Sony's PlayStation 3 is Down, But Not Out

Although the PlayStation 3 has been outsold by its competitors these past few months, Matt Peckham argues via the Washington Post that the situation is not as grim as may seem. The Washington Post article refutes a story from CNN Money that completely writes off the PlayStation 3 as a failure.

Compared to November 2007, PS3 sales are down this year from 466,000 units sold to 378,000 units sold. In contrast, Microsoft and Nintendo products sold very well in November. Twice as many Xbox 360s were sold and five times as many Nintendo Wiis were sold.

[Pennywise]

This is getting so boring.

[RAF-TECH]

it is boring.

[Mr_Bun]

Stop me if you heard this one...So the PS3 and 360 walk into a bar...

[ultimolu]

*stops you* Hold on, lemme get my pillow and blanket.

*gets pillow and blanket*

Now you may continue. I just wanted to get comfy for the story. :3

j/k

[Johnny Rotten]

Thank god the PS3 has a web browser, now I can download those free swimming lessons before the ship sinks.

[xwabbit]

LOL ultimolu

[Shane Kim]

Hahahhaha man okey we got it, PS3 is doomed and xbox is the one and only console to own.

[SSCOOLCHEA]

From every single article that i have read on sony. I mind as well just trade in my ps3 since its worth at least something right now. I guess we have to move into the most superior system according to everybody else .

sike...sike...sike...sike...o nly morons would believe this...LOL..I dont know you can call me a gamer , hardcore gamer , casual gamer I dont know what kind of a gamer I am , but all I know is I play games more than the average norm . I will quit gaming before I would ever buy an xbots.......

[Shane Kim]

Hahahah so would I. It's a f*cking hazard just to have a xbox in your house.

[borgome]

Do us all a favor and crawl back into the dumpster you were born in
and fetch me a snack while your in there looking for your dinner.

[IllusionRSN]

LMAO

[ultimolu]

Personally, I think CNN are full of crap and they were blowing things way out of proportion. While it's true the PS3 does need to drop in price and perhaps Sony needs a major revision in their management, spelling doom and gloom is beyond ridiculous.

Just because Sony isn't dominating this generation of gaming, doesn't mean that they've screwed up so bad that they might as well give up on the PS3 and call it a failure.

The PS3 is two years old. People need to stop with this bashing already. If the PS3 was four years old and doing these numbers, that would be troubling.

But it's two years old.

Wait until 2009 before you call it a sinking ship.

[Kill Crow]

isn't much older

[Ju]

I would even go so far and say who cares ? Did Apple give up because the sold less then PCs ? Nooo. So, what's the deal? Its still the top of the line console. If they can make a profit with what they sell, what's the big deal. If the holiday season tanks beyond believe, because for example they'd sell less then the whole year long, well, yes, then I would understand but it still generates a holiday spike - just not as big as others.

[ArtisianDragon]

They also seem to forget the fact that this appears to be a repeat of what the Playstation 1 and Playstation 2 went through, Weren't they rocky from the start to which they began to build up momentum?

Also Kill Crow@
Two things helped with the Wii in a sense though, the fact that it's simple in it's own way (Wii-Mote) which most older generation people find very attractive, and the price was/is not to bad for quite a few people. This being well before the xbox had dropped it's price to. Though now that it's dropped it's price maybe.

Overall I just don't get why they are now just starting to make articles like this, when overall the year was pretty good for the Playstation 3, Xbox360, and even the Wii. Why start now?

[ultimolu]

The Wii came out before the PS3.
That's not the point I was making.

[Mr Fancy Pants]

But the Wii cost less and it has a fancy controller that puts the masses crazy with a lot of shovelware.

The Wii is the first console in history that has succeeded with a ratio of like 9:2 between crappy games and good games. This puts the Wii in a new league of their own.

And not only that, the Wii is not an HD system, it doesn't play nor upscales DVD's. You can't download movies from anywhere, the online is crappier than a 15 years old console (aka Dreamcast). The Wii is more to play a different breed of games and it is directed to a different public; -not the kind that took the time to watch every second of every cut-scene of MGS4 and have been fallowing the series since it started, or those that play Halo/GeoW online to death or those that even when they are out they have some kind of portable console to play or those that only talk about video games with their friends or those that know more about video games than a GameStop employee or those that are kinda addicted with RPG's and take the time to beat them even though the length of the majority of them is between 20-60 hours or simply those that play more than 14 hour per week... Do you get my point?

You can be a core gamer and only have a Wii but my point is that most of the user base of the Wii consist of moms, dads, little kids, girls that don't even play games etc. I have a girl friend? (a friend that is a girl I mean) that doesn't like video games but brought a Wii anyway just for Wii-Fit and now is there just collecting dust...

[Ju]

Now, the Wii. The only thing which sells is the Wii console itself, bundled games, some classic remakes and Wii fit. That's it. Not a single game not out of this category makes it into the top ten. Wii is a fad. No matter how long it takes. People buy it to have it, not to play it. Fact. /rant.

[xg-ei8ht]

Ok, Put a dvd in your ps3, and then with dvd running, turn off upscale. by pressing triangle and av settings. and look at the picture. then turn it back on, there you go. big difference. Then pop out dvd and insert blu-ray.

It's night and day.

[IllusionRSN]

Well it's biggest downfall is obviously it's price. It will come down in price, it's not out.

[creeping judas]

in my personal opinion, it's the PS2 that is hurting the PS3. If there wasn't a PS2 to buy, then maybe they would buy the PS3 instead. I know that sony profits from the PS2, but at the same time it's a hindarance too.

[ultimolu]

I kinda agree with that. The PS2 is a great system, one of the best systems of all time but I think it's really time for Sony to close shop on it and focus primarily on the PS3.

[Hotdang]

I wouldn't ever stop making PS2's if I were SONY especially since it's still making a nice profit. Between all three of their systems PS2 PSP and PS3 SONY isn't struggling like some would believe when ONLY looking at the PS3 sales.

True PS3 isn't putting up 500k a month in the NA but Americans are short sited consumers. It's cheap, "Now" but what about "Later". As I've gotten older I've noticed this more and more. We bought into weapons of mass distraction and George Foreman grills.

[Jdoki]

Thing is Judas... At least some of the 150million PS2 owners will buy a PS3 at some point. Maybe not this year, maybe not even in the next 3-5 years. But at some point they may buy one. (Of course, some PS2 owners will have bought a PS3, or even a Wii or 360 already).

Those people buying a PS2 now - even though the 360 and Wii are only a little bit more expensive - are making a choice. It may be because there's such a great library of Playstation games; it may be brand loyalty; or it may genuinely be that they can't quite afford a Wii or 360 - but it's money in Sony's pocket, and just maybe a future PS3 sale.

PS3 is going to do fine. It's got a very long life left. Every year people are writing it off. Every year we hear about the Wii STILL being a fad. Every year we read many articles on RRoD. People need rubbish to write and argue about.

[twoface]

you still need the cash cow while building the rising star. It can help with funding marketing activities and games development, or whichever that they need funding. In this economic climate and with the current yen rate, this ps2 cash cow is definitely important

[lokin]

another day.... another blog. point stands that at this very moment the ps3 is a liability for the company, a company (like m$) who's only goal is to make money. now if this slump continue, well then sons, get ready for riots when sony cans the ps3. in all honestly i hope that never happens because competition is the best motivator in the world

[Max Power]

that blog leads to that article.

[BrotherNick]

They need to tell their shareholders that making the ps3 300 dollars is good in the long run :\ and if they really need money maybe they should charge for online, I know it blows but they should try to catch up.

[darx]

Just bought mine last Saturday.

[Are_The_MaDNess]

nice good 4 u
u like it?

[darx]

So far so good!

[lokin]

dude wanted to say this for a long time.... chill...leave the games for a while... spend some time with your girlfriend.... its only a freakin piece of consumer hardware, not your mother or your girlfriend. chill bro, take a deep breath.

[LarVanian]

If you are going to post more comments like that in the future then you should not be at this site.
This is a gaming news site that allows users to express their opinions. ultimolu was doing just that.
There was no need to post an ignorant comment like that.

[Pennywise]

I dont know if SHE swings that way. Leave her be though, she likes games and is passionate about it. Noone hates on you for your hobby, do they?

[Kratos Spartan]

ultimolu is a girl, you didn't know? The infamous Juuken

[soul899er]

Ultimolu is a girl >_>

[lokin]

my bad... just saw my comment was a bit "parenty". looks as if i steped on a few toes though, but otherwise.... game on....hate on....

[BrotherNick]

Lol...watch her get like 20 people tracking her after they found out she's a girl. If I were a girl I don't think I'd tell anyone on the internet.

[BigPappaPump]

Don't be mad at her because she rejected your PSN's request to add as a friend. As a gamer girl, she knows her stuff no matter how many of us agree/disagree with her. She's a right to her opinion and you have no right to tell her to chill.

[ultimolu]

Excuse you?

Look at my profile. I don't roll that way...*dude*.

I'm here most of the time because I enjoy voicing my opinion of videogames.

Been playing for fourteen/fifteen years. PC, Gameboy, GameGear, Super Nintendo, Playstation, Playstation 2, PC, XBox 360, PS3...tell me when to stop.

BrotherNick: Any harassment and the banhammer is introduced. :)

[AliC]

What the PS3 is doomed again!?!

[a_cold_soul]

LMAO... seem like it.... ^_^

[DR-IVO]

next we will hear is blue-ray doomed because of ps3 sales

[Nicolator]

y would the ps3 be even out its sold 14 plus mill not sure exactly but somethin around there.. so how does that count as fail?? huh.? all 3 systems are all success its not like in the previous gens where ur out and out and dead this is totally diffrent coz all have a share of the market even thou one is bigger than the other SO!

[Austin_SJ]

I hope something more interesting happens soon. This "war" getting boring.

[Kratos Spartan]

But right now Sony is concerned more with making profit, not with how many consoles they are selling. But guess what, 3 or 400,000 units is still very good with a $400 price. They know the PS3 has years to sell, and it will. If the PS3 can still manage to sell that much, in this economy, at that price, A price cut is the last thing on Sony's mind right now.

[BrotherNick]

It does have about 8 years :)

[Stryfeno2]

Look at all the droids in the gamer zone getting paranoid and acting like everything is going to be okay....In back of their minds, I will bet they are wondering if they made the right choice. You should of knew something was up when Sony decided to cut the price of the PS3 6 months after launch.

[twoface]

nope, sorry for you

[eagle21]

They are not profitable at all unless customers pay $200 (HDD,wifi) plus Live ($50/yr.) in upgrades.

You get what you pay for. When the neighbors are complaining about your loud console, you want to play online free, see an ad for your favorite high def movies, nothing at the game store intrests you in 2009, and that coffin arrives:

remember you could've bought the quality, value, and games of PS3. :)

[DJ]

The 360's got fairly expensive memory (GDDR3), a triple core processor, and high-end GPU. I can imagine they're losing $100~150 on those Arcade units. Sega did the same thing to keep up with the PS2, and that didn’t end well. Microsoft will survive the enormous cost of dropping the price so low, but there's two major outcomes. Supporting their 1st party studios becomes increasingly difficult, and consumers have a lowered perception of the hardware value.

The real problem will occur when they feel threatened enough to drop the Pro SKU to the Wii’s price point, and the Arcade SKU to $149.

[Ju]

I think the real thread starts when the PS3 will be at $299, and they need to get the Elite below that level.

[DJ]

When they go to NPD's website and realize "Oh...it only covers North America. DOH!"

[ArtisianDragon]

LOL!!

I'd love to see their facial reaction

[Stereojet]

This is getting a joke now.

[Voiceofreason]

I have to LOL at the Sony fanboys and fanbgirls on this site.. PS2 is the greatest console ever with hundreds od shovel ware games. Wii is the worst console in history sharing many of those PS2 shovel ware games.. Such blatant bias from a group that considers itself to be gamers.... Very pathetic

[Darkshader]

why so much hate against the PS3 when it comes to the media? journalist make money to create stories that its not true, for what? to help Microsoft and XBOX 360? to promote american products? or you just want SONY to fail? It ain't happening!

based on videogame history:

Virtual Boy - Sold 770K (Release July 1995)
Nintendo 64 - Sold 32.94M (Jun 1996 - Mar 2005)
Nintendo Game Cube - Sold 21.74M (Release Sept 2001)
XBOX - Sold 24M (Nov 2001 - May 2006)

Both Nintendo and Microsoft are still alive.

Sony is making money from their Videogame Division. What's the hurry if the PS3 lifespan projection is 8 to 10 yrs.

[BrotherNick]

We like the wars lol. Drives up the hype for systems. Makes us spend money.

[bviperz]

like it or hate it, it makes for some damn good reading on a otherwise boring day.

[Magic_The_Celt]

And it never will be :) it shall win in the end, like it always does (the playstation brand)

[huhu13]

http://www.acapela.tv/Carto...

[Spike47]

so that those ps2 owners won't buy xbox360s instead of PS3s.

[Nicaragua17]

LOL another one? Keep on hating Xbots,the Playstation brand and SONY ALWAYS come out on top.

[AriesFury]

Sick of stating the obvious, need a price out.