The PS3 might have dipped in April but overall It's in good shape

[SaintAvi]

I just saw the news story on the home page about the PS3 being down
25% and just wanted to let everyone know its not all gloom and doom in
Playstation Land

Sony have just released their 2008 end of fiscal year report. Within, information on things like money intake, operating incomes, blah blah...oh, and some promising PlayStation division hardware sales for the past 12 months.

So how'd the company do?

For the 12 months until March 31, 2009, Sony's games group reported an overall decline in hardware sales. While at first glance this seems bad news, in fact, it's quite the opposite, as the numbers are skewed by the rapidly declining sales of the PlayStation 2, which dropped a whopping 42%, from selling over 13 million consoles in the 2007 financial year to "just" 7.91 million last year, a decline of nearly 6 million.

For Sony's more recent hardware - the PSP and PS3 - though, things are looking up! PSP sales were up 300,000 from the year before, to 14.1 million units worldwide, while PS3 sales saw an increase of 940,000 units (to 10.06 million) over FY2007.

Looking towards the future, the company also released a forecast for the number of units of each console they expect to ship in FY2009 (which runs until March 31, 2010). And those crystal ball numbers are, well, quite conservative:

PS2 - 5 million
PSP - 15 million
PS3 - 13 million

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/kotaku/2009/05/pssales.jpg

Taken from Kotaku


Things arent to bad overall :D

Plus

PS3 sales were brisk and strong. During the fiscal year, 103.7 million PS3 games were sold. That's an increase of 45.8 million (almost 80 percent!) compared to the previous year.

So not only have hardware sales overall gone up, so has software sales

[Nick]

Ya, worldwide Sony is still not performing as bad as American sales numbers would have you think. Their performance in Japan as of late is probably the best news Sony has had as of late, and they are still only a stones throw away from overtaking the 360 in Europe.

But the PS3 is a sinking ship in the US. There really is no way you could possibly claim otherwise. This is the 6th month in a row that Sony has failed to top year-on-year sales. That should absolutely not be happening. Killzone 2, a product with 4 years of hype, Street Fighter IV, a long awaited sequel in the definitive fighting franchise, and Resident Evil 5, the next gen debut of a multi-million selling franchise, all hit within a 3-4 week period. The only big game that came out in the same period last year was Devil May Cry 4. And yet, the PS3 STILL couldn't top sales from those months last year?

And the worst thing is, all Sony has to do is axe the price $100. It's a well known fact that a HUGE majority of the 360s sold are the Premium(the average 360 selling price is $290). But they continue to be nonreactive to everything, their competition axing prices, the worsening economy, etc.

At this point, the PS3 will NEVER be top dog in the US, and it's likely that it will never beat the 360 either. Even if it outsold the 360 by an average of 200,000 a month and 400,000 during the holiday months, it would still take 3-4 years to bridge the gap the 360 has on it now, let alone the Wii. Sony needs to take measures to lock up Japan and Europe and just do as good as they can in the US, preserve the PlayStation brand name to the best of their ability.

[Dustin S.]

The price drop in my opinion cannot happen any sooner than August, at the very earliest late July. Why? There are absolutely no games coming out in June or July that they can feed off of, unless Ghostbuster counts? Infamous, sure thats all good and dandy till July when people realise thats all thats been out for a month. E3 too, thats going to generate alot of sells within itself and get people wondering about Sony.

August is perfect because if you look at upcoming hits, from august right through Decemeber its hit after hit after hit. People are going to want those third party games and sony has alot of first party games to offer. If the price drop happens, they get the attention then can feed off the games too. Seriously a 100 dollar price drop is a dream, that will totally dominate the price of 360 and will generate sales. Probably wont get retailers selling your product yet but who knows.

I still dont think Wii is a next generation console and it should be counted as winning this generation, just because the console released at the same time? I mean if your counting the wii then lets count PS2 as well, then bam Sony is doing amazing too. People over look the fact that Sony has 3 consoles on the market that are ALL recieving high sales, PSP outsold the DS, PS2 outsells the 360 and keeps up with Wii, and PS3 is just a bit behind in America....If you ask me, thats pretty damn cool.

The government has people scared right now, people dont want to buy a PS3 cus of the price. I gurentee if this recession wasnt happening the PS3 would be hard to keep up with period. Its the better console and people know it, they will buy it if it wasnt so expensive. MS just has the peoples trust as its an american company selling a cheap product during a recession.

[Nick]

FYI, the DSi outsold the PSP 10:1 this month in the US :P But w/e, wait for the PSP Go after E3.

Anyways, what they SHOULD do is in July, drop the 80GB PS3 to $349 to clear out the channel a bit, then in the fall, introduce a 120GB PS3 for $299 and drop the 160GB bundle to $399. That way, you get some buzz in the product over the typically dry summer months in time for Madden, then kick off a huge holiday ad campaign highlighting the new $299 PS3. It worked for them in 2007, and Microsoft in 2008.

Plus, the summer is actually pretty stocked for Japan. I think they have like 4-5 PS3 exclusives coming out from June to August. They could definitely use a price drop there. Sony's biggest moving territory this year is going to be Japan, especially with FF13 coming out there, exclusively on the PS3.

[SaintAvi]

Well, if those new images that leaked are any indication, there is a new PS3 model
on the horizon that seems cheaper to manufacture than the current piano black model.

I'm predicting a price drop announcement at e3

[Nick]

Looks like those slim PS3 rumors might be true. According to a Sony insider that posts at GAF, the slim PS3 is real. He said they'll go on sale in September.

I don't usually pay any heed to internet rumor mongers, but the guy has definitely been pretty accurate in the past. Most recently, he posted the 2.70 firmware specs a day before it was released:
Text Chat in XMB and ingame, Backup and Restore option now also include videos purchased from PSN store, Internet Search is added to the option menu of each game, Copy/Paste in Internet browser, & attachment size in messages increased to 3MB.

He's posted other stuff that was either guessable, or cryptic, but also, check out his E3 2007 info. It's almost 100% dead on for what they revealed:
10 - PSP - Redesign revealed for a September '07 release.
10 - PSP - Official cable for connection with TV is revealed.
10 - PS3 - Pricedrop + 40GB SKU plans revealed, for release in October.
10 - PS3 - Rumble controller is revealed.
10 - PSP - Online Store to begin operation to coincide with new PSP release.

[EIN]

I'll wait for E3... no point getting worked up over something that MIGHT happen... and I honestly couldn't care less about a slim PS3. Why? Because I don't carry it around with me, it sits under my TV. Maybe it might look better aesthetically, but I'm pretty sure everyone here already has a PS3, so how many of us are serioulsy gonna go out and buy the new one just cuz its slim? this isn't a phone or handheld, consoles can be tiny and still not sell well.

Just my two cents thoug, I'm sure I could be wrong

[Dustin S.]

So if it is true at least my idea of waiting till at least August is real haha. Also slim isnt just for looks. All though alot of people will go out and buy it again, your right its not a PSP slim so their is no point in really owning two or another because its sitting there still doing the same thing. However a slim design is also cheaper for Sony, just look at PS2, the slim will cut back production costs and all these other costs down the line saving sony money and thus allowing a price cut.

[EIN]

So if it is true at least my idea of waiting till at least August is real haha. Also slim isnt just for looks. All though alot of people will go out and buy it again, your right its not a PSP slim so their is no point in really owning two or another because its sitting there still doing the same thing. However a slim design is also cheaper for Sony, just look at PS2, the slim will cut back production costs and all these other costs down the line saving sony money and thus allowing a price cut.

Hopefully you're right, PS3needs a price cut to stay competitive

[m0tl3sl4y3r]

Hopefully you're right, PS3needs a price cut to stay competitive

exactly, most people have better things to spend over $400 on since we are in a recession

[EIN]

yay 10$ price cut


woohoo

[Dustin S.]

Well its amazon so no "tax" right off the back right now either. Thats until the government screws it up that is, then amazon is screwed. Imagine paying new york tax, geez

[m0tl3sl4y3r]

Well its amazon so no "tax" right off the back right now either. Thats until the government screws it up that is, then amazon is screwed. Imagine paying new york tax, geez
how much tax is in New York anyways?

yay 10$ price cut


woohoo

no tax on as well though

[SaintAvi]

Sales tax in new york is about 8.5%

[Dustin S.]

I thought it was higher than that, i hear people on amazon complain about it all the time. Something about how its more than one but its high as is. Here it fluctuates from city to city, anywhere from .05 to .08 (8 being Phoenix). Either way your still saving a but load not paying it on PS3.

[SaintAvi]

I suppose people complain since in general things in new york tend to be a bit pricier,
and it just adds up I suppose when on top of the boosted prices theres the tax

[m0tl3sl4y3r]

Sales tax in new york is about 8.5%

really, in Ontario, Canada, it's like 13%, in New York it's way cheaper ( i guess it's gotten cheaper here, a couple years ago it used to be 15 %)

[Jack_C]

I'll never understand this obsession with sales of video games. I own a Sharp HDTV, and for all I know Sharp isn't the biggest selling brand of TV's. Oh dear! Oh wait, what do I care? I could understand if one console was doing so poorly that no one was making games for it, but just the opposite seems to be the case - I'm extremely impressed with a lot of games coming out for the PS3.

[m0tl3sl4y3r]

I'll never understand this obsession with sales of video games. I own a Sharp HDTV, and for all I know Sharp isn't the biggest selling brand of TV's. Oh dear! Oh wait, what do I care? I could understand if one console was doing so poorly that no one was making games for it, but just the opposite seems to be the case - I'm extremely impressed with a lot of games coming out for the PS3.

ya sales shouldn't matter that much( to an individual anyways), because all the people I know with PS3s think that they are amazing, so thats alll that really matters to me

[EIN]

ya sales shouldn't matter that much, because all the people I know with PS3s think that they are amazing, so thats alll that really matters to me

are you kidding me?

Sales drives this industry. Doesnt matter how good your game is, it doesnt sell, the dev gets the axe. Sales also mean money, and whoever has the most can put out the better product.

[SaintAvi]

Sales also mean money, and whoever has the most can potentially put out the better product.

fixed

[m0tl3sl4y3r]

are you kidding me?

Sales drives this industry. Doesnt matter how good your game is, it doesnt sell, the dev gets the axe. Sales also mean money, and whoever has the most can put out the better product.

what I meant was that sales shouldn't matter to an individual, of course they should matter to a company

I guess I should've put that in the original statement, must have forgotten

I agree with u totally EIN