The PlayStation 3 had a slow start out of the gate, with a huge price tag and a release a year after the competitive Xbox 360. As of this year, Sony has turned the scenario completely around.
The release of the PS3 Slim marked the beginning of this turn around, with improved hardware models and far more affordable pricing. As a result, sales have shot through the roof, and Sony’s latest fiscal earnings look great. A quick look at the fiscal earnings since the release of the PS3 Slim shows that in that time period, more Slims have flown off the shelf than 360s.
PS3 Slim
Hardware Sales Ap-Jn Jl-Sp Oc-Dc Ja-Mr LTD
FY 2009/10 – 3.2 6.5 2.2 11.9
FY 2010/11 2.4 3.5 6.3 – 24.1
Xbox 360
Hardware Sales Ap-Jn Jl-Sp Oc-Dc Ja-Mr LTD
FY 2009/10 – 2.1 5.2 1.5 8.8
FY 2010/11 1.5 2.8 6.3 – 19.4
This effectively marks December 2010 as the best single month of PlayStation 3 hardware sales yet. Perhaps a certain system selling racing game helped push more of those into consumer hands? Speaking of which, Sony’s Networked Products and Services division reported a profit of ¥45.7 billion ($564m / £348m) for Q3 of their fiscal year. While hardware sales for that quarter were actually slightly less that last year’s third quarter, much of the software sales were up by enormous amounts, to which this profit can be attributed. PS3 games sales rose from 47.6 million to 57.6 million, and PSP game sales went from 15 million to 16.5 million. PS2 game sales fell from 11.2 million units to 5.3 million, perhaps showing that the PS2 is finally nearing the end of its life cycle. With an incredible line up of games on the horizons, hopefully these revenue generating trends continue throughout the year.
