Sony PS3 Sales Plummet (1 Viewer)

[donato]

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds...nys_ps3_a_sinking_ship_sales_plummet_sne.html




(alleyinsider.com) -- Sony's (SNE) PS3 is dying on the shelves.

Alone among the three major videogame consoles, sales of the PS3 are down about 19% from November 2007, according to the latest stats from the NPD Group. Sony was only able to sell 378,000 PS3s this November, compared to 466,000 last year.

And the problem for Sony isn't the recession, it's the PS3. Microsoft (MSFT) put up respectable numbers with its Xbox 360, selling 836,000 units vs 777,000 in November 2007. And Nintendo's (NTDOY) Wii continues to dominate the market, more than doubling sales from 981,000 to 2.04 million.

 

[Zardnok]

I think Sony WAY overplayed their hand with the PS3. If they want to recover, their only choice is to slash prices on the PS3 AND on the over-priced blu-ray discs or offer a gaggle more "free" goodies from the Playstation network to show people the additional value inherent.

 

[All The Way]

BluRay is probably the biggest reason that "on-the-fencers" will buy a PS3, and now stand alone BluRay players are very cheap. Too bad the discs aren't. BluRay as a media form will continue to fail until disc prices are cut. I absolutely 100% refuse to buy movies for more than $20, and I'm only willing to spend that much on blockbusters like Dark Knight/Iron Man.

Home is a disaster.

Prices need to be cut immediately. The exclusive titles are out there IMO. Not complete game changers like Halo, but significant enough to justify having a PS3 if the price is right.

The PS3 is a great system, but your average non hardcore fan won't appreciate enough of a difference pre-buy to justify buying it over a 360 arcade unit. Folks just don't always do their homework enough to notice that the PS3 ships with integrated adders that the 360 sells separately. And for many folks, they don't even care.

 

[saintsdude76]

I think if Sony had more exclusives that really showed off the power of the PS3 it might help sales. However, why pay $400 for a system that plays the same games as a $200 system? Sony lost sight on the selling point of a gaming system; The games. The Nintendo Wii is fun and affordable, and the XBOX 360 is affordable and has a huge library of games.

Sony gonna be eating crow soon if they don't slash prices.

 

[All The Way]

Sony hasn't done a good enough job marketing the exclusive titles IMO. If I weren't a hardcore gamer I would never consider buying a cute looking game like LBP.

You're right in that there's not 1 exclusive "Halo-ish" title and that a game like that would change everything. The only problem is that games are so good these days that if Halo 3 came out today and wasn't part of a huge franchise it might be overlooked for something like the COD series with an established track record and following.

What I'm trying to say here is that the PS3 has great games, but doesn't have any franchises (other than Konami owned MGS) that market themselves like the Halo series does. If a game doesn't market itself, Sony needs to step up with massive marketing campaigns the likes of which we haven't seen.

 

[Jackavelli]

i want a ps3 but just can't justify the price. they are already losing money each time they sell one so i can't see a huge price drop anytime soon.

 

[Spoozer]

They need to cut the price - bottom line. Standalone Blu-Ray players are getting cheaper and one of the main selling points for the PS3 originally was it was an affordable Blu-Ray alternate. If they don't wise up and cut at least $100 off the price they will be sorry.

 

[The Mongoose]

the problem is that the bluray bits make the console too expensive to produce. They are already losing money on each sale at the current price; cutting prices further is going to hurt even worse.

But, we don't know how much value they place on bluray being adopted. That might make the price cut worth it to them; dunno. They successfully killed hidef DVD, so maybe they already consider the ps3 a success. The ps3 was never about the gamer.

 

[antipop]

The ps3 was never about the gamer.

nonsense

 

[All The Way]

But, we don't know how much value they place on bluray being adopted. That might make the price cut worth it to them; dunno. They successfully killed hidef DVD, so maybe they already consider the ps3 a success. The ps3 was never about the gamer.

What needs to happen is that they stop getting greedy. They not only want to force the same movies on us as we already have on DVD, but they want to charge us twice as much. If they were smart they'd price the Blurays at $17.99 which would encourage on the fencers to switch. Economies of scale would prevail and money would be made. In the process Bluray would be saved and the PS3 would get a jolt to the arm.

 

[Zardnok]

They need to cut the price - bottom line. Standalone Blu-Ray players are getting cheaper and one of the main selling points for the PS3 originally was it was an affordable Blu-Ray alternate. If they don't wise up and cut at least $100 off the price they will be sorry.

I bought my PS3 for the Blu-ray capabilities first and the gaming second. In fact, the only game I have purchased was Madden and I am so disgusted with football after watching every Saints and LSU game this season, I have not played it at all. Perhaps during the off-season I will use Madden to tide me over until the draft and OTAs. I have downloaded a number of demo games from playstation network, but have yet to find one I think is worthy of spending $60 on. My GF is probably buying me Oblivion for Christmas, so we will see what that holds

I also think that $100ish is about what would need to be cut in order to make the PS3 competitive with other gaming systems. The blu-ray's need to drop below $20 in order for the format to survive. I would likely buy 3 times as many movies at $14.99/$9.99 that I would at $26.99/$24.99 and new release games for $60 was not something I expected. Not being able to buy used blu-rays from the local video stores also stinks! 75% of the DVDs I own were purchased used on some type of 3 for $20/$30 special. I guess I did not research the blu-ray/PS3 format enough to realize the media was so much more expensive than DVDs or other games.

Granted, I would likely still go ahead and buy what I did, albeit without Madden, just because I want the best media format to enjoy my Home theater system.

 

[xpuma20x]

We got our new Playstation magazines in at work the other day and I was reading through it while on conference call (you know the feeling I'm sure). I opened up the page to a huge double spread Gamefly ad right in the middle. On the ad they had the following games in large image form...Left 4 Dead, Gears of War 2 and Prince of Persia (in a PS3 box).

I think this is a perfect example of what has happened to the PS3. Why let someone buy ad space thats going to promote the "enemy" more than yourself? And on top of it, the only game they selected for the PS3, is a game that is also on the xbox...why not LBP? Or Resistance 2...dang...something thats exclusive

 

[The Mongoose]

nonsense

At this point, it's obvious. Sony wanted to push the bluray format first and foremost. That's where the main emphasis was. Don't know if it was arrogance due to the ps2's success or what, but they took the gamer for granted. Gaming was secondary.

Contrast that with MS being hungry to win the console war after being trounced by the ps2. The focus was to get the 360 out first (anyone who rroded knows the cost of this) and win market share with awesome games and exclusive content. Their eye was on the ball. They weren't off strong arming movie studios to adopt some format.

Now they have a large install base and can pursue other avenues- like netflix, etc. But with MS, all the extras are there to add frills for the gamer. They're not the point of the entire platform.

Sony hasn't really even hidden the fact that they put the gamer in second place. It's been patently obvious from the beginning, hence our arguments a long time ago about this stuff, specifically why gamers would choose to align themselves with someone who would take them for granted.

At this point, in ain't so bad to be a ps3 gamer. But for the first year it was. Who knows what it will be like in the future.

But if you're like me and you hate Sony to begin with (dreamcast vengeance ftw!), this is all very interesting.

 

[antipop]

you hate sony so you make up this nonsense to justify your hate.....how can you even say that "it was never about the gamer"??? sure they wanted to get blu-ray out there, but they also made a fine gaming system

meanwhile, you love a company that knowingly sold you a machine that was faulty so they could get ahead of the competition...you don't think that M$ was taking gamers for granted with that move???

dude, it makes no sense but whatever

 

[authentic]

"We don't say it's a game console (*laugh*) - PlayStation 3 is clearly a computer, unlike the PlayStations [released] so far."

-Ken Kutaragi