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PlayStation 3 sales plummet. When's the price cut?

April 4, 2007

Sony's PlayStation 3 people may have been bullish about week one sales, but they may be feeling more sheepish after a fortnight. Sales of the Sony PS3 dropped off by a massive 80 percent in the second week of availability, according to ChartTrack.

Sony reported reasonably healthy sales of 165,000 PS3 consoles in its first week on sale, but second week sales were in the region of 33,000 PlayStation consoles. That's a fairly big difference, no?

And this is despite doling out hundreds of the things at the London launch event (that's right, I wasn't invited).

You might expect a drop off after the first week, but sales of PS3 games fell by 60 percent, too (which is where the money is at). And this despite the fairly prominent (and baffling) ad campaign to support the healthy number of new releases hitting the shelves, including Virtua Tennis 3 and Virtua Fighter 5. (Virtua Games Console Salesman is still in development).

Sony shipped around a quarter of a million PlayStation 3 consoles to Britain for the PS3 launch. With these paltry sales figures, supply is still outstripping demand, so there's none of the buzz required to drive sales.

(A friend who works in IT at a large City bank told me gleefully that one of his monumentally rich colleagues preordered four PS3s and put them up for sale on the company intranet at a hiked price. At the time of writing they are still up there, at list price.)

So, although the Casino Royale Blu-ray disc is selling well, it can't be long until Sony cuts the huge price tag of the PS3, can it? Otherwise it's not going to be able to shift any games (or, indeed, Blu-ray discs) and I won't be upgrading.

More here

Posted by: Matt Egan

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Comments

Posted by Sil on April 4, 2007 :

Sony is caught between a rock and a hard place.
The PS3 is good value for money as a multimedia device. We've been watching Blu-Ray and standard DVD's, surfing the web, stored several music albums on the hard drive as well as play music on it. and there's the gaming of course.
We've linked it to the PSP so our music is available anywhere in the house.
But they were forced to class the machine as a Playstation which gave the wrong impression of what it's capable of.

Posted by Dan on April 4, 2007 :

Of course the week after launch was slower. Normally consoles don't even have enough stock to sell the second week, but this time Sony made extra so there was.

Posted by jacksons98 on April 4, 2007 :

They shipped 200,000 sold 165,000 at launch. That leaves them with about 35,000 for the following week, could that contribute to part of the decline?? Hmmmm...

Posted by john 54 on April 4, 2007 :

Sony needs to drop the price of the ps3 in europe.In general people feel that its a rip off(a rich mans console).Its even to pricey for me and I'm a fanboy!.I know that sony (says it) can't afford the prce cut but if they drop the retail price by £100 most people would then buy one and sony would benefit in the long run(as PS3 is no doubt the best console).Also just in case you're thinking I'm completely pro sony I will finish by adding that I have a 360 about a year and Yes Gears of War does ROCK!.

Posted by Keith on April 4, 2007 :

My PS2 does just fine for $150

Posted by Chris on April 5, 2007 :

What a silly article. They have almost sold through their entire first shipment to Europe in 2 weeks. 200,000 units shipped 198,000 units sold. This is bad? The Playstation 3's launch across 2 weeks is unbelievable.

An article like this should never be written.

P.S. While some of you may be happy with your older PS's, when you finally make the move you will then understand why the PS3 is so amazing. And if you are currently happy there is no rush. But for me the PS3 is an awesome value and I personally wanted a solution like this - now.

Posted by Psychotext on April 5, 2007 :

People here seem to be hinting that the reason Sony sold so little was due to stock shortages in the second week. I suggest you walk into your high street, log onto argos.co.uk / play.com / amazon.co.uk and see if there's any shortage of machines for sale there.

The numbers just don't add up.

Posted by Franko on April 5, 2007 :

It is utter folly to suggest that the PS3 has somehow failed when it's pumping out over 30,000 per week. I'm sure this rate will slow further as we move away from launch day, but it's hardly disappointing. I wonder what sort of sales Matt Egan would require before he actually considered the ps3 successful?

His Blu Ray comment is equally naive. If you;ve bought an HDTV you need an HD source. Try getting a good high definition player for less, go on, I dare you. price the 360 with hd drive and tell me that's better value.... I wouldn't want that mish mash of white book ends under my glossy black hd tv. I wonder what would look good there?

Posted by Franko on April 5, 2007 :

Just for interst I looked at Amzon's chart for video games.
360 languishing at 42, can't be selling that well, heartily amused however that a better seller is the 12 months live subscription for a discounted £34.98. I'm sure all those buyers are delighted they saved on the initial console only to shell out to play online games.
PS3 = expensive?
What a lot of crock.
If you can't afford a PS3 you certainly can't afford a 360 with hd -dvd drive and online play.

Posted by Betty Boop on April 5, 2007 :

I was thinking of buying a PS3 but the price, as well as the fact that it can't play PS2 games put me off.
I won't be buying one.

Posted by Mark Norton on April 5, 2007 :

I agree with your comments, but I was going to buy a PS3, and then found out that Sony had removed the chip that enables the backwards compatiblity function; this was included in the Japan and USA systems. These countries paid less for their systems, with the chip included in the PS3, yet we pay more in comparision, and have to suffer software emulation. I am not happy, Sony does not live up to its promises, and seeks to rip the UK off, no customer faith.

Posted by Mr Johnson on April 5, 2007 :

HA HA sony should not sh-t on people when there is the likes of xbox 360 etc LOL. its about time this power mad company got done like this

Posted by Sue Nicholls on April 5, 2007 :

I have been waiting for the ps3 but when i heard that they had taken the chip out thus preventing you from playing ps2 games i was not happy. If it had been cheaper that usa i could understand. I think we should not buy them until sony change their mind and add the chip!! - power to the people!

Posted by Sue Nicholls on April 5, 2007 :

I have been waiting for the ps3 but when i heard that they had taken the chip out thus preventing you from playing ps2 games i was not happy. If it had been cheaper that usa i could understand. I think we should not buy them until sony change their mind and add the chip!! - power to the people!

Posted by Belatucadrus on April 6, 2007 :

"The PS3 is good value for money"

"the PS3 is an awesome value"

Have I found the Sony marketing team convention ? Whatever the merits of the system and I'm quite happy to believe it's a modern wonder. The UK version is ridiculously expensive and underspecced when compared with US and European equivalents. Being blatantly ripped off is never good let alone awesome value.

Posted by www.pureastonishment.com on April 14, 2007 :

My brother has a Playstation 3 and it does seem like a nice machine, nobody can deny that, but anybody who sits there and defends or praises Sony must surley be deluded? Much like anybody who supports this Labour government we have - must be completely insane!

PS3 Price: Imagine being in a bar. The guy next to you buys a drink for £1 Then you buy exactly the same drink, except it has been standing around for a while and has gone a bit flat, and you get charged £1.50 for it. Would you PRAISE the bar man? "Wow, you're great!" I don't think so!

This is exactly the situation here in the UK with the PS3. Completely over-priced compared to other countries and minus the PS2 PSU included in non-europrean versions. Anyone who can forgive Sony for that is insane. (most other manufacturers do the same too)

cont...

Posted by www.pureastonishment.com on April 14, 2007 :

...PS3 Sales: You only have to look at the plethora of sites showing photos of the Sony PS3 launch events, which were largly deserted to know that it wasn't as 'big' as Sony had hoped. Sony spin about supplying enough consoles to avoid them selling out is utter lies! Of course they wanted it to sell out. Look at the media frenzy caused by the Wii. Would it have gotten such publicity if it hadn't sold out? Of course not. If the PS3 had sold out it would have created much more demand. On launch day, PS3's were abundant everywhere. You could get one in Virgin for about £380 for god's sake! They are reduced in price in many places already. Every shop still has them in stock? Of course Sony didn't plan for this - regardless of what they say.

cont...

Posted by www.pureastonishment.com on April 14, 2007 :

...Remember, this is the company who’s spokesman made a statement effectively trying to convince us brits that over-charging us, removing the PS2 processor, and banning us from purchasing US or Japanese PS3's if to our benefit!!! I would never buy one out of principal after reading the comments of this Sony spokesman.

As i say, it might well be a good machine, but Sony is full of lies and contempt for the UK market, but it amazing how blind some people can be. You only have to know that Tony Blair has been in power for 10 years to realise that!

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