US PS3 sales hold up as Wii, Xbox 360 numbers dip
PSP demand rises too
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 just 82,000 PS3s.
That's the same number NPD quoted for Sony in April. Both Nintendo and Microsoft saw sales fall month on month, the researcher revealed, down 6.1 per cent and 10.9 per cent, respectively.
Sony can take some further solace from the fact that the PS2 outsold the Xbox 360 - US consumers bought 188,000 of the no-longer-cutting-edge console, 3.1 per cent fewer than it sold in April. It sold even more PSPs - 221,000, up 20.7 per cent from April's figure of 183,000 - but then that's way below Nintendo's DS May sales total of 423,000 consoles, down 10.2 per cent.
COMMENTS
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
