Loot: Tokyo, We Have a Problem, Or, What's Wrong With the Playstation 3

In the end, the good news was simply too good to last.

From the beginning of 2006 through the first of this month, the Playstation division has plagued by bad news and negative buzz. There was the Spring 2006 worldwide launch that never materialized, and in hindsight was clearly an attempt to FUD Microsoft's Xbox 360. There was the late-to-begin, darn-near-interminable press conference at last May's Electronic Entertainment Expo, where the fact that Sony had a number of playable games in far better pre-launch shape than did Microsoft the year before was overshadowed by an unexpected two-SKU strategy at much higher-than-expected prices of $499 and $599. The next day, Microsoft announced that Grand Theft Auto IV, which had traditionally launched on Playstation platforms months before any others, would ship simultaneously on Microsoft's console in October 2007--with exclusive downloadable content just for Xbox 360.

[Zaskark2]

the PS3 lacks decent games,decent online,affordable price,decent size,too bulky

BLUE-Crap RAY can kiss my a$$

[overrated]

themart and jenzo and assassyn will give you your acceptence routine later on tonight, but for now watch your bubbles rot.

True Gamers all the way we dont need f@gs like these people. ha ha ha ha ha

[sparco]

BTW Overrated, you only have two bubbles yourself.

Back on topic. What i've said below is based on my British experience of the Playstation when i was younger (before i bought an Xbox with Halo2 and became quite an avid gamer)

I think that there is only ONE reason the ps3 is selling the way it is, and that is the price. The Playstation is the known name for video games. Ask ANY person if they know what a Playstation is, and they will know. But in my oppinion, I think the playstation market is dominated by 9 to 18 year old casual players (Fifa, Need for Speed and the Grand Theft Auto type). The type of people that, every now and again, get a few friends over to play a game of Fifa together and have a laugh, or race each other on Need For Speed. Imo, thats what the Playstation was; a two player console. But now, with the PS3's super high price, hardly any of these casual players can afford to pay this amount of money to play it "every now and again". As soon as that price begins to decrease, i can see the Playstation sales gradually increase. Thats the time i think the Playstation will begin to take over once again. The only thing that may stop this from happening is the time it takes for the price to finnaly drop. The longer it stays expensive, the less and less the Playstation will be the "casual console", therefore stopping sales from rising.

[ASSASSYN 36o]

The big ones fall harder. Die on the way down $ony

[Violater]

You guys fail to see the diff sides to the circumstances which were being made.

[SmokeyMcBear]

oh but hes being biased.. oh my god so biased.. dude its the same guy the 360 trolls were trashing on the exact same artcile against the 360, some valid points, as with the other article he wrote against the 360. Its a long way off.. it hasnt even begun until tomorrow. Game on

[GaMr-]

TITIES !!!!!

WE COMBINE TOGETHER TO BE.... "T&A"

[SmokeyMcBear]

haha if someone would appreciate it, it would be you... and our powers combine we form.... haha

[Tut]

What about me? =(

[Thugbot187]

Tut I’m sorry but you just don’t offer anything to T&A that I can see.

[Tut]

Pfft! I offer racial diversity and partial nudity!!! =)

[ammojoe]

Giggity Giggity Gig ga dy....

[nix]

i like where this is going.... q: yummy!

[Ps3007]

The PS3 is STILL here and its STILL selling.. Get over it losers.

[TheMART]

And it sold 1.6 million units in almost a half year...

The 360 sold 10 million in a year. How will the PS3 ever catch up? 1.6 million units in a half year, 3.2 million in a year if it goes on like that. Pathetic

[fenderputty]

@5.1 Depending on what chart you use, it's more then 1.6 million. It's over 2 million on VG. Not to mention, the first 4 months (not 6) didn't include Europe. You're such a tool.

[r1000]

"The 360 sold 10 million in a year"

It recently just hit the 10 million mark... and it's been out for 17 months... not a year...

[ER1X]

Who would have guessed it?

[Kyur4ThePain]

is the fact that Sony doesn't give a hoot about the so-called console war. They're in it for the royalties on movies and they're leading. MS could sell 200 360's for each PS3 sold...doesn't make one little difference to the reality of what's happening, and some people just can't handle that truth. Now THAT's pathetic.

[SmokeyMcBear]

to be honest, i don't think mart is even past addition and subtraction in school.

[dantesparda]

So give up on their most lucrative department, for some Blu Ray royalties? that amount to what? Im sorry but that's both moronic, and very conspiratorial. And Mart that was just stupid, at least if you're gonna say things like this, then at least get your numbers right. 6 months to 1 year!?
And another thing, this whole Nexgenwars vs VGcharts thing. Look people, the truth is neither side is using these number correctly, if you're a 360 fanboy then you will use the nexgen numbers (because they are higher) and if you're PS3 fanboy, then you'll use Vgchart's no.'s for the same reasons. People, you's cant do that. For accuracy's sake, just use the range of both, so you could say 1.65 to 2.15 million or 9.66 to 10.81 million. It'll make you look more credible. Otherwise nobody will take you seriously. Well not that anybody on this site does (take anybody seriously) Its just one big fanboy fight after another on this site! i garauntee you's though that when you get older and think back to this, you will realize just how stupid and silly this is. Fighting over video games.

[techie]

Themart we've heard all your comments a thousand times and every time I hear them I like my 360 that bit more. Everything you say is always so refreshing to hear

[trane07]

I hate when you fools do that. The guy in his article in no way said, why the ps3 wont win, he said whats wrong with it. dont try to add some personal "why the ps3 wont win" bull. At least quote the guy right.

[overrated]

Many gaming fans dont care about sales figuers, only people who want for some reason to brag to random strangers on the internet care about them I.E YOU. Also the mart where are you getting these figuers from, oh wait NGW ok that site is lame. Also didnt your idol Bill gates say Ms would announce when the 360 has sold 10 million 360's worldwide? oh yes he did. Have we had that announcement? no we havent. They may have shipped that many but they havent sold that many.

[power of Green]

The war started when the PS3 first launched. only loyality will keep PS3 above water, it hasn't offered any of the promised hype. If the game plan is weak and has failed two other launches it's hard to believe Europe will have any long term differences from the JAP ans US markets at launch. Launch hype & sales can only carry a console so far considering the current game plan has proven to be a failure twice already.

TheMart- NOV, DEC, JAN, Feb, Mar, Couple of more day till APR dam close to half a year if you ask me.

#10 i dont think you understand people are commenting and people are being offended on the Sony side you labled the wrong people as crybabies.

#9.1 i figured some fool would come in here counting every minute and day. lol It's figuretivly speaking its been dam near a half a year, do you understand?. Timm-a-timmy-timmy-timmy----ti mm-aaaa!!!!!. Yah! i can count YAH!!!, YAH!!!!.

#9.3 What part of it's almost been half a year do you not understand?. if Sony can sell about 3 million consoles in about two months they're in good shape to possible catch MS.

(((((Deep BRown))))) VGcharts lol, you could buy PS3's just weeks after it lauched the 360 was hard to get untill April of 2006 the demand for PS3 is lower deal with it. lol

[ER1X]

November 17th to December 17th = 1 month
December 17th to January 17th = 1 month
January 17th to February 17th = 1 month
February 17th to March 17th = 1 month

1+1+1+1 =?

Let's simplify for the math challenged.

2+2 = ?

4???

Yay.

[techie]

nice. Just thought you'd like to know that the ps3 has sold more than the 360 did after it's first 4 months. And the ps3 is only in 2 countrys thus far.

http://www.vgcharts.org/aco...

So really everyone is puffing smoke over nothing

Sales in North America(from their launch year 2005 306, 2006 ps3)

Nov
360 - 357,000
ps3 -220,000

Dec
360 - 303,000
ps3 - 533,000

Jan
360 - 269,000
ps3 - 273,000

Feb
360 - 187,000
ps3 - 133,000

Total
360 -1,117,000
ps3 - 1,160,000

[fenderputty]

You both round up for the ps3 yet round down for the 360.

LMAO ... you two are almost comical.

[OldSchoolGamer]

by those numbers after for months, the N64 outsold the PS2 and we know how that went.
1 N64 Sep 96 339,000 339,000 PS2 Oct 00 453,500 453,500
2 N64 Oct 96 364,000 703,000 PS2 Nov 00 214,000 667,500
3 N64 Nov 96 591,250 1,294,250 PS2 Dec 00 642,250 1,309,750
4 N64 Dec 96 836,500 2,130,750 PS2 Jan 01 274,250 1,584,000

Now if we look at whats important (the games) let us compare those two:

1 N64 Sep 96 457,000 457,000 PS2 Oct 01 1,224,000 1,224,000
2 N64 Oct 96 410,750 867,750 PS2 Nov 01 3,281,500 4,505,500
3 N64 Nov 96 1,122,000 1,989,750 PS2 Dec 01 9,024,750 13,530,250
4 N64 Dec 96 2,330,750 4,320,500 PS2 Jan 02 2,624,000 16,154,250

Do we notice a trend here? Hmm, why would people buy a video game console? Is it to play games?

1 X360 Nov 05 1,448,500 1,448,500 PS3 Nov 06 261,500 261,500
2 X360 Dec 05 1,390,000 2,838,500 PS3 Dec 06 1,240,250 1,501,750
3 X360 Jan 06 753,000 3,591,500 PS3 Jan 07 745,000 2,246,750
4 X360 Feb 06 732,500 4,324,000 PS3 Feb 07 438,000 2,684,750

Hmm these tell a slightly different story. So, deep don't play with numbers you can do anything you want with them, to show whatever you want.

Lets remember these two titans have yet to see the beauties that are coming to both very shortly. Until then lets go play on those systems, I am when I get home from work.

[SmokeyMcBear]

that is one thing I did learn from statistics, you can manipulate numbers every which way to show what you want.. there are two factors that cannot be denied, and will have better numbers and trends in lets say june. Fact, we are only 4 months into the release, with the 4th month being completed about a week ago, and the console is only being sold in 2 areas, with a fairly large, if not the largest market being neglected. Yes game sales will be telling factor in this story, but that dec 01 number, geez 9 million, could be the murder's row line up of GTA III, Devil May Cry, MGS 2 and Final Fantasy X. I'm not sure what the line up was for nintendo for that time period, but i doubt it was those types of classics.Also Recall that Nintendo did some competition at that time, with I believe psone, or not, i really don't know. Its just that ps2 really did not have any sort of competition during that time period, with those types of games. This is a different story, mega hits are coming to both camps.. should be good times.

[techie]

Oldschoolgamer - I wasn't using them to show the ps3 will win. What I was trying to show was that all this malarky about the ps3 is not selling well is just wrong. That was all my point was. I'm not using them to predict the future, as the 360 had the best sales last christmas. But my point is the ps3 is doing better than the 360 when it launched.

I wish not to twist numbers I wish to silence those that wish to put a negative spin on everthing.

I am the first to admit the 360 software sales are impressive. Microsoft have found a way to pinpoint the hardcore gamer and it pays dividens in software sales.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Lol define doing better? Sony has sold decently well during launch and were even sold out until a few days after Christmas! They have an awesome supply chain, and had units stockpiled in stores around the new year. Xbox 360 in the States was sold out until March everywhere, and all the way until May in some places. If you wanted one you got lucky by either being at the right place when a shipment came in or knowing someone who worked in a store. Lol, what would numbers have been had Microsoft not jacked up their own launch who knows, but those figures are skewed as they don't take into account how many would have been bought, simply all the were available and sold completely out.

[weekapaugh]

funny how the PS3 makes the x-kiddies cry.

[i rule]

low numbers
bad games
bad online
Just how are they supposed to lead this generation?

[Covenant]

Remember this:

--N'Gai Croal knows his stuff and has generally been pretty reliable as a source of news and informed opinion.

--Note that at the bottom of the article, he states that tomorrow's essay will detail what's wrong with the 360.

--Most of what he said is relevant; Sony's biggest issues (botched launch, price point) have been working against them for the last few months. How they overcome that will be a major challenge.

Please read the article before posting.

[OldSchoolGamer]

The only and biggest disagreement with your post is that "N'Gai Croal knows his stuff and has generally been pretty reliable as a source of news and informed opinion." Other than that it was ok lol.

[Covenant]

On N'Gai:

I've read a number of his articles, and I find him to be informative and well-read. However, like any other journalist, he can be wrong and/or biased at times. But I think he's pretty trustworthy.

However, if you disagree, that's your right.

[XxZxX]

You guys do realize those analyst does get paid for this. They don't crunch out number form no where. They have to show a logical statistic to proof their claims everytime, not just a few paragrah. But We don't need to, all we need to do is write one or two comments and think we knows it all but the truth is the industries chose them and not us. You know that's a reason for it. Yes they can be wrong sometimes, it's an estimation or prediction however let me point out their stats consist of more variances than our simple stats comparison.
To think that they don't know stuff is a sign that show you are full of yourself.

Long paragraph show: They are proffesional, we are not.

[OldSchoolGamer]

These professionals are prefessional simply because it is a profession. Lol, they are paid to do research and write an opinion on the subject. Alot of these people do less research for a top news story than is done for a 1 page research paper elementary school. Because they are paid that makes a researched opinion more valid than one done out of caring for a topic? That makes no sense.

Examples: How about any reporter covering politics? These professionals can spin any piece of news any way you want. A video game article where the reporters information is based on the same information we are all privy to. Yes, I forgot his opinion means sooooo much.

[derek]

This article convieniently misses a big factor in the nextgen console race. The PS2, it sold 285,000 consoles in Feb that is incredible. That is alot of people who still are buying into the playstation brand over the competition. It is logical to believe that once the PS3 comes down in price (will probably happen dramatically over the next 2 years) the PS2's large and evergrowing fanbase will begin to switch over on masse to the PS3.

[DiLeCtioN]

i think most ps2 owners will end up buying a ps3, those who dont wait will probably swith to the wii or 360

[Grown Folks Talk]

it doesn't affect YOUR enjoyment of YOUR console(s). if the PS3 outsells the 360, will you stop enjoying the 360 games? if the 360 outsells the PS3, will you no longer want lair and MGS4? who gives a damn which sells more? enjoy what YOU have.

[ALIEN]

Why they keep posting the same s!@# everyday, im tired of this S!@@. And please THEMART do me a favor, go to school and learn something because everytime i come round here all that i see it's ur stupid avatar and all i read it's ur stupid topics, So please THEMART get a f!@king life and stop being a f34king fanboy or a 360rat

[ALIEN]

Ur right man! this site is fulla haters.

im agree wit u!

[Dragonopolis]

the other is fudging the number and is wrong but they quote theirs then they are right.

Basically you can't use software sales to win an arguement about hardware sales. Your numbers, however, would be a concern to a developer wanting to make money on a system.

Also your numbers really don't help your case they actually hurt it.

While less games were sold/bought on the PS3 platform the PS3 actually sold more consoles with less games during the first part of their respective launch year than Xbox 36O did with more software and higher sales.

Kind of puts the spin on who's fanbase is more loyal. (answer: Sony that is a lot of faith in a system which only had a couple decent Next gen Games out.

What happens when the real next gen games start to appear for the PS3 (Sony's PS3 sales will probably go up even more).

Statistics are facts after they are initiated and they come from a credible source. As long as those numbers are close indication of sales for that month the comparison was a correctly formulated(don't even have to be exact as long as they correctly tell the story in this case the PS3 has been doing well compared to the PS2 and 360). Point is that PS3 has actually had a pretty good sales start for them in the four months of launch as well as compared to the Xbox 360 and the PS2 launch.

Now compare that to what the overall Console market has known all along; Xbox 360 has not been as successful as the xbox despite the year head start.

Sony doing better than PS2 - Can't complain.

Microsoft not doing as good as they did with the xbox - hmmmm..... HD-DVD addon..........Xbox Elite...... (what's next a price drop by Christmas?)

I want Microsoft to succeed. After all, I own an xbox 360 and don't wan't to lose my investment. But let us not live in a dream world:

Microsoft messed up in deploying the xbox 360. They did not get the advantage they were hoping for releasing early (neither did the gamers since it appears Sony gamers will have games in 2007 that could rival in quality to Gears of War we had..... in a year..... Gears of War

Its my opinion, Microsoft should have grab some big ones and just gone after Sony and Wii this Christmas. They could have easily stockpiled Millions of consoles and just smothered the stores this christmas with 360 consoles (thus when customers couldn't find a Wii or PS3 they would have turn to 360 which probably would have been sitting on the shelves.) Xbox 360 would have had Gears of War as a launch title plus I'm sure with another 6 months to a year some of those xbox 360 games "could have been titles but weren't" could have polished their stuff. Microsoft may have caught the hardware issues perhaps even solved the heat/noise issue by this Christmas. HDMI could have possible been squeezed in; even adding an internal HD-DVD drive (which is cheaper than an external one which is already selling at $130 some places) could have been possible.

Microsoft could have destoyed two Mega game console manufacturers in one sweep had they just waited a year but they got scared and rushed the launch a year before they needed too.

This isn't a rant about my xbox 360 because I love it. This is just an xbox 360 gamer who is just being realistic and realizing that Microsoft's marketing department sucks.

Despite that, I've had a blast playing on my 360 and since I don't play favorites I'll probably get a PS3 in 2008 (I've always owned at least 2 consoles). I believe that if PS3 will succeed that will put pressure on Microsoft to make sure I get the best the Xbox 360 has to offer

Competition is great

Keep us on our toes Sony

[OldSchoolGamer]

You're on the money you can spit all the numbers in the world and until you have a credible count, from a credible it all means nothing. As for 360 hardware not selling as fast in first 4 months versus PS3, if you are an early owner, either you brought out a sleeping bag (crazy to me) or you had to get lucky and hope a store had one in stock months after the launch. I do know that everywhere I went looking for one was sold out repeatedly into March, and some places well into May. That doesn't mean that they weren't selling well, in fact they couldn't make them fast enough. Biggest problem there is the more people have to wait for something the more they turn their eyes towards other things.

For example:
PS3 buyers who wanted one for Xmas in the US, alot went and purchased a Wii or a 360, and alot of early Xbox 360 buyers, instead decided to save and wait for a Wii or PS3. So, you have to take that into account for sales on both systems.

As for waiting to release simultaneously with the other two, I think that they would have had some benefits, ie. not allowing the other two to know finalized specs, possible fix the 3 ring of death problem, and have a massive supply to counter those shortage problems.

Ultimately though, coming out when they did is paying off in spades. The Sony brand recognition is the biggest selling feature on the PS3 so far, as demonstrated by those who went out and bought them simply to sell day one on Ebay. Microsoft may have a little when it comes to consoles, but no where near the base when comparing launches of these two systems.

So, coming out early did drive up the hype by making it the only game in town for next gen a year ahead of the competition, well turned out to be a year but Sony did steal some thunder by claiming a March release last year.

The other benefit is it gave them time to nail down the online component of the system. Although they have experience in spades versus the other two consoles, alot has been added to the service from the release way back when to the release of the other two systems. Additionally, it has given them time to release some games that became must haves, like Gears, GRAW2, Project Gotham, Dead Rising, DOA4, and Viva all before the other two systems hit. This is causing developers to take note of the sales base of around 10 million +/- 1 million and choose the console for a primary developement platform.

Without all of that support and Sony's delay Microsoft would have been dead in the water. Microsoft's success so far is mainly due to mis-steps by Sony, and both exec's from Microsoft and Sony have said so. So, ultimately I have to disagree that delaying the launch would have been a good thing. Time is the most valuable thing in the world.

[kornbeaner]

is trying to make this an all in one machine. Everything that the machine is capable of is great. But nobody really cares for Blu-ray movie playback. I still haven't used it to watch "Ricky Bobby" and that BR came with my System. That movie player is a blessing and a curse. A blessing in the way that it's one of the finer blu-ray players out there, but the cost that it adds to the machine has been a big turn-off and the fact that most of the games most of us where all hyped about got pushed back. I for one am extremely happy with my PS3 purchase, but i need more games to play, and they are not coming out fast enough.

[Anego Montoya FTMFW]

people will care when 1080 tv`s go down to the general public.\Right now thou, definitly not.

It`s like Chess.
You gotta think a few moves ahead.

[Anego Montoya FTMFW]

Wait for MGS4,FF13 and White knight story before we make any assumptions on how the japanese feel about the PS3.

After that if their still on the shelves, there`s a PROBLEM

[HokieFan]

I'm just curious...does no one think that the Wii is a major player here? Everyone is spouting off sales numbers, but the Wii is destroying both the 360 and PS3 right now. If all of these people are buying Wii's, why isn't there more news and comments about it? Does everyone think it's just a fad that will pass?

[OldSchoolGamer]

Lots have noted the consoles lacking lineup. Both Sony and Microsoft's camps are pretty stoked about both companies' coming games, as well they should be. Both systems have amazing line ups coming soon. The Wii's is more ho-hum and has more sequals and unoriginal characters than the other two. They are starting to get developers interested with the incredible level of sales, but may not see that really have any extra effect for a year or two.

Both companies aren't really factoring them in as they are touting the same High Definition features the other two are. They are sort of a second category. I'm not sure I see this as true, but without a killer line-up of must have's, the system sales should flatten out. Most Americans (ones I know at any rate, and me included) played through Zelda, and maybe Trauma Center, then you have sports and you have played the real must plays. This is why their Virtual COnsole sales are so high as well. Lack of new must have games, and the fact the they are selling to gamers somewhat, but a vast majority to non-gamers who have never played most of the VC games when they originally came out.

[Jakens]

The same people that buy the Wii are the same people that are less likely to be posting on this site.

[Contra26]

MGS4? aint worth the wait... once you beat the game... that's it... done with..

Final Fantasy... Once you beat it... done with.....

if anymore PS3 exclusives get tossed tto the 360.
HOW CAN THE PS3 survive?

Just stick to the 360.
better games that long lasting and XboxLive enabled..

End of story.

PS3 is just PSone games with prettier graphics. nothing else. same controller same everything.
And SixAxis is whack.

When Halo 3 comes out...........

it's over.

K.O.

Flawless victory