Network now...NEWS
PS3 Sees Record Sales In Japan
Sony’s PS3 has recorded its biggest weekly sales total in Japan since launching in November 2006.
According to figures from Famitsu publisher Enterbrain, the PS3 sold 150,832 units during the week ended September 6. The new PS3 Slim was largely to thank, racking up 150,252 sales, reports Kotaku.
Japanese life-to-date PS3 sales have now reached 3,431,964 units.
Earlier today, GfK Chart-Track said that weekly UK PS3 sales had jumped 11-fold following the launch of the Slim.
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go get both consoles and enjoy if u are real gamers...
Who has time for two systems these days? I think only little brats still at school or the unemployed...take yer pick.
What are you bleating on about? I work, go to university part time, volunteer, and socialise and have the two HD consoles and enjoy the best each has to offer.
Maybe, but the average consumer doesn't have time to play more than one system.
And do you have any stats to back this up?
i work full time and in greece that means over 50 hours per week.yet i find time to play my fav games.all i want to say is that if u are a fanboy you miss a lot of great games.and who cares which company sells more hardware?
i work full time and in greece that means over 50 hours per week.yet i find time to play my fav games.all i want to say is that if u are a fanboy you miss a lot of great games.and who cares which company sells more hardware?
Dude, what the fuck are you talking about? This topic is about gamers owning one system and not having time to own/play others!
it's like you have to hold a controller in each hand and play with 2 consoles at the same time.it's very easy when a good game like mass effect comes out i play it until i finish it then it comes killzone2 and i do the same..i just can't imagine my self loosing great games because i'm a fan of sony or microsoft and i believe this is the main reason most choose one system not lack of time or money.i remember my self at the age of 13 having only genesis because i was just a sega fan not that i didn't have the time...thanks god a friend gave me an snes with f-zero and donkey kong and he changed my mind...
Sweeping generalizations have no place here!!
I'm 31 years old, I work a 39 hour week, not to mention overtime. I have both Xbox360 and PS3 from this generation and several others from previous generations . I have more than enough time to play on which ever system I choose and I still manage to maintain a social life.
Was favoring the PS3 over the last couple of months although that was put to and end when the power supply blew, whilst I wait for PS3 number three to turn up, I've been back playing on the 360 and Dreamcast. The great thing about geeking out and owning two, three or maybe four consoles, you never get bored and there is always a choice.
I'd much rather be playing games. TV isn't interactive enough for me. But I just take my gaming extremely seriously, I'm not saying this is the norm. One thing I'm sure of, I'm not the only one here that has several consoles in their possession.
I'm 31 years old, I work a 39 hour week, not to mention overtime. I have both Xbox360 and PS3 from this generation and several others from previous generations . have more than enough time to play on which ever system I choose.
I take it you're still a Virgin! As the normal working man wouldn't have time for the above.
What a comedian!!.. I've managed to keep a girl for ten years... luck would have it. She happens to be a gamer also...
and we are not virgins anyway...that was a funny comment i admit
I respect your situation, but the vast majority of consumers/gamers just don't have time to be a multi-platform gamer.
You're one of the few out there that can play games over multiple systems. The rest of us just don't have time!
Exactly, i have a pile of games still to play on PC, getting a console/s would just be overkill for me personally.
Given that this is a completely new PS3 model at a cheaper price I think a huge sales spike is to be expected, exactly the same will happen when M$ eventually release the slimline 360 (my guess is 2010 packaged with Natal). However, for the moment at least the PS3 offers so much better value that 360 sales are bound to suffer, it's hard to see many gamers choosing not to have Blu-ray, wi-fi, iPlayer etc in order to save £50 . Sony probably have about 12 months to catch up by 6-7 million before the same thing happens in reverse.
Now that the PS3 has almost certainly beaten the 360 into 3rd place in this generation, all it has to do is beat the Wii. But with global Wii sales at 50 million and global PS3 sales at 25 million, that's extremely unlikely to happen. Let's face it - Nintendo have won this gen.
Yes, one good week assures them victory. The months and months of poor sales don't matter at all now.
Nick, is that you Nick? Are you there? LOL
I think there are around 5-6 million more PS3s to sell before Sony gets to second place this generation if I'm not mistaken.
well, that's assuming 360's cease to sell completely, which even the most optimistic sony fanboy must secretly doubt. Personally, I don't see the PS3 overtaking the 360. I see it maintaining it's dominance in Japan, and securing it's european lead, possibly overtaking 360 in the UK, but I just don't see it outselling 360 in the US, which is where the 360 has it's lead from anyway.
Also, remember that in terms of sales as a function of time since launch, the PS3 is a fair way ahead of 360 anyway. (Source; Graph in this months Edge)
Which seems even more likely since this massive increase in sales activity was far and beyond what anyone had expected, there wasn't even a big software release. Sony have turned a corner- this is good for the industry.
Have you got your PS3 yet?
Actually, most reports have PS3 7-8 million behind 360. This price drop will only help them catch up to 360 for this Holiday Season - they may not even close the gap 360 built up over the course of 09, let alone this entire generation. I think many of you are letting your enthusiasm get the better of you.
360 will always be more receptive to price drops given its earlier launch and more conventional architecture/components. MS will see how things look after a few months (it is quite likely PS3 will only enjoy a 3-4 month temporary boost) and can then price drop all SKU's once again if necessary. Sony is gambling with this price drop as they are losing money on each Slim sold, whereas both MS and Nintendo are making a profit allowing for additional price drops.
The PS3 Slim price drop also does nothing to change the fact that they have a far smaller game library and most people will buy the system their friends have so they can play together. Many of the people likely to buy Slims are those picking up their second or third system for that very reason.
The gaming division of Microsoft is billions of dollars in the red and stopped posting quarterly profits the small quarterly profits that only appeared last year and of course they have that nasty little warranty extension to pay for as well. Check out the Mini Microsoft Blog, it's very illuminating.
As far as the library is concerned the PS3 has a huge library- you're about 3 years late with that nonsense.
MS was willing and able to write off billions to get into this market segment - analysts and accountants don't count those figures moving forward as they were written off previously. If you want to play that game, you would have to add the $2B+ Sony spent on Cell and Blu-Ray towards PS3 - making the situation even worse for them. When I said they were losing money, I meant on the actual cost of components/labor for each Slim sold - not the development of the PS3, in general.
I don't know about regional releases (particularly, Japan), but in the US there are 200 more retail titles released on 360. If you add in Arcade/Indie games vs. PSN you can increase that by over 400 more titles.
Even today, there are quite a few games that only come out on 360 which are not even touted as exclusives (most recently, Section 8) - probably because they were not signed as exclusives, the developer/publisher just made that decision without marketing incentives.
So no - that comment is not 3 years late since the 360 continues to see more releases each year even this late in the cycle.
Here we go... the ball is rolling.
So Sony has its worst week preceding its best week due to the launch of the slim.
The Japanese are some savvy customers, I doubt most in the States knew to wait.
Well most places'll give you the sale price within a month of purchase anyway.
The battle for 2nd place starts now...
Just when everyone thought it was over as well, how exciting.... if you're into that sort of thing.
Yeah. It has begun...
Bloody hell! The fence sitters have bitten by the looks of it.
I give it 2-3 months before it's back to normal.
you mean when it's christmas and Final Fantasy XIII comes out?
Lol my bad. I wasn't thinking of Japan. I'm sure sales will slow prior to FFXIII's release in December but then for the next month or two sales will be huge, then taper down with any large Japanese launch. I'm sure it'll affect sales in the US/Europe too in a similar way. It'll be interesting to see how many PS2 owners have just been waiting for FFXIII and if PS3 sales will jump substantially more than 360 sales when FFXIII comes out next year. Does FF still have the same draw in the the US/Europe that it used to?
2-3 months will be almost christmas, so I'd wager the sales would be higher than usual then..
Japanese PS3 sales were pretty good anyway, so I expect it to settle back quite quickly anyway. It'll be more interesting to see whether they settle back to before in the UK. I'm still sticking to my guns on this one GT5 is going to drive PS3 sales up in the UK. I'm not sure what big 360 games are due out by christmas, is ODST?
Well we live in interesting times don't we? Let try not to be negative and look on this as a good thing a strong Sony with healthy sales is a good thing and if they can maintain the momentum it will keep the other two (who have been getting rather arrogant of late) on their toes. Sony have finally turned a corner.
There wasn't even a big software release which makes these numbers even more impressive.
Kind of ironic to talk about the other two being arrogant when you're comparing them to Sony. Despite that, I do have to agree with ArronC07. I credit having 3 strong competitors with reinvigorating the industry and resulting in the significant advances the console space has seen of late.
Of course, some notable Edge regulars will dispute anything positive relating to MS, but if not for MS shaking up the market with xbox/360, console gamers would likely still be playing single-player only games on memory cards. It took a Western company reaching out to traditional Western developers (ie - former pc developers) to shake Japanese gaming companies from their insular culture and rethink their approach to the market.
Just a few weeks ago a Sony exec (I'm drawing a blank on who it was and am too lazy to look it up) finally credited MS with defining online gaming and online marketplaces. Hard drives, standardized online play/unified community & features, DLC, online marketplace to download games/movies/tv, achievements/trophies, custom soundtracks, customized backgrounds, etc. all exist because of influences outside of Sony and Nintendo.
Call me crazy, but Panasonic's and (later Goldstar's and Sharp's) 3DO had onboard memory storage (small, but it was there), multiplayer games (through that dopey multi-controller hookup) "DLC" (through expansion packs released for a number of its games) and the first "custom background" creator (variants on the CD player's random pattern generator function were used by both Sony for Baby Universe and Microsoft for the original Xbox).
Now, i'm NOT at all saying "Oooh, the 3DO is BETTER than the PS3 or 360!" - it's not. But a lot of these innovations MS gets credit for were done previously on a console that was in fact, a few years ahead of its time and amusingly enough, had a few similar pricing structures and package deals as its shelf life went on.
Of course, the initially high price point, an over-reliance on the awful FMV games trend, the system's lack of memory (despite a memory upgrade add-on in Japan and a "Game Guru" disc that offered data compression among other tricks) and too many awful third-party releases killed the console. However, a few developers did make a few key games for the console, at least one of which still pumps out installments on what seems a yearly basis (EA's Need For Speed). It's also the only console that put out quite a few "Adults Only" titles without drawing fire from the government or parents groups, as far as I can recall. Of course, those games were grainy, censored, overpriced crap, but still...
Oh - if you only own an Arcade system and don't have broadband access... guess what? With the exception of couch co-op or versus games, you're probably playing mostly single-player-only games using memory cards (until you upgrade to a hard drive or buy an Elite or whatever it's called these days... )
g.
Good points, GeeLW - although I think equating extremely limited onboard memory to the HD is a bit of a stretch, as I was alluding more to how including a HD allowed things like an online marketplace and DLC without having to go to a store to buy an expansion.
I think another difference would be that 3DO is seen more as a curiousity, or a footnote, in console gaming history; whereas the way MS iterated these concepts into practical applications actually changed the industry - for the better, IMO. I think its fair to say that most of the features we enjoy today were not actually created by each of the existing big 3 - just that the big 3 did the best job of tweaking, evolving and applying these ideas successfully.
Say whatever you want about Sony, but trying to lump Nintendo into the same ghetto of copycat unoriginality Microsoft has inhabited for its entire existence is absolutely ludicrous. The two could not possibly be at more opposite ends of the innovation spectrum. Nice try.
The difference with MS and consoles like the Dreamcast having a built-in network card or the 3DO having memory built-in is that MS SUCCESSFULLY applied these features that are shared by nearly all 3 consoles in some form or the other. If the 3DO or the Dreamcast really were the catalysts for these features the N64, PS1, PS2, GCN would have had those features. What MS was able to do was take these ideas just as Grognard say and apply them in a practical way that was widely accepted and adopted by the other two console makers the very next gen (and in the PS2's case incorporating a built-in network card as an update to the PS2 when the Xbox 1's built in broadband-only network card was so successful). Call MS copycats, but many of the features PS3 users enjoy and in a lesser extent Wii owners were features included in last Gen's Xbox 1. The xbox 1 popularized these features at a time when it was ludicrous to think some of its features were necessary yet, a broadband-only network card built in, a built in HDD, Dolby Digital 5.1, 480p, 720p, and 1080i support, widescreen support for many games, unified online network, media extender capabilities, music ripping, custom soundtracks. Call me crazy, but nearly all those features were never done well or at all by any other successful console. If MS is a Copycat, what does that make the PS2's added network features/HDD support (which was canned with the inclusion of the slimmed Copycat's newly built-in network card), or the PS3's built-in HDD, DD5.1 support, 480p, 720p, 1080p, and its features the 360 popularized prior to the PS3's release (trophies, smaller XBLA style downloadable games). Uneducated comments like my buddy Dub's here are reasons why I really don't like coming to this site anymore. The blatant bias for anything MS is nauseating, like my spelling (new computer doesn't have word...).
I'm out for good MS haters, I'm sure you'll respond with something very clever or some thrown together or stolen photoshopped picture. Have fun.
It would be a glaring oversight to overlook Phantasy Star Online, the first immensely popular online console title, for the Dreamcast. M$ may have the 'unified online' front covered, but Dreamcast is definitely the console to really plow the online territory. I know my first online experience with a console was Starlancer on the DC.
I also think the shove-every-technical-feature-in-this-enormous-box strategy that M$ adopted was pretty stupid, and PS2 stomped all over it. Don't doubt that the Xbox elbowed its way in through pure marketing might (a $500 million marketing budget will push anything) with a console that was very much rough around the edges (that original controller was horrid). I worked at Electronics Boutique (since bought out by Gamestop) during the announcement and premiere of Xbox, and the thing was mostly a joke to me, but nonetheless grabbed the attention of other employees through its expansive marketing. The idea of the 'most powerful console ever', while a very simplistic bulletpoint and oft used before (i.e. 3DO or the Atari Jaguar) works well if you shout it often enough. Nonetheless, it's indisputable that PS2 won that generation handily, and that the same exact bulletpoint isn't working for the PS3 right now. The 360 is, of course, a much better, well-rounded iteration of the vision that was suppose to be Xbox. It took a generation of fuck ups for M$ to get it right.
Everybody knows that console gaming never existed before Microsoft came along with their XBOX.