Andrew Yoon writes - Sony's PS3 slump continues. The high price of the PS3, coupled with a weak economy, has proven a one-two punch against Sony's current home console. PS3 sold 203k units in North America in the month of January. While this may sound good, a look at 2008's results shows a grim trend for Sony. While both the Wii and Xbox 360 have gained momentum from 2008 to 2009, PS3 has actually dropped down.
Things may change for Sony, especially with another year of fantastic exclusives planned for the system. Peter Dille, SVP of Marketing, ignores the January NPD results entirely and instead looks towards the future. "The PlayStation brand experienced a record year in sales in 2008 and we have every reason to believe our blockbuster line up combined with PS3's position as the best Blu-ray player and most sophisticated entertainment device out there, will continue to fuel increased marketshare and momentum into 2009. We've truly upped the ante this year with an unmatched software lineup ahead, kickstarting with the much anticipated and platform-moving title Killzone 2 later this month. We're the only company to offer three viable platforms today and will continue to deliver a seamless and comprehensive entertainment experience to our customers for many years to come."
It's true that PS3 does many things: it's a great games player, a sophisticated Blu-ray player, and has free access to the PlayStation Network. However, will consumers respond to that message? Only time will tell.
Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.
Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.
you should apply in MS PR team buddy, I think you will do a great job in my humble opinion :)
MS: "Xbox services and content without AB up 1%, with AB up 62%. Hardware down 31%. In total a loss of 350 mill."
darthv72: "Seems about right."
MS: "Excuse m ..."
darthv72: "I don't hardly play on my consoles directly."
MS:
What he said was facts. How he plays games is no concern of you. Don't get too mad about it.
I can tell people like you are an absolute minority..
If service is up means their fans and fanboys accepted this model and subscribed to it. The near future you will see a big decline because the service is saturated.
But that's been ms for years. When things aren't going their way they try to change the way things are said. For instance console sales are down, they stop telling how many sold instead telling us how many hours spent in halo or headshots. So it makes sense console sales down just say people are playing on more devices then previous. What they won't say is how many xbox players jumped ship to ps5.
Hardware sales are so bad that Sony and Nintendo are blowing the sales off the water with their hardware.
If Xbox are losers, others aren’t..
Xbox already tried everything with Xbox live then subscriptions went down so much that they had to find something else. Their fans subscribed then reached saturation rather quickly.
Hardware and exclusive games is where it’s at! Keep gamers excited, announce decent software and people will support you
@shin
Well keep it simple Sony 's operating income is down 26% and Microsoft's is up 32%. No MS spin there, just facts. 😉
Cheers
Odd that a company that touts you dont need the hardware to play is already touting another console in the works.
They are not reliant on the HW but still want to maintain a presence (no matter how small) is a good thing. It shows commitment to the craft. It reminds me of SNK and how they made games for their own hardware (Neo Geo) while also making them for others because they knew there was a market to do so. They knew they would sell more to others but also sell to their own niche fan base.
In the last two years they've started exiting the consumer market altogether. All of the newest Surface products are business models only. They can't seem to work out what they want to do with it.
Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.
"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."
That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.
Activision: "we gonna need a bigger rucksack/backpack please"
Microsoft: "why's that"
Activision: "to carry yo' weak ass'
Top brass have also wanted to start seeing returns on the 100 billion they have put into various Xbox related moves so seeing more multiplatform games is highly likely especially from abk
It's basically saying that PlayStation is the reason Xbox is afloat right now thinks to Ps5 versions of COD
The only growth MS will get out of the console industry is if it supports it's rivals platforms. Xbox is a pointless machine now. I can see them on a big push for live next, and they won't give up on trying to buy Steam.
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.
Eventually they’ll realize the value is with the employee not the company. Buying an IP means nothing if the people who contributed are let go. They’ll get it one day.
tech is different because they buy threats and then kill them. Twitter bought Vine and did nothing with it. Despite people seemingly liking it. Could've had tiktok a decade before bytedance. go figure.
They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -
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.
So if PS3 sales are "lackluster" where does that leave 360 sales considering the 360 cheap SKU is a whole $200.00 cheaper then the PS3 and even the good 60gb sku is only $299.99 and STILL cant manage to dominate the PS3 in sales, only outsold it by 100 thousand?! But but but i thought teh 360 had teh Halo and teh Halo wars and teh Gears and teh teh GTA IV dlc.
My point is this, if the 360 is so great and mighty how come its not killing the PS3 in terms of sales when its half the price and not only that but getting KILLED by the wii with the wii even having crappy games for the most part and even $50.00 more expensive!!!!
So back to my question, if PS3 sales are "lackluster" where does that leave 360 sales?!
"So back to my question, if PS3 sales are "lackluster" where does that leave 360 sales?!"
uhm, about 100,000 better than lackluster
JOY
translation we getting are a## kick by the competition giggity have no fear we still the console king giggity wii is not competition the ps3 is cheaper then the 360 harddrive $100 live $50.
The economy is crap. The ps3 is expensive. Yet it still sells.
Go play gears of slowdown, and be content with your own loud, dvd playing, hardware failing console and we will do just fine with our ps3's.
Is all good.
The Wii TROUNCES the 360, does that make it better?
are not taking into account some major factors from last year compare to this year.
Factor 1. Blu-ray won when WB switched to Blu before then end of 2007. This helped the sales of the PS3 in Jan 08.
Factor 2. The NA is in really bad shape and this puts the PS3 at a bigger disadvantage being the most expensive console on the market.
Yes the x360 saw an increase compare to Jan 08 but people must realise that the x360 is $100 cheaper now compare to Jan 08 so obviously it should sell more.
Look guys. What i am saying is that people are taking numbers at face value without factoring in factors that clearly affected these numbers. Say for example the PS3 saw a price drop in Dec 08. Are we to expect the PS3 to sell the same in Jan 09 as it was in Jan 08?. Hell no it should sell more but non of this happened.