Nintendo: PS3 rules Europe, Xbox tops US

Nintendo told investors last night that Sony's PlayStation 3 is leading the race in European console adoption, with the number of units snapped up exceeding sales of its own 3DS handheld, as well as those of Microsoft's Xbox 360. Console sales in 2012 - Europe Source: Nintendo The company's data, revealed at a Ninty …

[1Rafayal]

Not surprised really

I am honestly not surprised to see the PS3 top in Europe or the 360 top in the US.

It seems like a no brainer to get a PS3 these days, given it also plays blu ray's.

Was surprised to see the PSV sales drop off though, didnt think it would be quite that drastic.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not surprised really

I really can't fathom it either.

I mean the PS3 and Xbox360 are now pretty much the same price, but the PS3 is vastly superior in specs, has better games, has Blu-Ray and is free to play online (the online service being pretty much equal to the 360's these days).

It's surely a no brainier... The problem of course, is Microsoft's viral marketing power, and the general immaturity of gamers. When they read stories like "no ME3 Multplayer Challenges on PS3" or "PS3 GTA IV textures worse on PS3" type stories, they can't see who is pulling the strings....

[tommy060289]

Re: Not surprised really

maybe because they are not wearing sony brand sunglasses....

I have both and IMO xbox is the far superior gaming machine, most of the major titles seem to have less problems than they're ps3 equivalent. Games wise beyond unchartered theres very little reason to pick a ps3 game over an xbox game. GT5 (besides being embarrassingly delayed) isn't a patch on a Forza 4 and the playstation has NEVER had an FPS to compete with Halo. and if you think PSN compares to XBL your having a laugh. Its just not as good, doesn't have the same slick user interface, I don't feel its as reliable, and then you've got the whole PSN hacking scandal (not that it bothers me). Also, despite being 'technically' superior, I'm yet to see much evidence of its supposedly superior abilities. The only time Ive seen a PS3 title really outclass an xbox title was Final Fantasy XIII, but there was more down to the Blu-Ray disc storage space than console capabilities.

Also, and Im sure its a personal thing but I think most people with experience agree with me. The xbox has the fat better controller, much more comfortable and just better to use.

Beyond a blu-ray player my PS3 now sees very little use tbh. I can see why you'd buy one if you only had room for one device, but if you care about games (and have friends! - Sorry PC gamers) you'd get an xbox

[toadwarrior]

Re: Not surprised really

I have a 360 and a PS3 and my xbox collects dust.

There is no real difference between the two expect for the fact the PS3 comes with wifi out of the box and plays all movies. It has no stupid proprietary hard drives and everything about it isn't set up to milk money out of me like XBL subscriptions something that is required just to view twitter or facebook because you don't even get a web browser from the company who should be able to provide a better web browser than NIntendo or Sony.

XBL usually has more retards on it too. I think that's because it is paid for. You get kids thinking they're entitled to do what they want because they're paying for it.

If MS wants money for XBL, fine, but make it a better experience given that you're actually making money from the service unlike the others.

[RAMChYLD]

Re: Not surprised really

> I have a 360 and a PS3 and my xbox collects dust.

Incidentally, it's the opposite for me.

Lack of XBox Live support for Malaysia is to blame.

The PS3, on the other hand, actually allows me to play online, and buy my games online.

No such love from Microsoft.

[BrownishMonstr]

Re: Not surprised really

hmm because we just soo need a web browser on a console. Tablets and smart phones can connect to the internet and browse the interwebs, so why have a console do the same. i hardly ever use the one on the ps3, but maybe it's because id rather use my phone —easier to type and what not. oh and Nintendo didnt write the browser, Opera did.

You don't seem to understand that it costs money to maintain servers and perform updates. As a company you would prolly pass that cost to the customer—you wouldn't wanna go bust, now, would you? MS won't be the only ones, most companies, perhaps all successful companies, would try to increase their ROI, mainly to please the investors.

[Paw Bokenfohr]

Re: Not surprised really

@toadwarrior

XBL usually has more retards on it too. I think that's because it is paid for. You get kids thinking they're entitled to do what they want because they're paying for it.

Actually, despite the use of the word "retard" here, I think this is a good point - I have both the 360 and the PS3, and no longer subscribe to Live Gold because of this point. If I want to play online, that's what I want to do, I don't want to spend my time hearing racist, mysoginistic, homophobic kids mouthing off constantly.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not surprised really

Seems you are the one that's been brainwashed by Microsoft's viral marketing. have you even PLAYED a PS3? Or is your whole basis of what a PS3 is, based on what you have read on the American internet?

GT5 is 10x the game that Forza is. Forza is a ARCADE racer, it's physics are basic and don't relate to real cars, if you want to play this type of game, play Burnout, it's more fun. GT5 is in a whole different league.

As for FPS, Resistance and Killzone series both totally obliterate Halo, both storyline, graphically and gamplay (online and offline). You don't want to see a Halo killer, so have closed your eyes to anything but Halo.

And as for the PSN hack, again, you seen to have selective memory. I'm guessing you have forgotten the 3 week Xbox Live outage over Xmas? And the last 18 months where millions of Xbox Live accounts have been emptied of all their cash. Nobody actually lost anything over the PSN hack (infact I got lots of very good games for free). XBox Live owners are losing REAL money daily, and Microsoft are unable to stop it and unwilling to talk about it, rather playing the "keep the media sweet and persuade them not to report it" tact that they also took with RROD.

http://kotaku.com/5873604/is-microsofts-xbox-live-hacking-problem-worse-than-microsoft-realises

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/Xbox/8906043/Xbox-Live-customers-hacked-in-fresh-cyber-fraud-case.html

http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2012/02/26/xbox-live-accounts-still-being-hacked/

Ouch....

[Blank Reg]

Re: Not surprised really

You're right, Sony doesn't have an FPS to compete with Halo because they don't make FPS games for kids. Most of the big Xbox franchises like Halo and GeOW and even the UI all seem rather juvenile. Where the Wii seems designed for little kids, the Xbox and it's games seem to be mostly targeted at teenagers. The PS3 games tend to be aimed at a more mature audience, and no I'm not talking about sex and graphic violence.

[MJI]

Re: Blank Reg

Fans of Resistance and Killzone do not like their games being knocked just for being PS3.

Insomniac have managed some good stories especially R3, RFoM was good as well.

Guerilla have a well thought out and imaginative universe and one of the best multiplayers out there, Killzone 3 is also a standout motion control game, so good that you feel better than DS3 players.

And finally we have a Brian Cox (actor) speech on every KZ game.

[MJI]

Re: Not surprised really

Usual Xbot fallacy.

What do you mean Sony never had an FPS to compete.

There are TWO here on the PS3 not just the ONE.

Basically do you want a WW2 era SciFi shooter or a interplantary war SciFi shooter?

And there are 8 games between them, PS2 PS3 PSP..

And you can see the heroes as people.

We have a baddies played by Ray Winstone & Sean Pertwee.

We have fantastic weapons, like ones which shoot through walls, we have cloaking technology, we have the best console graphics on a FPS, and the best story.

I'm happy with my pile of PS3 FPSs.

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Sir

"It seems like a no brainer to get a PS3 these days"

When some of us made a promise to ourselves never to buy Sony kit ever again, we meant it.

[tommy060289]

Whats even more suprising

Whos still buying the PSP! Unless it was some dirt cheap super deal, why would you not buy the PSV if you want an overpriced handheld?

[Anonymous Coward]

Look at those PSV figures!

LOL'd so hard a bit of wee just came out.

[Anonymous Coward]

Confused

As the initial week sales and subsequent week seems to follow the other consoles pretty closely...

[asdf]

Re: Look at those PSV figures!

And for the record the 3DS hasn't exactly been a roaring success either.

Weekly Hardware Chart 21st April 2012

Platform N. America Europe Japan Global

3DS 50,077 43,840 85,298 193,516

WII 35,222 23,240 6,992 73,585

PS Velveeta 28,372 25,397 8,160 66,677

[asdf]

Re: Look at those PSV figures!

So in other words the WII (as well as the PS3 and Xbox 360) which has been out for f__kall ever outsold the PS Velveeta last week in addition to the 3DS tripling its sales. Epic Fail.

[toadwarrior]

Re: Look at those PSV figures!

One week of numbers doesn't mean much at all. There are over 17 million 3DS units out there and it has out sold the DS' first year numbers in 8 months.

The xbox is only in second place but at it's current rate it will take the 3DS 3.9 years to sell what the xbox has in 7 years.

And if it stays at the same pace it'll be nearly exactly on par with the original DS which is by far the most successful system of this generation.

Give that the 3DS has more competition (especially from the DS), higher price point, the economy is still in the tank, and for the first few months its software selection was crap, I'd say that's pretty good.

I'm not sure what you were expecting but I'd say it's doing quite well.

[asdf]

Re: Look at those PSV figures!

I was more pointing out what a total fail flop the Vita has been. The 3DS might be a slight disappointment for Nintendo but the Vita is such a fail its a CEO killer.

[MJI]

There is a recession

I want one, held back by cost and by ONE PSN ACCOUNT PER VITA

Put multiple logins on and sell more

[MJI]

Re: MacBooks

So it was you who wrecked £22000 worth of MacBooks

[Captain Underpants]

I'm confused

Is it me or are the numbers regarding current sales somewhat contextless without knowledge of total sales up to the end of 2011?

And that's aside from Sony's current financial woes, which will presumably make continuing to sell an expensive console at a loss in order to gani market share a more untenable proposition...whereas Ninty have always made a profit on every Wii they've ever sold.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I'm confused

PS3 has been selling at a profit for about 2 years now.

Wake up.... Besides which, consoles are always loss-leaders, and the real money is gamie royalties and licensing.

www.edge-online.com/news/sony-ps3-now-profitable

[Captain Underpants]

Re: I'm confused

"Consoles are always loss leaders"

Well, yeah, except when they're not. The Wii's been profitable since day one, not to mention having a much wider appeal for most of its lifespan than other consoles (despite its blatant limitations compared to its rivals). Besides which, the whole "loss leader" thing relies on racking up enough sales to be able to get developers on board paying licence fees. If the Wii managed to get not only greater uptake than its rivals in its first five years on sale but also to turn a profit all the while, it would be a very very stupid idea indeed to not try and learn from how Nintendo achieved that while Sony achieved pretty much the opposite.

As for the PS3 being profitable - that appears to be on a per-unit basis. They're a long way away from having made up the enormous hole into which they dug themselves to try and make sure Blu-Ray became the new standard for optical media.

[MJI]

Re: I'm confused

However Wii owners in general only tend to buy a few games, PS3/Xbox owners tend to buy more games for their systems.

[Goldmember]

Re: I'm confused

Indeed. We bought our Wii over 2 years ago and only have 4 games. In the past year I think it's been switched on once. I've had my PSV for a month and have 5 games for it, and around 40 for the PS3.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I'm confused

Have you seen how few titles non Nintendo titles sell.

Nintendo won't be making very much at all from 3rd parties.

Aside from Mario, WiFit, WiSport and Zelda, eveything on the Wii sucks, and consumers simply aren't interested in buying yet more turd games.

In other words, Nintendo HAVE to make a profit on the hardware, as they won't make be making much back from 3rd party devs.

[Captain Underpants]

Re: I'm confused

Nah, mate, not everything on the Wii sucks.

No More Heroes 1 & 2, Red Steel 1 & 2, Blazing Angels, the Shaun White games (World Stage, Road Trip & Skateboarding), Need For Speed: The Run, House Of The Dead: Overkill, Ghost Squad, Madworld....

That's 12 games off the top of my head which are all excellent rather than the kiddie fare you imagine. And not a Nintendo property amongst 'em.

I would imagine the same can be said of the PS3 or XBox 360. If you wanted to pick a fight with the Wii, you'd be better off arguing that it doesn't get anywhere near as many decent indie games on the store, though I think the range of games available on the virtual console goes some way to make up for that.

All platforms have good and sucky games. If you're going to be a mug and not look for the pearls, well, don't be surprised if you end up elbow-deep in pigshit.

[asdf]

Re: I'm confused

>No More Heroes 1 & 2, Red Steel 1 & 2, Blazing Angels, the Shaun White games (World Stage, Road Trip & Skateboarding), Need For Speed: The Run, House Of The Dead: Overkill, Ghost Squad, Madworld....

Living the past. Very few 3rd party have come out recently that weren't shovel ware.

[toadwarrior]

Re: I'm confused

Can you even list recent third party games for the Wii without looking on the internet?

The Wii is at the end of its life anyway. After all their next system comes out this year so naturally, like most systems, the final year has some pretty poor software because everyone has moved on.

[Captain Underpants]

Re: I'm confused

@toadwarrior

I agree the Wii's at the end of its life, and I do think it's a bit silly/disingenuous to try and dismiss first-party titles for it (a massive part of Nintendo's success is based on those titles, and it's not like they aren't any good). But, well, I don't have enough time to spend on gaming to have burned my way through every game in the back catalogue so the fact that the only game I listed above that's <6 months old is NFS: The Run doesn't really bother me.

Yeah, if I had 30+ hours a week to spend on gaming, had done so over the last 5 years and had the money to buy every game I wanted at full price, I might be in a different position. But, you know, that's kind of like saying that if I shat gold bricks I'd be rich - it might be true, but it's so vanishingly unlikely to actually happen that it's a pointless comparison.

I do think Nintendo missed a trick with WiiWare, I found a few great games on there but they let too many muppets put too much crap on there, delayed the availability of the demo function until far too late, and gave it no first-party support. As someone pointed out elsewhere, DLC for Wii Sports or even Wii Fit would've been a great way to boost awareness of the WiiWare channel.

[toadwarrior]

Re: I'm confused

He is right that everyone (except Nintendo) originally sells their hardware at a loss and yes over time they eventually make a profit from the hardware too (which is obvious since it becomes older).

[toadwarrior]

Re: I'm confused

Except Nintendo who has always been wise to sell their systems with a profit. There was only a brief few months with the 3DS price cut where it was sold a small loss but other than that they make a profit and given how all the competitors have fallen while they're around I think I'd say that's right way to do things.

[jason 7]

Nice to see the PS3...

start to sell just as it's to be replaced in around 18 months.

Better late than never eh.

As for buying a PS3 for its BD player, that was a valid argument (barely) about 5 years ago but when you can pick up a BD player now for £70 (probably £50 by the end of the year) it looks an expensive way to go about it.

All the consoles should cost under £120 tops by now.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Nice to see the PS3...

Starting to sell?

It's been outselling the Xbox constantly for 4 years in Europe and Japan you cretin...

Microsoft are VERY quiet on sales of late, preferring to only quote NPD numbers, as they know they are in last place this gen.

[asdf]

Re: Nice to see the PS3...

Yep but they are still 2 million units behind the Xbox world wide or are you still going to use the Xbox out for a year more 6+ years into the generation?

[asdf]

Re: Nice to see the PS3...

http://www.vgchartz.com/ is the only source that matters. AC eh? I guess its gotten so bad at Sony even the fanbois wear bags on their heads.

[toadwarrior]

Re: Nice to see the PS3...

VGchartz isn't really a legitimate source and unless you've had your head in the sand you'd have missed quite a few stories over the past year pointing out that Sony caught up.

[toadwarrior]

Re: Nice to see the PS3...

I'm not sure why you're getting down voted because you're absolutely right.

The xbox has had a whole year lead over both Nintendo and Sony. Nintendo has by passed them ages ago and Sony has caught up despite all the problems and the higher price point.

A quick check for non-fanboy sources put them at:

PS3: 62 million (as of December 31, 2011) (64 million as of April according to Metro)

360: 67.2 million (as of April 19, 2012)

This is why I'm pretty sure someone at Microsoft pays a lot for good press. If you never listened to anyone but opinion of gaming sites or magazines you'd swear the xbox was kicking ass. It's not. It's not doing poorly but it's not doing great either especially given that it's been out the longest.

It's not popular at all really outside of north america. All anyone has to do it take north america away from Microsoft and they're non-existent.

[Anonymous Coward]

however in UK

The UK market is more closely aligned with USA than Europe with Xbox leading the field. Seems to be a native english language cultural thing IMO.

PS3 and Xbox 360 each have their strengths IMO, amused by the fact fanboyism is still apparently live and well on this forum. There again I enjoyed using the Wii and Wii Fit for a couple of years.

[Hooksie]

Re: however in UK

"Seems to be a native english language cultural thing IMO" <- ??? WTF?? No wonder you went Anon with that pile of horse manure. Fanboyism?? To prefer one console over another isn't necessarily fanboyism, could be based on any number of factors. Twat.

Anyway...Personally I had a PS3 ages ago and then sold it, recently buying a new slim one to replace it, some of the figures might just come from people replacing broken machines etc. But I love the argument someone put forward about the Nintendo Wii being profitable from day 1; yeah, I'm not surprised in the slightest - Sony spend millions on R&D, co-developed a new chip architechture, developed and included Blu Ray as well as adding any number of premium finishes to the PS3 (the original one that is), even Microsoft didn't just rebadge a PC with a graphics card (which they probably could have done) but went out of their way to develop a pretty decent console. (too loud for normal use I think, but that's just me) Nintendo rebadged a GameCube, put a funny wee wand with it and "revolutionised family gaming". My hoop. Everyone I know who has/had a Wii has used it about 3 times and it sits in a corner doing fookall. I bought one for my missues because she likes Zelda and it's not been on in months. My PS3 on the other hand is used every other day at least beause it has Netflix, BBC iPlayer in HD, 4OD, LoveFIlm, great as a DLNA box etc etc.

XBox works for the US market because that's where they concentrate all their marketing and campaigns - they probably don't give a sh1t if they sell 1 million XBox360's in the UK in a year because they can do that in the US in 1 month.

Nintendo is dead on their ar$e and the "stand up and play games" fad is quickly petering out. I really don't see the Wii U os whatever it's called going anywhere, but I could be wrong - I thought the iPad would never take off so shows how much I know!!

[toadwarrior]

Re: however in UK

If you're going to count replacement units then real terms for actual xbox owners must be something like 15-20 million or did you forget the whole RROD issue?

[I think so I am?]

Re: however in UK

Yep, had 4 Xbox myself but 2 PS3 mind.

[Louis Buxey-Softley]

This far into the current generation of consoles, i would of thought that everyone who wants one.. already has one.

So the graphs & figures mean nothing.

[1Rafayal]

even though they seem to suggest that people are still buying consoles?

[MJI]

They don't

At work one not interested, one can't afford, one not sure what to get (I recommended PS2 due to age of children and HUGE amount of cheap games), one hasn't got one yet, one PS3 owner.

[Kevin 6]

uhh

The chart is kinda stupid along with saying the PS3 is outselling the 3ds

That would be like Nokia saying Dell is selling more computers than they are cellphones...

Now the proper comparison would be the 3ds outselling the each of the sony handhelds around the globe. Or the PS3 outselling the Wii.

Lets face it the Wii is at end of cycle, and most people that want one have one unlike the PS3 or xbox 360 which most people I know are on their 2nd or 3rd due to them dying on them(and these people aren't hard core gamers either, maybe 10 hours a week at max)... Everyone I know is still on their 1st wii though.

I'm more curious about the huge drop in sales across the board in the 1st 2 weeks in Europe, and Japan though where in the US it went up.