CES: Sony ships 1mil PS3s in NA, targets 6mil worldwide by March '07

by Christopher Grant { Jan 7th 2007 at 8:40PM }

SCEA's Senior Vice President of Marketing, Peter Dille, took the stage at Sony's CES press conference to announce that Sony has met their goal of shipping 1 million PlayStation 3s in North America before the end of the year, in addition to imposing another goal on themselves: 6 million worldwide by March 2007. Even though they remind us that the PS3 reached 1 million units shipped (not sold) faster than either the PS1 or PS2 (check their math), we still think hitting 6 million units is ambitious. To put things in perspective, the Xbox 360 sold 1.5 million units worldwide in its first holiday season, with 900K sold in North America.

[Update: clarified the regions in question. Thanks, Steve2.]

Tags: SCEA, Sony

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Blake @ Jan 7th 2007 8:47PM

Has anyone heard whether PS3 is likely to launch here in Australia (and Europe) in March? I am still skeptical.

dybot @ Jan 7th 2007 8:50PM

Pardon me, didn't Sony originally plan to ship 4 million units by this time, then when changed their mind to 2 million and then to 1 million as they encountered problems with blue diode production?

I just want to know as I'm pretty sure their target was at least 2 million so how did they meet their target?

DDre @ Jan 7th 2007 8:52PM

the majority of the goal is probably for the Europe launch, considering in the U.S. there not flying off the shelves like they thought it would.

DeltaP42 @ Jan 7th 2007 8:53PM

Yeah, I don't think they have to worry about getting more on the shelves....they need to worry about finding away to get people to take them OFF the shelves.

Insomnia Bob @ Jan 7th 2007 8:57PM

I'd be VERY interested in seeing how many units out of that million have actually sold...but I doubt they'll post those numbers. It would probably cause their stock prices to implode.

Einhanderkiller @ Jan 7th 2007 9:03PM

Did Sony fix the issues with blue diode production yet?

mietha CAG @ Jan 7th 2007 9:07PM

To #4: Yeah, seriously. I was just at Target and they had 10 or so 60 gig versions. It just seems like there is no, or at least not much, interest. Then again, there's really not a whole lot to play either. Release something exclusive with final fantasy in the title and they'll be fine. They seriously need to be kissing square's ass though, because if they lose square's exclusivity, they won't even win Japan. Guess this is what happens when most of your first-party games are crap. I have one, and I love mine, but if I were objective about it, it really isn't worth $600, at least not at this time.

Gamer98 @ Jan 7th 2007 9:09PM

....No.

Steve2 @ Jan 7th 2007 9:14PM

Sony announced they shipped 1 milion PS3s TO THE US since launch, not 1 million total.

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/top/ps3-launch-outsells-xbox-360-launch-226742.php

This is a huge difference. Comparing to the 360, for example, MS sold 1.5M worldwide in the same time, 900,000 in North America.

This means the PS3 outsold 360 in North America at launch, compared to 360's launch. It also outsold 360 in Japan at launch, compared to 360's launch.

Please, this is a massive error in reporting.

phh @ Jan 7th 2007 9:15PM

Well, that would explain all the PS3s piling up unsold at Best Buy...

sonicyouth @ Jan 7th 2007 9:15PM

It's totally worth it for the Blu Ray movie playback. I'm Netflixing Blu Ray movies, which look amazing at 1080i on my 104" screen (using an Optoma HD70 projector.) Much better content for games and movies is just around the corner...but not a price drop.

Dux @ Jan 7th 2007 9:28PM

Despite the bad news surrounding the PS3 launch, the PS3 is doing great in terms of sells. 1 Million before PS1, PS2 and Xbox 360? Could Kataku be wrong?

Dild @ Jan 7th 2007 9:40PM

Their target was 2 million, not 1 million.

They missed it.

JRM @ Jan 7th 2007 9:43PM

I'll wait for the NPD report, thankyou.

TSHBO!! @ Jan 7th 2007 9:45PM

Sony shipped 1 million to NORTH AMERICA.

The 1 million does not include the 500K+ sold in Japan.

Callandor @ Jan 7th 2007 9:46PM

@ 11

There is no way that the PS3 is worth buying because of Blu-Ray playback. There is nothing wrong with standard DVD-ROM. It's silly that people go around beating their chests about HD-DVD and BR when nobody except tech nerds give a damn.

Anyway, it's laughable that Sony expects to move that many units in a couple of months. The 360 just now hit 10 million, and Sony is expecting to sell half of Microsoft's total market share in such a short period of time. Pathetic.

dick @ Jan 7th 2007 9:48PM

wii. believe it.

glitched @ Jan 7th 2007 9:52PM

According to NPD, microsoft only sold 600K its first holiday season in the US, not 900K

http://vgcharts.com/page3.html

AG @ Jan 7th 2007 9:53PM

Well, now that the launch issues are behind them, 2007 looks to be a great year for Sony. One million in the US alone by the end of the year is great considering the production issues. With the fact that this is more than the PS1,PS2,or Xbox 360 had in the US at the end of it's initial launch holiday,
it puts the PS3 in a better position to grow in it's first full year.

David004 @ Jan 7th 2007 10:00PM

I like how we are comparing the SHIPPING numbers of the PS3 to the SALE numbers of the 360. They can ship 10 million to the USA and all that would mean is that instead of 12 PS3s sitting on floors of stores everywhere it would be 120.

Dumbass Sony fanboys....

James @ Jan 7th 2007 10:01PM

There is a rather large worry that they should be keeping in mind. Advertising.

I'm sure everyone has seen the ads for PS3 that excessively try to sell the hardware itself, but how many of you have seen ads for its games other than Resistance?

This is probably their largest problem. They have to get it out there that they have a lot of good games to select from for such a system. The problem is that many of these games are neither very exciting, or not advertised very well.

Even stranger is that they seem to be losing support for Blue-Ray. How many of these movies have been promoted on TV and on the net. Not enough.

Personally, I think that's where they should concentrate on. Advertising as well as producing awesome titles and PR are going to be mandatory for such an expensive system's survival.

Chrispy @ Jan 7th 2007 10:02PM

Any of you got a share in sony? or any other game company for that matter? I don't know what the fuss is about with these sales figures and projected sales, we play because we enjoy it. You buy a system for the games, sonys got a nice backlog of games and some good game contracts. It will sell, but right now nintendo's got controll because people are enjoying wii play. Look at it this way, when a good PS3 game comes out you ain't gonna have a problem getting a console to play it on :)

Callandor @ Jan 7th 2007 10:02PM

Sony at first couldn't get enough on the shelves, but now they can't get them off. The PS3 may have sold
well initially, but Sony is going to have to fight an uphill battle against Microsoft and Nintendo for it to do well. If this trend of poor sales continues, Sony may wind up losing even more third-party exclusives and the PS3 will be the new GameCube.

At first, I thought Sony would do well over an extended period of time, but I'm starting to think that they are seriously fucked.

Craigo @ Jan 7th 2007 10:19PM

From the NYT: Daniel A. DeMatteo, vice chairman and chief operating officer at GameStop, said Thursday that for the first time last week there were PlayStation 3 consoles in stock at hundreds of the company’s 3,700 outlets. Not so for the Wii, which costs $249 and is still flying off shelves.

Add to that the rumors, to be judged Thursday, of a poor attach rate on top of slowing demand - Chrispy, if anyone does still have Sony stock, it's time to sell.

hohoho @ Jan 7th 2007 10:21PM

oh boy thread waits to be properly raped by fanboys from all sides. I'm puking with anticipation.

C. Grant @ Jan 7th 2007 10:27PM

Thanks guys, I've updated the post with some more accurate numbers. I left the 900k number, which is from Microsoft's earnings call, figuring their own internal claims are as fair as Sony's own (probably also shipped, not sold). We can compare NPD's numbers when they release their December report later this month.

El Chino @ Jan 7th 2007 10:30PM

Even stranger is that they seem to be losing support for Blue-Ray. How many of these movies have been promoted on TV and on the net. Not enough.

Then why has every motion picture company except Universal have backed Blu-Ray and Disney doing Blu-Ray exclusive.

Also, see adds for Crank, Grid Iron Gang, etc on Tv all the time promoting Blu-Ray along with DVD edition.

So what the Hell are you talking about?

Michael @ Jan 7th 2007 10:36PM

>The 360 just now hit 10 million, and Sony is expecting to sell half of Microsoft's total market share in such a short period of time. Pathetic.

What's trully pathetic is that SONY probaby WILL sell about 5mil units world wide by the end of March. Yep - SONY will do in about a quarater half of what Microsoft did in about a year...

Michael

Zweibel @ Jan 7th 2007 10:36PM

Even if it does manage to ship that many units by March '07, I'm not buying one until they release a few games worth buying. In fact, that is the same reason I have yet to purchase a Xbox 360. =P

David004 @ Jan 7th 2007 10:46PM

Do you have a Wii Zweibel?

Optimus Prime @ Jan 7th 2007 10:47PM

They wanted 2 million world wide for 2006 (it was 4 then 2); all they did was divert units from Japan (which got about 500k total) and put off stockpiling for the Euro launch. Sooo, it seems like they've solved their production issues.

Pedro @ Jan 7th 2007 10:59PM

1 million. Wow. If only they could have SOLD that many.

Steve2 @ Jan 7th 2007 10:59PM

I don't see PS3 selling 5M worldwide by March unless they cut the price, it's just unrealistic for a $500 console with so few games.

Optimus, Sony's original plans were 500,000 units at US launch, 100,000 per week to the US after that. 100,000 units at JPN launch, 100,000 per week to JPN after that.

So Sony didn't divert a whole lot of units from JPN to the US. They did fall short of sales goals in Japan it would seem, and of course the overall hope of 2M was not met either.

Despite all this, on the whole, number of units-wise it's a pretty good launch. They have to follow it up with some games though, and in short order.

I expect Sony is happy with their production rates now, and confident they can launch in Europe in March or so. The real question is when will games be ready for the European launch. There's no point in launching in Europe until there are some games available, and I don't mean Genji.

Frankie @ Jan 7th 2007 11:19PM

Lol, the Wii already shipped at least 4 million units. It's not that far off to think they have sold that many as well.

sirpilf @ Jan 8th 2007 12:10AM

20. I like how we are comparing the SHIPPING numbers of the PS3 to the SALE numbers of the 360. They can ship 10 million to the USA and all that would mean is that instead of 12 PS3s sitting on floors of stores everywhere it would be 120.

Dumbass Sony fanboys....

UMMM its the SAME retard. if the 1 million PS3s sold includes the PS3s still on store shelves, then the 10.4 million 360's has to include the HUNDRED stacked up in stores. have you looked at best buy lately? they have literally HUNDREDS stacked up around the store.

i love how whenever a company releases sales numbers, fanboys claim "NOOOO thats only the number SHIPPED but SO and SO actually SOLD this many".

Fozzie @ Jan 8th 2007 12:17AM

Now THAT is comedy.

Virtua Fanboy @ Jan 8th 2007 12:26AM

"UMMM its the SAME retard. if the 1 million PS3s sold includes the PS3s still on store shelves, then the 10.4 million 360's has to include the HUNDRED stacked up in stores. have you looked at best buy lately? they have literally HUNDREDS stacked up around the store.

i love how whenever a company releases sales numbers, fanboys claim "NOOOO thats only the number SHIPPED but SO and SO actually SOLD this many".

Posted at 12:10AM on Jan 8th 2007 by sirpilf"

I don't think you understand the number one hundred must less the concept of "hundreds". I have never been to ANY store that has HUNDREDS of Xbox 360's sitting around. How many hundreds sirpilf? 200, 300, did you sit and count or are you just full of shit? I mean, I'm not saying that you did'nt see a lot of Xbox 360's this holiday season. I'm sure you did and you know what, great, fine, awesome for you. But face it. You did not see "HUNDREDS" of Xbox's lying around Best Buy. Unless your to stupid to know how big a hundred of anything is you sir, are full of shit.

Don't bother posting a responce.

The End.

driven2sin @ Jan 8th 2007 12:45AM

Nintendo is running full dual attacks with DS & Wii. SOny is now pwned with no hope and 360 is just around for entertainment. wait till Wii Light Saber controllers come out!!! Wii Jedi FTW!!

Pixelbox @ Jan 8th 2007 12:52AM

number-wrangling aside, I think everyone here agrees that Sony needs to drop the price soon on the PS3 or be in a heap of trouble this generation.

eh? @ Jan 8th 2007 1:11AM

Has anyone clicked on the link provided titled "check their math"?

The information contained therein reports:

Cumulative Production Shipments of Hardware / PlayStation®2

2000/12/31 6.4 million units (Japan: 3.94 million/ USA: 1.46 million/ Europe: 1.0 million)

Ok, assuming that the current report from Sony is true, that 1 million PS3's were shipped by 12/31/06, the end of it's first holiday season. The number above for the PS2 is 1.46 million for the US by 12/31/00, the end of the first holiday season for the PS2.

Can someone please explain to me how 1 million > 1.46 million?

Revo @ Jan 8th 2007 2:10AM

At this point we can probably agree on *approximate* worldwide shipped numbers for all three consoles:

360: 10.4 million shipped
Wii: 4 million shipped
PS3: 1.5 million shipped

Now to wait for the NPD numbers...

ic @ Jan 8th 2007 2:23AM

they can ship all the systems they want - just don't forget about getting a couple of good games out ASAP or they'll be sitting in warehouses. Resistance is great and all, but one games does not a great gaming system make - glad I have the 360 too. The industry needs this competition to make gaming as a whole better for the consumer. I don't really care who wins, but it'll be nice if things are close to really push the companies to benefit gamers even more.

Jaydan @ Jan 8th 2007 2:40AM

Hmm.. is it me, or does Joystiq very pro-ms and very anti-sony? i've noticed they find fault in everything sony and nothing ms? is it an american support thing? Is that how they get to have lunch with mr bill gates? lol

Aeikozz @ Jan 8th 2007 3:20AM

that's great and all but they'll just be 1 million ps3 sitting on store shelves. might wanna bring that price down some.

Paul Mitchell @ Jan 8th 2007 4:14AM

Just face it, Sony PS3 is a failure. Average consumers do not care about the past or future. They do not care if the PS1 or PS2 was great. Nor do they care if the PS3 will be a great gaming console in the future. What they know is that NOW, the Xbox360 had many amazing games and that the Wii is fun.