US PS3 sales hold up as Wii, Xbox 360 numbers dip

Nintendo's Wii may be outselling Sony's PS3 by an increasing margin in Japan, but the gap's narrowing in the US, the latest North American market figures show. Not that there's much in it, mind... Market watcher NPD this week said some 338,000 Wiis were sold in the US in May. Microsoft sold 155,000 Xbox 360s and Sony sold …

[JP]

PS2 Outselling...

the PS3 2:1. For every sale of a PS2, that's a year at least before the gamer shells out for a new PS3. And that's not showing the PS2s being re-sold in the second-hand market. With the (overblown?) hype about the backwards incompatibility of the PS3, the PS2 is Sony's worst enemy. Most gamers buying the PS2 would be attracted by the low prices of both the console and the now-budget games, bringing in peanuts for Sony.

Sony have a hard decision to make: Cut off the PS2. Stop support, stop production, and focus on the PS3. But they can only do this if they can guarantee 100% backward compatibility, otherwise they will just lose all their gamers.

[madgunde]

Re:PS2 Outselling

Sorry JP, I disagree with you. Every PS2 Sony sells is money in their pocket and one less sale of a Wii or 360. Plus, every PS2 sold it more likely to turn into a PS3 sale in the future. You're delusional if you think a person who would buy a PS2 would buy a PS3 instead if the PS2 weren't available. They'd buy a Wii instead. Why? Because it's cheap. That's why they're buying a PS2. Sony is hedging their bets and are the only company that has something to offer both casual mainstream consumers and hardcore gamers. Their strategy will pay off in the long run.

[Geoff Johnson]

Compatibility

Good point on the compatibility. When I got a PS2, the PS1 compatibility was a big factor in the decision. Something they seem to be overlooking on the PS3.

My decision not to buy a PS3 is mainly based on price though.

[Matthew Sinclair]

Your forgetting...

For every PS3 they manufacture... they lose money...

Headliner is a bit deceptive.... all i see is the continual downward trend of PS3 sales slowing up... not a narrowing in the gap.

Talk about warped prespectives.

I do concure with the PS2 comments.... def. a major issue here.

Funny how XBox didn't get much of a peep from you lot... lol. Won't know much until Halo 3 comes out anyway.....

[Giles Jones]

PS2

>Every PS2 Sony sells is money in their pocket and one less sale of a Wii or 360.

Maybe, but what would you rather sell, a new product which you need to be a success or an old one which has proven itself and is all paid for?

The PS3 needs a large userbase for developers to consider it worth writing games for.

The Wii has some lacklustre games as many developers thought the Wii wouldn't sell, so they had to rush out games for it. With games development it's all about sales volume. The game prices are largely fixed.

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder

How many of the ps2's were new buyers, or just people replacing a dud out of warranty console.

[Dirk Vandenheuvel]

Gap?

Wait wait... how can the gap be closing with the Wii (or 360) if they are still selling a lot less???? Sounds more like marketing spin to me.

[Albert]

PS2/PS3 sales

I agree with Geoff. For Sony somebody buying a PS2 was never a PS3 potential customer now and I expect it is based on price. They may wish to have bought a PS3, but could not afford it and decided that a Wii or Xbox360 wasn't for them. So, Sony gets the revenue, not Nintendo of Microsoft and when the time is right they would be a natural to upgrade to the PS3.

I'm interested in seeing where the consoles are at the beginning of 2008 after the heavy hitting titles for the PS3 have come out. It's all to do with the content. If the games are compelling enough people will buy the console.

Nobody buys a console for the console. (except the fanboys) They buy it to enjoy the game and for the relevant target market the PS3 is missing its must buy games. Wander around the internet and you will see people stating they are waiting for specific games.

This time next year will be very interesting. I predict the Wii will still be the best selling, but Sony with just pass the Xbox360. Handheld the DS will still rule the world.

[david gomm]

2nd consoles

I think that many will be buying the PS2 as a second as opposed to a primary console, this probably makes it more likely that those people will be more likely to have a Wii or a 360 as their primary as opposed to another Playstation

[Anonymous Coward]

Compatibility

From my experience PS3 compatibility with PS2 is pretty damn good - some minor sound issues on the games I've tried, nothing more.

A damn sight better than 360 -> XBox compatibility which is not only unavailable to anyone who bought the Core system, but which is patchy at best. Even those games that are supported seem to come with large numbers of graphical and sound glitches that render some of them practically unplayable (Star Wars : Knights of the Old Republic, I'm looking at you in particular)

Whatever Sony's problems with the PS3, backwards compatibility isn't one of them.

No bloody games and an online store seemingly held together with damp string - now those ARE problems.

[Kevin]

Guitar Hero

I work at a major retailer, and I see so many people buying this game with their PS2s that I wouldn't be surprised if it is a major factor.

[Risasi]

Albert and Kevin are on the right track...

While I have not bought a PS2 in a few years, I do own 9 of them. And it was all because of one game; Socom. Then it's various sequels.

The games (or in Nintendo's case, now the novel controller system) are what drive the market for console purchases.

I hate M$, and said I wouldn't buy the 360, well I saw Saint's Row and picked up the 360.

I will be purchasing a Wii, whenever I can find one. But it's a big no to the PS3, I just haven't seen any titles that interest me.