back to article US PS3 sales fell 45% in July

July's US console sales figures are in, and the PS3 managed to come in ahead of the Xbox 360 despite a massive drop in sales. Both consoles were again mightily thrashed by Nintendo's Wii. 2008 US Console Sales July 2008 US Console Sales Source: NPD According to market watcher NPD, Microsoft sold 205,000 Xbox 360s in July, …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Clearly

    To anyone but an idiot, last months PS3 sales spike were down to MGS4 launch, hence the drop.

    Still i suppose it makes headlines...

    More interestingly, despite it being the quietest gaming season, in both releases and hardware buying, PS3 still outsold the 360, even with it's new low price...

    Perhaps consumers have finally understood, you get what you pay for, you buy cheap, you get crap.

  2. Slartybardfast

    Just a blip?

    Surely PS3 and Xbox sales have been pretty much tracking each other all year. So the question is, what caused the big PS3 jump in June sales in the US compared with the rest of the year? If it was just a statistical blip then surely the return to mean was to be expected?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    Umm...

    July's PS3 sales were down compared to June for two main reasons. First, June's PS3 sales were unusually high because of the release of Metal Gear Solid 4, so it was expected the numbers would dip in July. Second, according to NPD's accounting system, June is 5 weeks long and July is only 4 weeks, so it was expected that numbers from every manufacturer would dip.

    El Reg usually does a good job of pointing out the folly of making outrageous statements based on unusual data without taking that data into context. Why let your guard down now?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    June was good for the PS3?

    Hmmm...

    That would be the MGS4 fans, then...

  5. Adrian Jackson
    Thumb Down

    Categorising this as a massive fall seems a bit disingenuous

    It's just sales reverting to normal after the massive spike caused by the Metal Gear Solid 4 launch.

    In terms of trends, I'm more interested in the drop-off for the Wii over the last couple of months. Are there supply issues? (I mean more than normal, obviously...)

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Erm, of course...

    Nothing to do with the threat of a recession, people with less money to play with and the fact it's the summer so people going outside more often? Just a thought...

    If it's money woes, I'd expect the more expensive consoles to take the hit first.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    You gotta be friggin kidding me

    Maybe, just maybe, its because this is the time of year when most people sink all their available cash into their summer holiday?

    Call me crazy, but its just a hunch.

    As for the Xbox continuing its (low) sales, thats just the poor bastards having to re-buy new consoles after its 4th RROD or an out-of-warranty fault.

  8. Ed3

    Stimulus cheques...

    Probably coincidental, but the <s>George Bush</s> US Economic Stimulus Plan cheques started going out mid/late May.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    PS3 Fanboy comments

    Can't we have one of these comment threads where the insecure PS3 owners don't slag off the 360 because they're annoyed the 360 is still ahead of the PS3 in sales and has the better games? Honestly there's bound to be a game worth buying for the PS3 eventually, just be patient.

    For the record, my launch 360 is still going strong, my PS3's Blu-Ray drive stopped working 3 months after I bought it.

  10. Brian Wright
    Happy

    @AC PS Fanboy

    Yeh way to stick it to MS, selling 20,000 more PS3's! Now remind me, how many more 360's have been sold than PS3's?

  11. /\/\j17
    Paris Hilton

    Oh My God!

    I mean it's almost like someone release a major title on the PS3 in June, pushing up that months figures and then in July Sony announced that a new PS3 version with a larger hard drive and same price was going to be launched in August, so people held off buying!

    Paris, just because.

  12. Jules

    Wii still printing money.

    An explanation I've heard for the drop off in US Wii sales is that Nintendo are shipping fewer Wiis to the US due to the weak dollar. They're still selling them as fast as they can build them but can make more profit selling the consoles in other markets.

  13. Adrian Jackson
    Alert

    Re: PS3 Fanboy comments

    Perhaps we could do away with the comments from the insecure 360 owners like yourself too? Maybe putting some sort of "IQ higher than shoe size" test into the comment form for news stories related to gaming would improve things.

    (Checks size 11 feet.)

    Well, higher than *or equal to*, anyway.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Brian Wright

    The Xbox360 is selling at a rate of 6 million units per year as opposed to the PS3's 7 million/year... Remember that the Xbox360 has a 1 year lead on the PS3.

    Although, both wish they could match the Wii's 14 million units per year...

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Brian Wright

    It's 14.5m PS3s vs 18m 360s

    Not bad at all for Sony, considering Microsoft had 12 month headstart in the US, and 18months in Europe. Also consider than many of those units sold are replacements for RROD from clueless owners that don't know about the extended warranty.

    Looking at multi-platform game sales, I would suspect the totals for both consoles are quite close, and by Xmas, the PS3 will have sold more.

  16. Michael

    @ AC 13:11

    >>>If it's money woes, I'd expect the more expensive consoles to take the hit first.

    Perhaps not, though. Considering more PS3 and 360 buyers are more "dedicated" gamers, they're more likely to continue purchasing in spite of economic hardship, whereas the less expensive Wii, appealing to families more than the other consoles, will take more of a hit because families tend to be more conscientious of spending than your typical gamer fanatic.

    To what degree this actually occurs, I don't know, but it's certainly not just down to how expensive it is, but also the demographic of who purchases each console.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @clearly

    mark. just shush. the grownups are talking.

  18. Highlander

    I see Tony's still spinning as ever.

    Tony, you'd be better off writing for The Inquirer, at least they admit that they add their personal bias and spin to supposed news articles.

    Seems like somewhere you forgot to mention the launch in June of the PS3 system selling MGS4 which shipped something over 3 million units during launch. A decent proportion of their total units were bundle packs sold with PS3s, so much so that they sold out in some places. You might also want to tie that in with the recent announcement by Sony of the upgrade from 40GB to 80GB in their core unit which also indicated that Sony was running down the remaining 40GB stock. I don't know, perhaps those factors had something ot do with the drop in unit sales?

    Gee, ya think?

    MS is probably doing something similar with it's 20GB Pro units since they have their 60GB unit coming soon as well, so no doubt they are running down their 20GB stock, which I imagine has an impact on their over all stock and sales in the market.

    Perhaps the bigger story is in the trend lines. Nintendo Wii has seen month on month decreases in unit sales despite Nintendo claims that supply is better than ever. Both Xbox360 and PS3 are on the up, their sales in July are up from May. PS3 clearly had a significant game release in June that skews it's figures, so June is impossible to use for comparisons. Looking at the trend lines the story might be better phrased as "Sony PS3 and MS Xbox360 sales hold steady as Nintendo Wii Continues Decrease".

    Lastly, I'm actually heartily sick of articles comparing Wii and PS3/360 as if they are the same market segment or hardware generation. Wii is massively successful, yes. But it's not in the same segment as 360/PS3. It's hardware isn't in the same class as 360/PS3. The majority of multi-platform releases on PS3/360 don't arrive on Wii. If they do arrive on Wii, it's in a scaled back form or with a different kind of gameplay that the Wii can handle.

    We don't compare handheld sales to those of the home consoles, do we? Why do we compare Wii/PS2 with PS3/360? The market segments each sells to are different. The age and economic profiles of the two groups are markedly different, as are the gaming histories of those buying each console. And yet we persist in comparing Wii, PS3 and Xbox360 like it's an apples to apples comparison. Which it clearly is not.

  19. Andy Bright

    OH DEAR GOD!

    Are you sure about this? You all realise what this means don't you? KIDS ARE PLAYING OUTSIDE DURING THE SUMMER!

    Please, God, don't let this be true! The idea that parents are buying their kids summer holidays instead of PS3s and Wiis is an atrocity that should be dealt with forthwith.

    I prescribe 2 weeks of WoW for the adults and a healthy dose of Tekken for the kids.

    Phew, problem solved.

  20. Sam

    Just the reverse MGS effect.

    Sales spiked due to MGS and dropped again afterwards, thats pretty much it, nothing to see here.

  21. Wokstation
    Thumb Down

    So why no headline...

    ...about the 93% increase in Ps3 sales in June?

    You don't even comment on the very obvious spike on the graph in your article.

  22. Gary

    @Brian

    It doesn't matter f the AC is a PS3 fanboy or not, failing to mention the influence of an obvious additive outlier when presenting data is poor form, and using the misleading figure as a headline even worse.

    It seems especially lazy when the article covering the previous month's figures made actually cited the release as MGS as a reason for the sharp rise then

    Still, I suppose it is a Friday...

  23. david

    Japan's number 7/21 to 7/27

    According to Famitsu Magazine: (after MG4 craze)

    PSP 71229

    DS 60610

    Wii 42123

    PS3 11894

    PS2 9707

    XBOX360 4850

    Anyone has Europe's number.

  24. Miles Bader
    Paris Hilton

    no headline because

    One month spikes are not interesting, in general.

    People care more about trends.

  25. Steven Swenson
    Thumb Up

    Another way to look at it.

    In one hand, you have the fact that the PS3 only dropped because it the metal gear solid 4 release was over. On the other hand, you have the fact that its sales could not rise at all without using such a popular release as a crutch.

    Oh well. Maybe another game worth playing will come along and once again temporarily bolster sales.

  26. Alex
    Heart

    Wii vs Xbox360/PS3

    One gent I met argued the following when comparing the Wii with the Xbox & PS3:

    "When these machines, i always look at it from the following analogy: The Wii is a Mini Cooper S (fun, pleasing on the eye and nippy), while the Xbox is a Lambo Reventón (Super car that has a cult following) and the PS3 is a Ferrari FXX (super car that also has a cult following). The Mini Cooper S has outsold these two models 1000s of time over, but the Lambo and the Ferrari are still the superior car. The Mini is well liked by all (generally including the Lambo and Ferrari fans), but the Lambo and the Ferrari are only liked by the hardcore supercar fans. The Mini is quick, but the two other cars are stupidly quick! So, you see, the cars themselves have a place for each type of fan, whether or not they sell in their 1000s, or (as like the two super cars) only 20-30."

    Very apt, and a lovely way of describing the defferences in consoles in 'easy to understand' terms. But that's my Dad, and if HE can understand the console 'wars' EVERYONE can :o)

    Peace to one and all.

    ..oh yeah, it was the MSG4 that spiked.. and it's Summer after all.. Hmm, reminds me of the Simpsons episode where there was no TV... All the kids came out of the houses rubbing their eyes in the sun light and started playing 'old skool' games in the park and streets. Ah.. good times.. good memories.. I miss my childhood before all this rot started.

  27. Iain

    @clearly

    The minimal advantage the PS3 has over the 360 sales at the moment matches the proportion of people buying them purely as Blu-ray players. As a measure of the more successful GAMES machine it's too small to care about. They're both doing about the same, which is pretty terrible in comparison to the Wii.

  28. andrew wavey

    PS3 vs Wii vs XBOX

    Let see, my comments on this. XBOX, a PC based company which supports more shooter games than most. go figure. You don't have to be a genius to point a gun. so that don't say much for the x-box gamers. Wii. well there are by far more kids than adults. and they are cheaper. games for the wii are more geared towards children. PS3. Well damn that there is one hell of a machine. you need the cash which you would have to have brains to get a decent job that won't set you and your family back. and you have to have more brains than a x-box gamer who like to shoot things so yeah that might be the reason for the slump. regardless of the sales. PS3 Hands down take it all. by the way, i bought a wii for my kid long after I purchased a PS3. my kid hates the wii. don't blame him. he much to smart for that. xbox. hell he wouldn't even consider it cause it probably makes him feel that he has to dumb himself down a little.

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