of all FUN! Who knew fun stuff actually sells...what a stretch that is.

Really, perception is the key word in everything here. Microsoft and Sony will not be albe to sell like the Wii no matter what kind price their hardware has because of the perception they built around their consoles. lower PS3 or Xbox360 prices just gives them acces to people who are not "scared" away from the perceptions around these consoles but weren't ready to shelve the former price for these consoles. So in the limited market segment that Sony and MS are killing each other, MS now has a price advantage, but both will not in no way possible expand the market as a whole expect if one or bith do a co-opt with Nintendo's strategy. MS and Sony won't however since they see themselves as indebted to maintain their perception as it is.
mrAnthony 30 Dec 2008 11:04
10/11
true, I'm not a huge fan of the xbox, but its got quite a few games i wish i had (left for dead 4 dead mainly), but the main reason i didn't like it when i had one, was the controller. The d pad is shockingly bad, and one reason i bought it was for street fighter online. oh well. i didn't have a arcade stick at the time.

annnyyway. yeah I'm both surprised that the PS3 sales are down, and that there's only a few million between it and the xbox lifetime sales.
SuperSaiyan4 30 Dec 2008 12:16
11/11
I agree the d-pad on the 360 is terrible but to be fair I also find the d pad on the PS controllers to be bad too I like to have a directional d-pad and for me the best d-pad was on the original Duke Xbox 1 controller.

Also the PS3 trigger buttons are awful they have a terrible feel to them and I found my fingers hurting and sliding off as it was painful to keep pressing them or holding them down.

Its a shame that these 3rd party companies can't make a decent pad themselves, I wouldn't mind paying more than an official controller if it was built really well and was the perfect controller.
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