(AP) - In an important early look at the pivotal holiday sales season, Sony Corp. said it met its goal of shipping 1 million PlayStation 3 consoles to North America in 2006 despite ongoing production problems with the still hard-to-find video game system.
The figure is about half of Sony's stated goal of 2 million PS3s globally by the end of 2006. The company did not disclose a global tally in the announcement, made at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Sony has dominated previous rounds of the console wars with the PlayStation 1 and 2, but it is still undecided who will grab the lead this time around -- the PS3, or its two chief rivals: Nintendo Co.'s Wii and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corp.
The PS3's launch had been delayed in the United States from the spring to November, yet supply problems were still evident when it went for sale on Nov. 17.
The company ended up selling 197,000 PS3s on launch day, less than half of the 400,000 it had initially forecast. The market research company NPD Group estimated that U.S. consumers bought 476,000 Wiis in the two weeks following its Nov. 19 launch.
Sony officials have attributed the limited supply to manufacturing glitches with blue laser diodes, the technological heart of the system's high-capacity, high-definition Blu-ray disk drive.
Sony spokesman Dave Karraker said the company has been airlifting additional PS3s each week and will continue to do so through spring, if necessary.
Though updated figures were not available, a Nintendo spokeswoman said the company's earlier prediction to ship 4 million units by the end of the year was still on target.
Microsoft said Sunday it had sold 10.4 million Xbox 360s through the end of 2006. That narrowly beat the company's earlier stated goal of 10 million. The company expects to sell 13-15 million Xbox 360s by the end of its fiscal year in June, Microsoft spokesman David Hufford said.
Both Sony and Nintendo are projecting selling 6 million consoles by the end of March. Sony expects to start shipping the PS3 to Europe sometime that month as well.
Selling machines in large numbers is crucial in the gaming business because it encourages software companies to make more games, which in turn boosts console sales.
Sony controlled the previous generation with 70 percent of the global market, including 35 million PlayStation 2 consoles in the United States. The original Xbox was second with nearly 15 million sold, followed by 11 million Nintendo GameCubes.
At this early stage with the next-generation consoles, Sony isn't concerned if rivals Microsoft or Nintendo end up selling more units because the overall industry is benefiting from very strong demand, Karraker said.
"Are we worried about strong sales of the Wii or Xbox 360? Not really," he said. "It was a great year for the industry overall. With the tide all ships rise
As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.
And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.
Gary Green said: We have a juxtaposition of 2D and 3D visuals, flashy turn-based combat, quirky anime characters with cheeky dialogue with plenty of partial nudity; Yes, this is a Compile Heart JRPG. Whilst the engine is borrowed from Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2, Mugen Souls is more of a Disgaea spin-off. It’s not a strategy RPG as such, it merely sits within Disgaea’s ever-expanding universe (Multiverse? Netherverse? Your guess is as good as mine). You won’t find cameos though, since Mugen Souls is a franchise which aims to stand on its own two feet.
Huzaifa from eXputer: "2008 was home to the likes of Call of Duty: World at War, Dead Space, GTA 4, Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead, and many other hits, which is outright remarkable."
Here here
Those that were around before 2000's i am sure are like me that think we entered a world of non readers or those that follow without question.
I can not wait to see fallout 3 a goty game even though it was about water with non content until you add the dlc/updates then you got the performance/crashing
1998 - the best year in gaming! Metal gear solid, crash bandicoot 3, medievil, half life, ocarina of time, thief, tenchu, resident evil 2, Spyro, tomb raider 3, oddworld abes exodus, banjo kazooie.
It was a different breed of a gaming era. You’ll never understand what it was like back then. The aura of gaming, it was different!
I second this. Gaming was a lot more varied and fun than it is today. I'm 35 so getting on compared to some here but I got to see all the changes from NES up to now but I've never felt so disappointed in any generation than I have this current gen. I was expecting more from this generation rather than prettier versions of games that came before it. Game mechanics have become so refined that alot of games feel the same and has done for a while now.
Maybe it's time to have a break for a while. I love gaming but I don't feel I get much fun in the traditional sense out of it anymore.
Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil 2, Abe’s Exodus, and Ocarina of Time are the only things from that list that I liked.
Here’s the 2023 game releases that I personally liked… and big releases that I didn’t care for:
- Dead Space Remake
- Wo Long Dynatsy
- Resident Evil 4 Remake
- Diablo 4
- Fire Emblem Engage
- Hogwarts Legcay
- Street Fighter 6
- Hi-Fi Rush
- Like a Dragon: Ishin
- Octopath Traveler 2
- Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters
- Final Fanatsy XVI (actually ended up not liking this, but it was still a big deal release)
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
- Lies of P
- Mortal Kombat 1
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- Starfield (Ended up hating this one, but big release)
- Super Mario Bros. Wonder
- Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (I’m an old-school Zelda fan, but didn’t really enjoy this game)
- Alan Wake 2
I mean, honestly I’ve never seen a year of major IP releases like that, ever.
Isn't it just a generational thing realistically.
I've been gaming since way back and I some of my favourite games go as far back as the late 80s for me each generation has a year or two of game changing releases one after another before an inevitable dry spell.
I kind of agree gaming had a different feel games hit different because we didn't have the internet nothing got spoiled and you really had to put in the effort to beat a puzzle which could set entire groups of people looking for a solution. But most importantly games were experimental and not as cookie cutter as today even basics like controls were not universal today r2 is shoot l2 is ads garunteed you can't deviate from that in a shooter back then it could of been square, R1 or R1 and circle nothing was standard.
But as time moves on a new generation picks up their controller they are going to be interested in different things that PS1 demo disc with the t Rex blew our primitive 16 bit brains back on launch but to kids today it's laughable.
The new gen of kids coming into to hobby seem to value different things to us there seems to be a huge focus on online play, streamers, gaming personalities, and social experiences, convience of digital downloads. To me I value none of that but that's ok like my parents not liking the band's I would listen to its just the natural cycle.
Just about every year in the 7th generation was great and something we most likely won't experience again.
2009 for example had Assassin's Creed 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Dragon Age: Origins, Uncharted 2, Halo 3: ODST, Killzone 2, Borderlands, Bayonetta, and Demon's Souls to name a few.
It still amazes me we got over 7 rockstar games ps2/ps3 but 3 for the ps3/ps4/ps5
Dragon age 1-3 and mass effect 1-3 in 7ish years what a generation.
but definatly not sold.
im glad to hear Xbox has met the 10 million mark because that means more games for me. I have a wii and sales are still going strong but i dont see any games i'll be getting on the horizon.
I wonder how many units they were able to put out in Japan. If they can get 4 million units out by the end of March they should be in good shape, especially with some really big titles coming out during that timeframe.
DJ explain me one thing
In another post you're just saying sales for the PS3 won't pick up till march or something like that, because people spend all their money already for last year (and probably paying of credit cards for Christmas spendings).
So about 800k consoles sold now, in 1,5 month. How do you think it'll ever be possible to sell another 3.2 million consoles in just 3 months, when sales (according to yourself also) slow down at the moment???
Even if it keeps selling at the rate of the past 1.5 month, there will be only 2 x 800k sold. That's 1.6 million for these 3 months. That's 2.4 million PS3 units total at the end of March. And the speed of selling declines indeed. So they may be happy hitting 1.8 to 2 million I guess by then
I am curious how Europe/Australia/rest of the world sold in Wii and 360. 360 sold 2 million units in North America alone. Now those are numbers of meaning
in March. With Motorstorm and Heavenly Sword both due out by then and the European launch. If sales are still disappointing by the end of the month, it will be proof that PS3 has failed.