Latest Japanese Hardware Sales Figures – PS3 Still Suffering
PS3 shifts 8,998 units in the past week
It’s time for yet another story about the runaway sales success that is the Nintendo DS, followed shortly afterwards by yet another story about the runaway sales success that is the Nintendo Wii, shortly afterwards by yet another story about the growing concern that is the Sony PlayStation 3.
Are you sitting comfortably? We’ll summarise this very quickly for you. In Japan last week the DS sold over 123,211 units, the Wii sold 69,748 units and the PS3 sold 8,998 units.
Year-to-date sales of the DS are now almost 3.5 million; for the Wii it's over 1.6 million while the PS3 has sold 910,737 units.
The figures, at a glance, don't look too good. There's a gap of 60,750 sales between the Wii and PS3, and a ratio of eight Wii's sold for every one PS3.
After a few minutes of mathematising, however, they're not a million miles from the figures that Sony was trumpeting this morning for PAL regions. David Reeves, president of SCEE claims that the UK makes up around 25% of the PAL territory's business, meaning that roughly 250,000 PS3s have sold in the UK to date. Subtract the 165,000 sold over launch weekend and you get roughly 10,000 PS3s sold a week in the UK.
Granted, the UK isn't as big a market for Sony as Japan, but considering we make up 25% of a territory that has seen faster sales of the PS3 than the PS2 and our figures aren't radically different from Japan's, the PS3 isn't doing quite so badly as it might appear.
Still, 8:1...
There’s no wonder there’s growing concern amongst financial analysts in Tokyo (and beyond), as we reported earlier this week.
Are you sitting comfortably? We’ll summarise this very quickly for you. In Japan last week the DS sold over 123,211 units, the Wii sold 69,748 units and the PS3 sold 8,998 units.
Year-to-date sales of the DS are now almost 3.5 million; for the Wii it's over 1.6 million while the PS3 has sold 910,737 units.
The figures, at a glance, don't look too good. There's a gap of 60,750 sales between the Wii and PS3, and a ratio of eight Wii's sold for every one PS3.
After a few minutes of mathematising, however, they're not a million miles from the figures that Sony was trumpeting this morning for PAL regions. David Reeves, president of SCEE claims that the UK makes up around 25% of the PAL territory's business, meaning that roughly 250,000 PS3s have sold in the UK to date. Subtract the 165,000 sold over launch weekend and you get roughly 10,000 PS3s sold a week in the UK.
Granted, the UK isn't as big a market for Sony as Japan, but considering we make up 25% of a territory that has seen faster sales of the PS3 than the PS2 and our figures aren't radically different from Japan's, the PS3 isn't doing quite so badly as it might appear.
Still, 8:1...
There’s no wonder there’s growing concern amongst financial analysts in Tokyo (and beyond), as we reported earlier this week.
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Comments
haritori 8 Jun 2007 13:47
1/11
Well Sony thats what happens when you believe the consumer should work overtime to by your media hub! remember sony this is about games yeah not Blu Ray, not streaming media from one room to another, and not folding proteins! Games plain and simple then you can add the rest of your crap on, Xbox 360 got it right, Wii WELL got it right, will you listen sony will you hell like, you will just release another firmware to stream media over your electronic sony watch to your ps3 and psp while making calls on your sony mobile, wheres the fun!
headcasephil 8 Jun 2007 14:15
2/11
one of the biggest mistake that sony has mad with the ps3 is the fact that in the eu/uk there are no football games as over here football is one of the biggest types of games that sell in japan there are no horse racing games or proper puzzle games all the games that are out for the console are for the us market and they are games that are out for the 360 and the other big problem is the fact that you can get a wii that is a dedicated GAMES console for half the price and get every one in the family to play to gather
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TheBigFatJ 8 Jun 2007 14:23
3/11
Your year-to-date numbers are wrong. The PS3 has sold approximately 400K year-to-date in Japan. It has sold about 500,000 between launch and December 31, '06 and hasn't yet broken the million unit mark for total installed base in Japan.
Consumer 8 Jun 2007 16:56
4/11
Chalk this one down as a win for the consumer.
The moment Sony decided to use the PS3 as a trojan horse for blu-ray they sealed their own fate. I for one will upgrade to an HD format if and when i choose, the Playstation brand has always been first and foremost a games machine and using it's vast and loyal user base to push their proprietary HD format is not far short of criminal.
I don't think either Blu-ray or HD DVD will come out clear winners but if the PS3 and Blu-ray were to fail it would be nothing less than they deserve.
The moment Sony decided to use the PS3 as a trojan horse for blu-ray they sealed their own fate. I for one will upgrade to an HD format if and when i choose, the Playstation brand has always been first and foremost a games machine and using it's vast and loyal user base to push their proprietary HD format is not far short of criminal.
I don't think either Blu-ray or HD DVD will come out clear winners but if the PS3 and Blu-ray were to fail it would be nothing less than they deserve.
tyrion 8 Jun 2007 17:31
5/11
Consumer wrote:
their proprietary HD format
Blu-ray is not a Sony proprietary format there are 18 companies on the board of the Blu-ray Disc Association, 58 contributors and 91 other members of the association. How it can be a proprietary format with 167 companies involved is beyond me.
For comparison, the HD-DVD Promotion Group has 132 members.
BlackSpy 8 Jun 2007 18:45
6/11
While these figures may be higher than the PS2's was the PS2 not still suffering supply problems at this stage in its life?
Consumer 8 Jun 2007 20:21
7/11
tyrion wrote:
Consumer wrote:
their proprietary HD format
Blu-ray is not a Sony proprietary format there are 18 companies on the board of the Blu-ray Disc Association, 58 contributors and 91 other members of the association. How it can be a proprietary format with 167 companies involved is beyond me.
For comparison, the HD-DVD Promotion Group has 132 members.
If you want to split hairs i will rephrase my comment to "Proprietary interest" as Blu-ray is the proprietary format of the Blu-ray Disc Association to which Sony is a key player and has a vested interest in it's success. This does not however change the facts, Sony made the PS3 a trojan horse for mass market bu-ray adoption and they are paying the price.
P.S. feel free to correct me on any grammatical errors in my comments aswell.
Joji 8 Jun 2007 21:26
8/11
Tired of saying it, but most of you chaps have got there first. PS3 didn't need Blu Ray. Nintendo and MS were smart to keep things cheap and concentrate on the games first.
Remember you are in a games industry, Sony. Unfortunately you seem to have forgotten the taste of the buttered bread that made you rich and how you got on top. Deep in my mind I imagine how different things would have been if Ps3 was less than it is while still good and selling at a 280 to 300 quid price tag, just like PS2.
With an even playing field in price against 360, then everyone could concerntrate on getting the games and services right. Makes me understand why so many developers are franticly jumping ship to 360 from PS3, even Rockstar, SquarEnix and Konami,
For anyone out there spinning crap about Wii's graphics and whatever, both Wii and 360 have shown that you don't need the best canvas to create outstanding work (the canvases in question being the 360 and Wii's use of normal dvd over hd dvd for games). They might not hold as much as Blu Ray but they get the job done nicely.
Fortunes won't change in japan for Ps3 til FFXIII turns up, I bet.
Remember you are in a games industry, Sony. Unfortunately you seem to have forgotten the taste of the buttered bread that made you rich and how you got on top. Deep in my mind I imagine how different things would have been if Ps3 was less than it is while still good and selling at a 280 to 300 quid price tag, just like PS2.
With an even playing field in price against 360, then everyone could concerntrate on getting the games and services right. Makes me understand why so many developers are franticly jumping ship to 360 from PS3, even Rockstar, SquarEnix and Konami,
For anyone out there spinning crap about Wii's graphics and whatever, both Wii and 360 have shown that you don't need the best canvas to create outstanding work (the canvases in question being the 360 and Wii's use of normal dvd over hd dvd for games). They might not hold as much as Blu Ray but they get the job done nicely.
Fortunes won't change in japan for Ps3 til FFXIII turns up, I bet.
ajmetz 8 Jun 2007 22:27
9/11
I still think everyone is just enjoying knocking Sony after years of them being ontop, it's nice to see them struggle - but I believe they are actually doing well for themselves, and that whilst 360 and Wii are more successful now, I believe good games will come out, the price will lower, and PS3 will mature into the market very well indeed. Also, the original poster criticised Sony for not thinking about games. They have put more emphasis on first party titles this time, even if some of them turned out embarrassing (Genji 2), but to be honest, traditional 3rd parties have always sold the system, the brand has always sold the system. I don't think Sony ever sold their PlayStation consoles games-wise. They just made good technology. Capcom with Resident Evil, Namco with Tekken and Ridge Racer, and Eidos with Tomb Raider, sold the PSOne. Capcom with Devil May Cry, Konami with Metal Gear Solid sequel, and Square with the Final Fantasy Franchise plus Sega commiting hardware suicide, made the PS2. There's a more level playing field between X360 and PS3 this time round, but I reckon in 2 years time, PS3 will have caught up enough in terms of user base to keep its exclusives, will have some good six-axis games ( not enough to make the Wii redundant, but enough to have a few good motion sensing games for people to enjoy if they want that ), and should hopefully maintain a decent lead.
Then again, I always support the underdog. =P
And maybe finding myself in a position of sticking up for Sony, says something about where they're heading.
^_^ I also wished the Saturn, Dreamcast, N-gage and Gizmondo every bit of success. =) So my record's quite tragic.
But seriously, I still think PlayStation 3 will dominate eventually.
Then again, I always support the underdog. =P
And maybe finding myself in a position of sticking up for Sony, says something about where they're heading.
^_^ I also wished the Saturn, Dreamcast, N-gage and Gizmondo every bit of success. =) So my record's quite tragic.
But seriously, I still think PlayStation 3 will dominate eventually.
PreciousRoi 9 Jun 2007 01:16
10/11
I was following you until you said PS3 will dominate eventually...
I think that ship has sailed. It is no longer a reasonable expectation given the current state of affairs.
I think that ship has sailed. It is no longer a reasonable expectation given the current state of affairs.
ajmetz 9 Jun 2007 01:49
11/11
PreciousRoi wrote:
I was following you until you said PS3 will dominate eventually...
I think that ship has sailed. It is no longer a reasonable expectation given the current state of affairs.
I think that ship has sailed. It is no longer a reasonable expectation given the current state of affairs.
I disagree.
Their launch figures compared favourably to Xbox and Wii, with plenty of supply.
They've just passed the 1 million figure.
It's priced too high for everyone, I know a lot of people who want one, but not at that price, so I think they're targetting the prestige upmarket gadget freak atm, whilst continuing to milk the PS2.
When the price drops, and Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final fantasy XIII come out, it'll do well.
I could be wrong, but I think it's gonna be like New Labour, not so many voters as before, and everyone enjoying kicking them, but still ahead enough of the competition to cling to power.
That said, I've enjoyed seeing Nintendo bounce back. ^_^