PS3 Sales Drop 82% - A Disaster?

me,rodd todd and adam are disscussing this in the PS3 rrp forum.

I'll go out on a limb here and say that the hardware sales will drop again this week. Last week was the week after launch, which is only two days remember, and had Easter coming up. This week is probably too late to buy for Easter, the launch "hump" is over and there aren't any new games for the PS3 until mid April.

The fact that week two sales were just short of 30K instead of just above zero proves that there is still demand and that there is still stock to service that demand. I'd expect week three sales to drop to 15-20K which is probably closer to a "normal" weeks sales.

As for software, Resistance and Motorstorm were still top-selling, only a new, highly anticipated PC game knocked them from the top of the charts. They are massively out-selling everything except C&C. Not bad for platform exclusives.

It's not doom and gloom for the PS3, it's something we have never seen before, a platform launch that has loads of interest, but hasn't sold out.

The question we have for Sony is "can you keep the momentum going?"

Its best to give it some time, at least til the end of next month. If things hit the fan for Sony, that just means the price drop will come sooner.

What's that? WH Smiths are doing what? Already?

Wow a special offer from a couple of retailers! Not the same as Microsoft dropping the original XBox's official price after six weeks.

I think that once the price gets low enough, sales will increase, or if it is a steady drop in price, sales will stay quite high for a long time, after dropping.

Lol. We'll give PS3 six weeks and then come back here.

82% isn't much at all, is it?

well the fact that supposedly even after launch they had 20k consoles still left on the shelves in europe...i cant imagine that they are out of machines cause surely they shipped at last 20k more. i would assume that this is actually bad news for sony cause when x360 and wii came out they where (and wii still is) completely sold out week to week for at least the first month after release.

this is bad news...and i think the first of many signs that sony is getting out of touch.

They may have sold out on release week, but that's because there weren't enough consoles to satisfy demand. Remember when this comic was funny because Sony couldn't supply demand? Why isn't it still funny now that the roles are reversed?

One of SPOnG's local shops took until the launch of the PS3 to supply its customers with 100 Wiis, and they sold 33 at launch. That's 67 sold over 4.5 months. Can you honestly look at those figures and say that the Wii is selling well? The same shop had 49 pre-orders for PS3 and have now supplied them all, they also sold at least three walk-ins on the launch night. I know because one of them was mine and I was last to be served.

Being out of stock is only an indication of success if you are supplying huge amounts every week, if you can only get 3-4 into each store per week (based on those 67 Wiis above) then you are not selling that many overall. By the same token if you are selling 15-30K units per week (I expect the week three figures for PS3 to drop to about 15K) and there are still units available, you have supply sorted and have no issues with sales. That's successful.

According to VGCharts the PS3 in Europe has already outsold Japan and has sold 64% as many units as the USA. The rest of the world maybe, but you can't say the PS3 isn't selling in Europe.

Tyrion, is this you busy substituting everyone elses' reality for your own again?

What's not real about what he says? Wii has been virtually unavailable in the UK for four months. That's not a successful launch.

PS3 is available, and it's selling. That seems successful to me. OK, the 82% drop is sales seems bad - if you're an idiot. Both 360 and Wii had 99% drop in second week sales.

How many is 360 selling per week in the UK right now?

I'm sorry, it is a disaster.

For Sony to be competing with Nintendo, a company they more or less left for dead two years ago in both home and handheld is a disaster. For Sony to be even working out how their sales profile compares with Microsoft is a disaster.

This generation wasn't going to start till Sony said so, they out sold the others something like 3 to 1 in the last generation and suddenly being on arguable parity with Nintendo and Microsoft is a success?

3:1 Last gen?? And the rest! Ps2 sold something like 120 mill worldwide, both the cube and xbox struggled to sell more than 20 mill..

Try 6:1 last gen.

Personally it looks obvious they'll overtake the 360, but the wii on the other hand... The only way i can see the ps3 overtaking the wii, is if nintendo keep not being able to keep the shelves stacked.

Most successful launch ever is a disaster?
Most successful second week ever is a disaster?

Expecting Sony to have overtaken Wii or 360 by week two is a little unrealistic. Summer is gonna suck for PS3, it's a quiet period anyway, and no-one will be releasing any blockbuster games or platform exclusives.

We're not really going to be able to tell how PS3 is doing until after Christmas 2007. But anyone who thinks the launch has been a disaster is clearly refusing to see things as they actually are...

I can’t see how it can be construed anything but a disaster. Sony has gone from a position of total dominance in the market to being one of three companies competing for leadership. Numbers sold in the first week are nonsense for this sort of argument unless they are really low, everyone reading this knows the role that supply plays. I’m not trying to make a case that says because they didn’t sell out it’s 'teh fai1ure'.

By Christmas they may be back in the driving seat but the fact remains that today they are going to have to win that lead again. Sony delivered a transition from one to two that only underlined their market dominance. The transition from two to three has shown that their erstwhile customers are happy to buy 360s and Wiis on a scale that was unthinkable eighteen months ago.

If this were happening to my company’s market share I’d struggle to see the silver lining.

That's because you don't want to see anything but a disaster. And you refuse to see anything but a disaster.

You are comparing market dominance established over 12 years with a snapshot of the last two or three weeks. And you are ignoring the fact that PS2s are continuing to sell. Xboxs and Gamecubes are not.

But comparing the market share of a console with two weeks sale with that of a console with 18 months, or six months is simply ridiculous. PS3's market share is clearly lower, there is no way it could be otherwise. But Sony's is still dominant.


The only reason "Sony's" customers didn't jump ship between PS1 and PS2 was because there was no credible alternative. It had nothing to do with market dominance or customer loyalty. People will buy what's there if it appeals. Xbox and Gamecube didn't. 360 and Wii do.


Sony has had the most successful launch ever, if you can't see the silver lining there you are unlikely to see it in anything.

Let me help you see it.

The 360 has been available for 72 Weeks in North America, 71 Weeks in Europe and 70 in Japan; that's 212 "region weeks". In that time, according to VGCharts, there have been 9.68M 360s sold world wide. That works out at an average sales rate of 45,608 360s per region week.

The PS3 has been available for 21, 22 and 3 weeks for a total of 45 region weeks. In that time there have been 3.15M sold worldwide for an average sales rate of 70,286 PS3s per region week.

So the PS3 is selling better than the 360 at the moment. With those figures, the PS3 will pass the 360 in total sales sometime in December 2008.

Of course, we have Halo 3, Forza 2, PGR 4 and others to come for the 360. However we also have Heavenly Sword, Lair, Gran Turismo 5 and others to come for the PS3. Exclusives sell consoles, so it'll be interesting to see what happens when those games come out.

Just for giggles, the Wii is currently selling at an average rate of 116,389 units per region week and will overtake the 360's total sales in July this year if the consoles continue to sell at the same rates.