PS3 sales go down the drain, slight clog

by Nick Doerr { Apr 3rd 2007 at 4:30PM }

Oops. It seems like the initial "huzzah!" for the PlayStation 3 in the UK has died down, not unexpectedly. After busting records left and right upon its launch, the PS3 has snuggled into a much lower sales number last week. How much lower? Well, the first weekend saw around 165,000 units move off of shelves and the latest numbers put sales somewhere around 29,700 systems. Around an 82% decrease.

Again, this is to be expected, really. Everyone who really wanted one grabbed it as quick as they could. Now it's time for the slightly-less-hardcore to go out and get one... as soon as that paycheck clears. Movie ticket sales go down every week, too -- especially from opening weekend to the next weekend (there are, of course, exceptions). So is this really another attempt to smash Sony into the ground by the media? Probably, but it would be easier to assume that if the sales drop was, oh, less than 50%. At 82%, it's alarming enough to warrant a "hmm, what's going on here?" but not enough to start crying. Let's get some of those anticipated titles out there! It may help.

[Via Joystiq]

Tags: PlayStation 3, Playstation3, PS3, Sony

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Next-Gen-Gamer @ Apr 3rd 2007 4:45PM

82% is "to be expected"?

I guess that explains what happened to the thousands of Brits who were online prior to launch exclaiming that it's too much, and they weren't going to but it.

Colin @ Apr 3rd 2007 4:43PM

Spin....

They sold 75% of stock available on shelves in week two....

What percentage of stock did Xbox 360 sell?

;)

Stef Geiger @ Apr 3rd 2007 4:52PM

Joystiq is spinning this like it's horrible news. This is total "well, duh" stuff. What did everyone expect to happen? You know, 300 made only about 50% of its first week's take in its second week - I guess that means it's a bad movie?

Groggy @ Apr 3rd 2007 5:12PM

Ha Ha.... he compared Movie ticket sales to the PS3. Well I got my mine, now bring on my game Naughty Dog

Andres @ Apr 3rd 2007 5:50PM

Dude I hate sony i really do I think the PS3 is not worth the 600 price tag. However on that note. This is not news. Its expected. Everyone who wanted one, and had the means, got one now its time for the stragglers. To start buying.

Now if at the end of April the numbers are low then i would say yes thats not good.

However we shall see. What is really killing the numbers is that you can get a PS3 on ebay for less then retail price.

Nick @ Apr 3rd 2007 5:19PM

The sales drop is to be expected. I'm surprised that the numbers are still as high as they are. Those numbers bring the UK real close to 200,00 which i think was their innitial shipment.

cameron @ Apr 3rd 2007 10:16PM

50% isn't any where close to 82%. I won't write Sony off yet but they need to start working on a new strategy, and at least admit that they made some mistakes.

Draco @ Apr 3rd 2007 5:07PM

they shipped 200,000 to the UK for launch right?
They also said they would supply 20,000 per week after launch.

so out of 220,000 units, they sold ~195,000 units.

assuming they met their targets for units shipped (which they rarely do) that still only leaves about 1 unit per store. (assuming 25,000 stores in the UK that sell PS3's)

any less then 1 per store is a sellout correct? maybe some towns/cities have no stock left, and 1 chain gobbled up lots of units to have a big sale.

anything can account for the missing sales. Including loss of interest by the public.

tom @ Apr 3rd 2007 5:12PM

You can compare a $600 game system with a shelf life of 5-6 years to a $10 movie with a shelf life of 3 months and somehow come up with a satisfactory rationalization? Fascinating.

mccomber @ Apr 3rd 2007 5:19PM

Anyone know what the sales per week are for the ps2 and 360?
I agree that it's no surprise that the ps3 sales dropped, and with the extreme high they were at, unfortunately down is the only place they can go... I'm just wondering what the average sales are for two other consoles that aren't supply constrained.

aka Bitter @ Apr 3rd 2007 5:21PM

@Colin: 360 was sold out from pretty much day 1 due to supply constraints. So tecnically they sold 100% of what was available, which was 0.

I agree with Nick in that there is anything to worry about from these numbers. You can't expect huge sales with the cost of the console as it is. I'd begin to worry if PS3 sales are still in the doldrums at the end ofthe year.

PauLo @ Apr 3rd 2007 5:49PM

Obviously a decrease OMG!!! No decrease guys just another 165,000 people bought one, my god the media are Sony haters lol!!! True though.
Wonder what the Wii and 360 sell on average per week now, if you could show that in your blog i would appreciate it!!!

andres @ Apr 3rd 2007 5:51PM

oops sorry for the double post

Stef Geiger @ Apr 3rd 2007 5:53PM

Yeah, I compared the PS3's sales to movie ticket sales. Why? Because in both cases, saying the second-week revenues are bad is completely ridiculous.

The fact is that an 82% drop from what was a record-breaking number is NOT a bad thing. Not even Sony would be cocky or stupid enough to say "Yeah, consoles will sell just as well in subsequent weeks as they did at launch." If any console sold like that, they'd have a staggering monopoly within weeks.

I love how people seem to hate Sony so much that they'll desperately put negative spin on an otherwise neutral piece of news. The fact is that the system is selling quite well even despite having a weak library.

andres @ Apr 3rd 2007 5:55PM

you can say that about the movie tickets. If you can agree that the 360 as well as the WII have had better launches since they sold out and sold for higher then retail cost on ebay and other secondary market websites.

Colin @ Apr 3rd 2007 6:20PM

@aka Bitter....

I actually meant last week not comparing launch 2nd weeks...

Did Xbox 360 sell 75% of what was on shelves...did it even sell 20k units in UK last week?

mccomber @ Apr 3rd 2007 6:21PM

@15, I'd agree to that if you'd agree that if Sony shipped the same number of PS3s as either Nintendo or MS shipped of their respective consoles we would have seen sold out signs plastered across store windows across Europe, as well as higher prices on ebay. But, I guess that would make your "better" launches argument harder to make.

andres @ Apr 3rd 2007 6:33PM

not really. Its hard to argue when things are not equal. PS3 sent out my units so they sold more units. Where as the 360 and WII sent out less units and were sold out. SO we really do not know where they would stand if they sent out the same number of units on both sides of the spectrum.

However in a post I wrote a week or so ago. I Said that the PS3 launch failed and didnt fail at the same time.

Simply since it did not sell out product was still on the shelf. As a business I would want to sell out of everything i have in stock so i can make more and sell more.

However since they didnt sell out. They can cater to the next group of people. Those are people that for what ever reason didnt get the system at launch. So they do not have to fear about jumping ship and heading to the competition due to lack of stock.

Joop @ Apr 3rd 2007 6:34PM

Out of curiosity why is it to be expected for the PS3 when Wii shipments continue to sell out every week, despite having been out for almost 6 months and weekly shipments being (two to three times) higher than that 29k figure?

I mean, you gotta do you job and spin the bad news, but it's hard to call it expected when it doesn't happen to the competition. Well, it's hard to call it that assuming your unquestionable Sony loyalty, anyway, heh. It's easy to call it expected for me.

Raz @ Apr 3rd 2007 8:15PM

@Joop:
Oh sure... Hmmm... Let's see, first $600 against $250 right? How many 15yr old kids have $600 to throw on a fucking video game? Second take a look at the Wii library, you have at least 3 games over the 1MI mark now you go there and get me your sources for these Wii numbers of yours. Like it's expected to see this drop on PS3 sales it's expected to see the Wii outselling the competition, at least for the first 1~2 years cuz the Wii ain't gonna live more than that... People are so eager to see Sony failing that they try to make bad news of every little shit, i know you Nitendo fanboys are taking up in the ass for like 12 years but you can hate you can bash you can cry and you can kill yourself cuz Sony ain't gonna lose this one either...
Btw, it's 6.4MI Wiis sold worldwide against 3.07MI PS3s now go ahead and do the math... Not too far, eh? Sure Sony takes loss on every PS3 sold and Nintendo only profits from Wii but who cares? The money ain't coming to my pocket and Sony at least delivers something new instead of an old system with a bullshit remote, but sure the Wii is PAWWWNING everybody, i bet this is the best achievement in your life rite? Coming to a PS3fan blog to gloat about "your" console selling more sure makes your e-penis a lot bigger, congratz...

Nick @ Apr 4th 2007 1:17AM

No one has mentioned the obvious fact that the UK has 1/6th the population of the U.S. These are good numbers.

Brad @ Apr 3rd 2007 9:13PM

#11 - PaulLo -
"Obviously a decrease OMG!!! No decrease guys just another 165,000 people bought one, my god the media are Sony haters lol!!!"

===

Umm, read again. It sold 165,000 during the first week. Just 29,700 the next week. And yes, this is not good news at all. 29,700 this week. 20,000 next week. 16,500 the next week. See a trend?

mccomber @ Apr 3rd 2007 10:51PM

So... anyone find numbers for what the 360/ps2/wii/any console normally sell on a weekly basis in the UK?

anonymous user @ Apr 3rd 2007 11:51PM

Dear PS3 Fanboy site, and, also, a note to the users of this site:
I read the news on this site, because I am intrigued about PS3. However, some of the "fan boys" use stronger language that does not necessarily need to go through blogs, as well as racial slurrs and batting other people over the head about one product or another. I have noticed that this site has quite a few of these profane attitudes and thus, screening should be put in place as it is on other blog/news sites. Also, it is a good idea to keep this kind of thing to a minimum, and to respect other people's opinions. Thank you for your time,
anonymous user/gamer

Laurens Holst @ Apr 3rd 2007 11:53PM

Brad, where did you get your information about the future from? It is impossible to see a trend in sales figures of only two weeks.

~Grauw

madgunde @ Apr 4th 2007 12:35AM

Wow, it's amazing how seemingly intelligent people can keep making the same mistake. 165,000 is the number of units sold IN THE FIRST WEEKEND. Two days. NOT the first week. We don't know what their sales were for the first week. So calculating 82% of 165,000 will NOT give you the number of units sold in week 2. Nick Doerr, please correct your post, you're spreading false information.

Until we know the sales for the first week, we can't possibly calculate what they were in week 2. But if they sold 165,000 units in the first 2 days, it's probably a safe bet that they sold over 200,000 units in the first week, which would put the second week over 36,000 units. Not bad at all.

And yes, it is to be expected. This isn't the Christmas shopping season here. Sony managed to supply the pent-up demand and the pre-orders the first week. Anyone who was all gung-ho to buy one would have bought it in week 1 and not waited for week 2.

Maikii @ Apr 4th 2007 4:00AM

Ya know if the PS3 had sold say 20,000 units in the first few days (not 165,000) and then sold 145,000 in the '2nd' week, it's sales would've gone up by like 700% !!!! Wow what a headline !!!

pinkdragon @ Apr 4th 2007 6:54AM

Most shops in south east England have stock one reason is Sony dont do sale or return shops have to pay for stock so they are stuck with it which means some good deals will be comeing when stock does not sell plus Blue ray has just finalised specification and as it stands PS3 does not have spec. read following
MARCH 23 | Blu-ray Disc players released after Oct. 31 will feature markedly improved functionality over models currently available for sale.

The Blu-ray Disc Assn. has mandated that all hardware streeting after that date must be able to play back picture-in-picture video, as driven by BD Java interactive technology. Many players on shelves now can handle BD Java, but to varying degrees. Few Blu-ray players include picture-in-picture capability, for instance, not even the PlayStation 3.
Additionally, after Oct. 31, all Blu-ray players must hold a minimum 256MB of persistent memory storage, which will help power the picture-in-picture feature. Also, any Blu-ray player that features an Internet connection is required to have 1GB of such memory, in order to hold whatever content users decide to download from the Web.

Colin @ Apr 4th 2007 9:16AM

@mccomber...

You'll notice that my initial post started with 'Spin...'...

Chris @ Apr 4th 2007 9:30AM

Spinning like a top, as usual.

I don't know if I've ever seen bad news for Sony reported honestly on this site.

Nick @ Apr 4th 2007 11:14AM

I think there's a lesson that Sony can learn from this. The media want a system to be completely sold out for it to be a success. This means that the media would rather Sony ship only 500K units in Europe and sell everything rather than have a 100K units left over after a week.

mccomber @ Apr 4th 2007 11:22AM

@Colin
Exactly—that's why I hope that:
A. Someone else will think about how many consoles are normally sold and
B. Post some friggin numbers!

I'm sure seeing how many sales the competing consoles had would really put it in perspective. Or... let's look at it this way; (spin)last week, the ps3 sold nearly half as many consoles as the 360 did during it's launch(/spin).