PS3 Sells Less, Comes out the Winner
Fiscal Q1 sales figures hit the net recently, and the results show PlayStation 3 may be closing the gap. Microsoft sold 1.2 million Xbox 360 while Sony’s PS3 sold 1.1 million consoles in the same time period. On face value this appears that Microsoft is still besting Sony for yet another fiscal quarter, but this may be short sighted, considering Sony’s momentum.
The Xbox 360 offers three different versions of their console. The arcade which retails for $199, the Pro which retails for $299, and the Elite which retails for $399. On the flip side Sony offers two versions of it’s shiny black console. The 80GB version which retails for $399, and the 160GB version which retails for $499. Generally speaking, it is a foregone conclusion that in this struggling economy, the more expensive console is the harder sell.
It is unlikely that every Xbox 360 sold was the Elite version and simple math will reveal that Sony’s higher priced offerings commanded more revenues. How is it that with a price as low as $199 the Xbox 360 only managed to outsell the $399 PS3 by a mere 100,000 consoles? This goes to show that the battle for the hearts of core game players is still very much anyone’s ball game.
It’s only a matter of time before Sony lowers the cost of its technical masterpiece, which will spur even higher sales. PlayStation 3 overall sales lag Xbox 360 by just under 8 million units, even with Microsoft’s year long head start. It may be that $299 is the magical price point to really keep the momentum going and the install base expanding.
The real winner here is Sony, who has driven more revenue, while selling 100,000 less consoles than its closest competitor. Profit on the other hand, is a different story, since Sony is allegedly still losing money on every console sold. Sony has already lowered some of the manufacturing costs with more changes in the pipeline. Once they lower the price, there is no stopping the PlayStation 3.
20 Responses to “PS3 Sells Less, Comes out the Winner”
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July 31st, 2009 at 11:08 AM
I have no clue what planet you are on but PS3 is still selling at a $40 dollar loss per console. That’s a negetive 44 million dollars for console sales so far. All 360’s are selling at a slight profit if not more.
360 will lower the price right when PS3 does and 360 has the most recognized game franchise coming out with 2 new games for the next two Holidays, Halo.
PS3 has God of War III as a major well known title left and while I can’t wait for it and think PS3 is better than most make it out to be, the reality is that the general public still think PS3 is $600 bucks and they keep reading that multiplatform games look bettter on 360.
Sony’s advertising for PS3 and it’s games has been a complete train wreck.
July 31st, 2009 at 11:17 AM
He is from the planet that understands the difference between revenue and profit.
Cash flow keeps a business moving. Total profit is what it wants by the year end.
Getting the console out the door and making up the loss on software and online transactions is their game plan.
July 31st, 2009 at 11:27 AM
Good lord. I had seen several stories about the sales numbers for the quarter, but hadn’t actually read any. From the headlines they all made it sound like the PS3 was on the brink a failure. Thank God for you PSLS.
July 31st, 2009 at 12:10 PM
Exactly what momentum does Sony have? They have been selling less and less PS3’s worldwide over the last 8-10 months. Meanwhile MS has been improving year over year. Any “momentum” is clearly not on the side of Sony. Furthermore didn’t you know? Sony says the 360 is more expensive than PS3. So price is not an issue.
08/03/2009 at 11:10 AM
Let me get this straight. PS3s have been selling less, 360s selling more month-by-month. And the PS3 sold slightly less than the 360s this month. So you’re saying, if I understand correctly, that PS3s have outsold 360s every other month in the past and Microsoft is closing the gap? I’m so confused.
July 31st, 2009 at 12:48 PM
A $100 price drop would completely change the dynamics of this so-called “console war”. Everyone will have a PS3 just like everyone had a PS2 last generation.
July 31st, 2009 at 1:08 PM
@The Guy
Halo isn’t even one of the top 3 most recognized gaming franchises in the world. You must be talking about North America only.
July 31st, 2009 at 2:30 PM
@ Jonathan Leack
i think what he means to say is Brand recognition 360 = Halo.
the dynamic might change but it will take marketing to spread the word of the price drop.. word of mouth in the gaming community will spread but not reach everyone. My friends father was under the impression the PS3 was still a 700$ console.
July 31st, 2009 at 3:35 PM
JD next time, photoshop one of the 360’s in that picture with a RROD.. lol.
July 31st, 2009 at 4:23 PM
I can’t really understand people buying 360. We all know that it’ll cost more in the run especially if you need wifi, and the ridiculous price of their HDD. You would also need to play to play online. And just the thought of it dying sometime sooner than later, it’s just disappointing. Some claims that 360 just have a 30% failure rate. But all the people I know already had RRoD (That’s 100% in my calculation). That’s what really kept me from buying a 360. I was really disappointed to know that the 360 had more JRPG games. That’s why I would like to get one to play Last Remnant, and Infinite Undiscovery. Just Hope Square Enix consider it bringing to the PS3. All in all, PS3 would still be much of a greater value for me. I didn’t really care much about blue ray when I bought it. But now, I wish all of my DvDs are blue ray as it looks so much better and I’m planning to expand my library.
July 31st, 2009 at 4:28 PM
[...] ———- Post added at 06:15 PM ———- Previous post was at 05:51 PM ———- PlayStation LifeStyle PS3 Sells Less, Comes out the Winner [...]
July 31st, 2009 at 5:02 PM
I owned an original Xbox and liked it. I liked Halo. I liked other games on that system. However, with the 360, I didn’t even bother. It is frightfully clear that Microsoft is out to fleece the videogaming public. That’s all they care about: your money. They don’t care about broken consoles (unless public opinion and outrage forces them to). They don’t care about quality, they don’t care about consumers. If they did, they would not overcharge for online access and essential peripherals (like hard drives for criminy’s sake- this is 2009, hard drives should be standard). They care only about making dollars and that’s it.
It is a sad comment on the American consumer that Microsoft could get away with selling such a subpar product for so long. It breaks all the time, it costs more in the end and there is no added value to it. It’s a hackneyed version of a gaming box and that’s it. It plays games, some of them good games, but all the while, xbots are slowly being nickeled and dimed to death or sending their consoles in to be fixed. I pray for (but don’t hold my breath for) the day that Americans wise up and stop buying this kind of tripe. Plainly put, xbox owners are doing nothing more than lining up to be robbed- and Microsoft is making them like it. It’s sad.
Sony on the other hand seems to at least have a longterm plan to add value and quality to their products. They charge a fairly big price for their stuff, but that’s because they know what it’s worth.
July 31st, 2009 at 5:09 PM
[...] talked this morning about spinning the numbers. Here are a couple of interesting quotes from PlayStation LifeStyle. The writer believes that Sony has finally put itself in a winning position. On face value this [...]
July 31st, 2009 at 6:15 PM
Yeah I didn’t think there was a massive difference between what Sony and MS sold as far as console numbers.
July 31st, 2009 at 9:50 PM
The Guy, I think he is on the right planet!
“I have no clue what planet you are on but PS3 is still selling at a $40 dollar loss per console. That’s a negetive 44 million dollars for console sales so far. All 360’s are selling at a slight profit if not more.” – You’re right about that one, but Sony will be making money off the PlayStation 3 soon, especially with huge titles coming out, they’ll be making money off the games as well.
“360 will lower the price right when PS3 does and 360 has the most recognized game franchise coming out with 2 new games for the next two Holidays, Halo.” – Ok, this is really what made my angry. Are you serious? Gran Turismo is twice as big as Halo, and guess what? Gran Turismo 5 will probably be coming out in December or January. Plus, we got Final Fantasy 13 exclusive in Japan, and Final Fantasy Versus 13 and Final Fantasy 14 exclusive. God of War 3 also, as you have already mentioned. And then we just have the normal AAA exclusives flowing through each year like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time, MAG, Heavy Rain and probably Resistance 3 and maybe the next Jak & Daxter next year, as well as The Last Guardian. With all these great games, Sony owns anything Halo or Gears of War have. Stop pretending like North America only matters, outside of that place, there are a lot of other franchises that are more popular than Halo and Gears of War.
August 1st, 2009 at 5:44 AM
The 360 is outselling the PS3 2-1 in America. The PS3 is outselling the 360 3-1 in Japan. They are kinda neck to neck in the rest of the world.
Here’s the deal though… How many people ran out of warranties, and got rid of their 360 and went with a 360 with a much better chip inside of it?
I do want to know how many units of the 360 are purchases done because they didn’t want to do the warranty stuff. It won’t be a HUGE change in the numbers, but I think it’s still relevant. Honestly though even if the PS3 doesn’t win the console war, I’m happy as long as Sony lives on indefinitely and continues working like they do.
I don’t want my gaming choice to be “Console with the overly expensive piece of shit proprietary equipment” versus “Console with gimmicky inexpensive attachments but no real follow through on quality”
A lot of great games won’t get made without Sony. Furthermore we lose our ability to choose a console that recycles stuff. I LOVE the fact that my PC flight stick works on my PS3, now I just need the afterburner games added to the PSN. I LOVE that my PS2-USB adapter works allowing me to use PS2 controllers and stuff on PS3 or PC. I love being able to throw in laptop hard drives. When this hard drive fills up I can throw in a larger capacity one and use my old hard drive as an external hard drive.
I love using my blutooth adapaters for PS3 PC and Cellphones. I love plugging in memory sticks and backing up my game saves. Damn it I love the freedom I have on the PS3 fuck the other 2 consoles which get so locked down that I feel like I’m in North Korea. I want the freedom and versitility SONY offers exclusively. If I buy a Racing Wheel that works on my PC, I want it to work on my gaming console. Sony is the only one I trust with that. I’ve got some old ass controllers that work just fine. Hell I bet I could plug in a modified NES controller and get it to work with an old NES like game. Maybe even Bionic Comando downloadable or Megaman 9!
August 2nd, 2009 at 5:42 PM
Great article
One thing that 360 sales numbers do not factor in is how many return cusotmers bought annother xb360, primarily due to the rrod. Having direct experience in video game retail I can confidently say that a major portion of xb360 arcade console purchases are from customers who have had the rrod and don’t want the hassle of dealing with microsoft. The other portion is lower income families and or cheap bastards of arcade console purchases.
Personally I have a friend who has gone through 6 xb360 consoles (no joke) yet my launch 360 has never had the rrod or any other issues.
Think of it this way sony is a hardware manufactuturer and microsoft is a software company first and foremost, hence why the ps3 is such a better piece of hardware compared to the 360, but ms has had a more robust software lineup and online support since that’s been what they have always been good at. If both companies merged their repective productlines nintendo would be f’ed in the a.
By the way any one notice that microsoft released 2 broken products in the same year, vista and the xbox360, shame microsoft, shame.
Everyone knows when you add in all the features the ps3 offers (except blu-ray) the xb360 is a more expensive investment. Consider the battery packs/ play and charge kit, online subscription rates, wireless adapter prices, larger hdd costs, and the significant need of a cooling solution for the console, the ps3 is a better investment. If the gamer who is a kid who never plays online and doesn’t want to d/l any content including demos, then the 360 is cheaper in that regard.
08/03/2009 at 11:13 AM
As always, interesting retail perspective Devon!
August 5th, 2009 at 4:38 AM
[...] PlayStation LifeStyle » PS3 Sells Less, Comes out the Winner Share and Enjoy: [...]
August 6th, 2009 at 10:00 AM
[...] PlayStation LifeStyle » PS3 Sells Less, Comes out the Winner [...]
September 16th, 2009 at 12:32 PM
PlayStation 3 has higher hardware in the console it’s self, but if you add blue to Elite X box 360, it’s then going to be a Elite $599,
This Now show’s Sony’s PlayStation 3, is better then the Crap Box 360 Bin,
But it doe’s not tell us what Microsoft is going to do next with “Crap Box”
There need to stop some things like :
(1) Bin the online “pay to play”
(2) Add Wi-fi to the console, <– Ps3 has this in there Console,
(3) Make a new Console NOW,
January 27th, 2010 at 6:46 PM
When Sony drops it’s prices and provides more product offerings(new technology) with their systems then they will be the leaders in the video game system industry.