(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
Salman from Tech4Gamers writes "Mortal Kombat 9 revived the series from a low point after bringing it back to 2D combat. It marked a new high-point for the franchise due to its incredible roster, exciting cinematic story mode, and high-octane combat."
Shaolin Monks is a forgotten gem. I would love to see a new one, or a remake of the old.
That game was actually goated. It was the first time ever that I actually tried to get good at a fighting game. Unfortunately the online connection was so dogshit it made it hard to enjoy and eventually I gave up. Haven't really played much fighting games since.
The new unit comprises over 500 developers representing the entire World of Warcraft development team.
I used to be anti-union, it kills productivity, investment and turns product mediocre. Their games suck anyways though so what was lost? Might as well get their people paid until they are dissolved.
Unions are necessary regardless of how you feel. You know how fked the working class would be without them. As if we're not already.
No they aren’t, regardless of how you feel. Unions make zero sense for skill based labor. They are for people who press a button every 10 seconds on an assembly line. “working class” is a made up term. I don’t care about corporations or developers, I just want good games lol. Killing your incentives to appease the lowest common denominator doesn’t lead to great games imo
I wasn’t trying to be offensive if I came off that way. The Union is an old mentality and I can see their usefulness but also the danger. We’re in the age of AI and robots and skill based labor. Unions can be dangerous these days. You could replace your entire workforce in one move. Checkmate. Look to the kiosk replacing workers in the 20 dollar minimum wage era.
Well run businesses don’t need unions. If you need a Union that business won’t survive anyway. Unless it’s propped up by the government with corporate welfare (which is the real issue). If you’re not going to spend some on your workers (Amazon, Google) then your welfare is cut off. No tax breaks. All you put together don’t match their wealth and resources, the union is a traditional memory at this point and counterproductive with this new enemy we face. They need a flying elbow from the top ropes. And by “working class is a made up term” I just mean we’re not a class system and even CEO Bobby Kotick puts in a days work lol. Or did.. It’s just a vague term that doesn’t mean anything no offense lol. People say “middle class” but that can change quick right? Up or down. That’s not a “class system”.
Taking a trip back to Housemarque's forgotten platformer.
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.