Who's on the PS3's side, who? Lots. Historically speaking, brand PlayStation has had the best third-party support over any other platform. That's what happens when your first two consoles sell bajillions. A higher install base means more sales of games and a better chance for game developers to make money. So given such strong support for PlayStation systems in general, it's no surprise that EA and others were/are heavy backers of the PS3 from the start.But according to Bank of America, soft PS3 sales not only spell trouble for Sony but for the many third-party publishers supporting the platform, namely EA. Based on recent channel checks at 50 stores, 78% had PS3s in stock. Hence, "disappointing PS3 hardware sales are an incremental negative for all the game publishers." So much, in fact, that 2007 publisher stocks could take a substantial dive this year as 21% of their total expected revenues were pinned on the PS3.
As you can imagine, continued blame for the low demand was placed on the PS3's price point and and "lack of compelling software titles." The take-away: unless PS3 demand increases in lieu of early mishaps, publishers could also be left in the cold. Maybe more than just gamers are rooting for early price cuts now. The pressure's on.
(Page 1) Reader Comments
lol I'm sorry but Sony shot themselves in the foot this time around. This could possibly turn out to be even legendary than the Dreamcast launch fiasco..
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Well yes that would be a substantial loss, but they'd have to sell zero games for that, so I expect a realistic worst case scenario would be a 5% hit if the PS3 flops like so many want it to.
Much ado about nothing.
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Neil - Is the PS3 selling well when its units are sitting on shelves while the Xbox360 sold out for 3 months longer after launch and the much more plentiful Wii is still nigh impossible to find?
PS3 isn't doomed yet, but there's still no good news for it. The longer it takes for that to happen, the worse things look for Sony.
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Stop confusing shipped numbers to sold numbers, fucktard. You fanboys are really getting on my nerve with that.
Just a FYI: Sony bragged about shipping over 1million PS3s to Japan, but Media Create has PS3 sold at only 550,000ish. I wouldn't be surprised if they just broke 1 million units sold not too long ago.
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because a year from now, when the ps3 is "maybe" where the 360 is now, people will choose the cheaper, more matured (meaning more great games) system over the ps3. If sony doesn't pick up quick, they'll be screwed this gen. That's just the way it works.
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This statement says it all, though. Despite the price point, if these publishers would come up with compelling system-selling software, they wouldn't have as much to worry about.
Sony deserves most of the blame, of course, but release some games that aren't ports of what you can get on any other system and people will buy it. As it stands there's no reason to buy the system yet.
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Potential 360 owners are not looking at the old xbox and developers are not announcing many new titles.
Potential Wii owners are not looking at the Gamecube (did they ever?) and developers are not making many new titles.
The PS3 however is going up against its own goliath the PS2. It is still very heavily supported (and developers can make more money off the PS2).
Sony needs to move quickly to shut down support to the PS2 to encourage the movement to the PS3. If there is another year of games coming for the PS2 like God of War 2 there is no incentive for the established base of PS2 users to move to the PS3.
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I'm glad you asked that question Neil. And the answer is quite simple. First, that's the number shipped not sold.. and as we are aware, many of those shipped are sitting on store shelves. And about this time last year, Microsoft was still having shortages. Secondly, with Sony's hype machine, the expectations for the PS3 were much higher then the 360. The PS3 was supposed to be an instant sucess... as it's a playstation.. Brand and hype is a doubble-edged sword.
We don't know exactally how many sold, but rumors are barely above a million.. and the 360 was at 1.5 million by the end of the year. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360)
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The sad and sorry truth of it is that Sony can't afford to do this. The Playstation brand was practically the only division at Sony that was making money. Pre PS3 launch, and now with Sony losing a bundle on every PS3 sold, they simply can't borrow from other divisions like they could before.
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I'm friends with about 300 people on my university's campus of 6000. Two people have a PS3. 70-some have a Wii.
My roommate bought a Wii on Sunday. There were 40 people in line before the store opened (remember this is two months after the Wii's initial launch). I've now seen more than 50 PS3s (all 60gigers) in Best Buy, GameStop, and EBGames. Sure, some of them may have sold at some point, but it's still pretty humorous to see a dozen sitting on a shelf at my Best Buy.
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So here we are, devs are trying to rely on multi-platform releases while idiots like that guy from Frontline are whining about how scared they are of making games for a system that doesn't fit into this mode of business - oh no, the games must be specific for the Wii, and that can't be profitable. Except, for some reason, Nintendo has been very profitable doing it.
Multi-platform shovelware has got to go. More exclusives need be developed - not based on how much Microsoft or Sony or Nintendo can pay you for the exclusive, but rather based on which system is best for the game in mind. EA shoveled its usual suspects onto the PS3, and now their wallets are hurting. Well... duh.
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The cost of entry into the HD era is too high on the PS3 and the development tools are too complex for a "wait and see" attitude from developers. PS2 will be heavily supported for at least another year or two. You can sell 1 million on the PS2 without breaking a sweat. Try that on the PS3. The Wii already has a million seller. The PS3 won't see one until a HUGE exclusive hits.
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Well, in my opinion Sony deserves this. Their arrogance was unmatched for this PS3, and they are reaping what they sowed. Granted, by no means do I want this to end the console, but a nice slap in the face, a la Nintendo 2 console wars ago, would be helpful for them to re-evaluate their stance.
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Sony lost all of their leverage once the PS3 launched and underperformed. Before the launch it was assumed that the PS3 would toss the Wii aside and quickly catch and surpass the 360. Now that the system has been released and it has not performed as expected, 3rd parties have the power and not Sony. They could threaten to port existing PS2 titles to Wii and pending PS3 projects to 360 if Sony tried to force them to back off of PS2 development.
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IT'S TOO FUCKIN EXPENSIVE!!!!
im not going to pay 700 bucks play the same game thats on the cheaper xbox 360
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and i love sony, and have for over a decade. It's their arrogance that pissed me off, that made me lose respect for them. And now, they are getting exactly what they deserve. I hope it goes down in flames. I still have my 70+ ps1/2 games to play.
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It is going to be fun to watch this pan out. If third parties stop developing for the PS2 and move to the PS3 then profits will go down the crazy hole Sony made for themselves. If they stay with the PS2 for the next year or so then support for the PS3 will be limited and it will bomb in a way that will be talked about in hushed circles years from now.
By the way the Wii has 3 titles that have sold over a million already.
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If anything is more likely to kill EA, it will be the dawning realisation by gamers that EA is out to rape them over a barrel, pushing out one shoddy franchise after another, stuffing games full of ads / spyware and then foisting micropayments on them for things that should have been on the disk in the first place. That is far, far, far more likely to hurt EA sales than some problem one platform of many may have.
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Also, the forecasts for PS3 and Xbox 360 aren't that dramatically different currently on the simExchange. Gamers have maintained a forecast around 41.8 million units worldwide over lifetime for PS3 and 49.82 million units worldwide over lifetime for the Xbox 360. However, as seen from the charts, the 360 has been climbing while PS3 is stagnant.
PS3:
http://www.thesimexchange.com/stock.php?id=11
Xbox 360:
http://www.thesimexchange.com/stock.php?id=10
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I hope it does come out for the 360. then there would be no reason for me to even think of the PS3 as a future purchase for me.
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Michael
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Isn't that a gift from god?
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I don't buy a new Honda every time they change models and I suspect that the public feels the same way about the PS3. Nintendo is doing well because it is a family name... the 360 is doing well because most of the people that are buying it are new to the Xbox... and it has GAMES!
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to my shock, MS's decision to release the 360 so early makes sense now... I wonder if they had banked on this the entire time?
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are you honestly trying to sell me on ANYONE having the RIGHT to be arrogant? Arrogance is not a good thing. It's not a respectfull quality, and justifiably, I LOST RESPECT AND WILL FURTHERMORE HAVE MUCH ENJOYMENT AND LAUGHTER WHILST WATCHING TEH PS3 GO DOWN IN FLAMES>
BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
*plays Nintendo*
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I mean cuz lets be honest, the 360 wasn't exactly burning up the sales charts until recently either.
and while the Wii is doing well outselling its competition by far at launch (whooped 360 AND PS3's collective butts in terms of launch #'s) it still remains to be seen if it has enough steam to keep going.
Same goes with the PS3, its lacking right now, but hopefully it'll get some good games soon, that was 360's problem in its first few months too, no one was buying it because it didn't have any worthwhile games to a lot of people, but that has recently changed with the bevvy of great titles for it.
The Ps3 just needs to hit that stride as well. But still its not like its exactly bombed either, but did anyone expect a 500/600 dollar console to outsell a 250 dollar one at first anyway or a 100 to 200 dollar cheaper system with WAY more games?
I sure didnt
But the next year will be interesting for all 3 systems
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Note again: you cannot measure sales by looking at inventory.
i.e. looking at shelves and seeing there are units there cannot tell you sales. You could be looking at iPods, which were in stock everywhere and selling well this Xmas despite being launched in October (2G Nano and Shuffle), selling 21M. Alternately, you could be looking at Zunes, which were in stock everywhere and selling very poorly despite being launched in October, selling well under a million.
Stop measuring sales by looking at on shelves inventory, it's completely useless if you don't know how many units are being put on the shelves.
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