UK PS3 launch saw 10m in cancellations, still #1
by Christopher Grant 
{ Mar 27th 2007 at 2:10PM }
Maybe it has something to do with Phil's adorable accent, or their slightly upsetting European This is Living ads, but Sony did a number on the UK. Not only did the PS3 manage to break the record for best-selling home console launch in its weekend debut (take that, PS2!), but PS3 titles like Resistance and Motorstorm are sitting pretty at the top of UK entertainment software sales charts. Toss some free TVs into the PR mix, and things may just be looking up, but what's this?According to BrandRepublic, "as many as 20,000 pre-orders of the £425 console [were] canceled in the run-up to its delayed launch last Friday," totaling over £10m in lost sales! The same article quotes Nick Parker, an analyst at Screen Digest, who said, "This time next week we could be saying that the PlayStation 3 has been the most successful console launch ever." Uh, already true in the UK, Nick. So, widespread cancellations and the console still broke sales records? Then why are there still units on the shelves?
Let's not mistake a healthy supply of consoles to mean there's no consumer interest; the two may be related but, like everything, we imagine there's a great deal more going on than simple numbers on store shelves. Sure, there's no Wiis sharing the shelves, but that's because Nintendo (for some reason known only to them) can't seem to make enough of them (insert duct-tape wise crack here).
[Thanks, Dolla Dolla]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Arno @ Mar 27th 2007 2:24PM
Agreed. That accent is adorable.
A complete idiot (Phil) could be spewing garbage (Sony GDC Keynote) and still sound incredibly intelligent. I wish I could do a British accent. :)
required @ Mar 27th 2007 2:32PM
I don't understand what is at all upsetting about http://www.thisisliving.tv/
andres @ Mar 27th 2007 2:32PM
heres the truth of the matter. The fact that the PS3 didnt sell out is a failure. Heres why, as a business you need to make money. Items sitting on a shelf in a store does not create money. In fact it makes the company lose money since the store will not order more till they feel they need more.
Sony saying that there launch being a success is only a half truth. Yes it was a success they sold a large percentage of the inital shipment. Now did it have a truly sucessful launch? The answer is No.
Why no well because they didnt sell out. For a comapny to say something like "We met the needs of the people that wanted it most as well as leaving enough stock for any casual player" is a flawed statement. That means that they are taking a large gamble on the causal player coming to buy it.
The question is not will the C.P. (casual player) buy the system it is a question of when. So now instead of companies going crazy ordering more systems they are waiting for the systems in stock to sell so they can order more. Which means less money for Sony.
Meanwhile the 360 which has sold enough units in its 1 year of release does not need to worry about console says as much now its all the games ends.
(they do need to worry about consoles selling but they dont need to as bad anymore)
Meanwhile everytime a WII is put on the shelf it is sold. Which is also bad for Nintendo since people that are waiting around for a console can not get there hands on it so they may get tired of waiting and pick up through secondary markets (ebay) or just goto another system.
So as of right now the only one thats in an OK Spot is 360. But you read why.
Now in 1 year lets check in on the WII and Ps3 to see how they are sitting
DBX00 @ Mar 27th 2007 2:39PM
XBOX360 has only sold 11 million consoles; the PSP has sold 2x that, the DS 4x that number, and the new consoles on the block are quickly catching up. If Microsoft isn't concerned that their console sales are slowing down significantly in Europe and Asia, then you're sadly mistaken. A consoles lifetime is 4-6 years and we have a long way to go before Microsoft can confidently say they don't have to worry about pushing consoles. When they get to 100 million consoles sold, then they can claim some dominance.
This generation like every other one before it will be determined how quickly you can build your user base by reducing costs, cutting price, and getting a large game library as a result. The hardware sales will push software development and software sales. Microsoft better get off their butts before the Wii actually starts making games and the PS3 releases its killer apps in the summer and fall.
required @ Mar 27th 2007 2:41PM
andres, Nintendo's got you goofy believing in their hype. I often see their wii collecting dust on the shelves of stores.
jsn @ Mar 27th 2007 2:46PM
Lets also not overblow consumer interest either. The only reason any previous console failed to exceed the mark the PS3 set is because of supply shortages. It is highly likely that both teh Wii and the 360 would have surpassed it had the supply been available. I guarantee you that nobody in Sony is cheering over this, at least behind closed doors. Because the perception of their console hasn't been changed, it's still sitting on shelves when it should be hard(er) to find and the titles for it are simply underwhelming, to put it nicely.
Crono @ Mar 27th 2007 2:47PM
Thats funny, because the only time i've ever seen a wii at retail is when I bought one at launch, because it was reserved. i've never seen a wii box "in the wild".
It not nintendo hype, moron, its peoples personal experience.
RoroCo @ Mar 27th 2007 2:48PM
required... You don't need to lie to make friends. The Wii's lack of availability is not PR spin. As someone who tried to get one for my wife recently, I can tell you that they are "collecting dust on shelves."
Ok... Maybe you do need to lie.
killr0y @ Mar 27th 2007 2:49PM
I don't know.. I was there on Oxford street when the London PS3 launch went down. It was pretty dead, almost to the point that you didn't even know it happened. Nobody is talking about PS3 here, that's for sure. In fact, I talked to a colleague of mine about the PS3 and his response was, "You're a gamer? I just got one of those Xbox 360's a few weeks ago and I just bought Ghost Recon, its Brill! So-and-so also just ordered his 360, he should have it in a few days.. We should exchange gamer tags and play online sometime."
So again, I'm not sure what planet Sony's PR team is on, but down here on Earth (London specifically), nobody really cares about the PS3.
Zamfir @ Mar 27th 2007 2:50PM
I like who even though the PS3 sales in the UK/Europe are nothing short of spectacular, this site STILL tries (and I mean, really, really tries) to spin this in some negative direction. I bet people involved who submit these "articles" are actively *trying* to find anything bad to post about the PS3. It's a truly captivating phenomenon.
I've read comments where the trolls exclaim that the NA launch was a failure because Sony couldn't meet the demand, only shipping a small quantity of units. Then you have readers who comment that this UK/European launch was a failure because there are still consoles available in stores. Simply amazing. In a weird way though, it's kinda cool to own a console that all the trolls HATE - I clearly made the right purchase :)
Dolla Dolla @ Mar 27th 2007 2:51PM
I think it is in the consumers best interests that Sony hold strong to the UK/Europe with the PS3. With competition being heavy, Microsoft will have to step up. They have absolutely no legs in Japan, which is dominated by handhelds and the Wii, and the PS3 shows promise when it drops a game people want (see sales of Gundam Musou). NA is quickly becoming Wii-land as well, with the 360 lead dwindling month after month.
The coming months should be interesting.
Neal @ Mar 27th 2007 2:51PM
@ andres
So, you're saying there is no good way of launching a system then?
Too many systems, and they're sitting there, too few, and you're not supplying enough.... How can both be bad.
No matter how you look at it, those PS3 will eventually sell (and Im sure it won't take all too long) Either Sony will get the money slowly as they ship out small shipment by small shipment, or they can get it all at once, reguardless, the same amount of moeny will be coming in. I don't understand how you put a negative on them providing enough systems.
If they made 50 million and put them all on the shelves, yeah, bad idea, nobody knows if they will sell, but you'd have to be a damned fool if you think the rest of the PS3s on the shelf won't eventually sell.
Not selling out of a system when you launch with a lot is not a bad thing. If they launched with 100 unites, and didn't sell out, then they can worry.
required @ Mar 27th 2007 3:03PM
RoroCo said, "I can tell you that they are "collecting dust on shelves."
This is what I said about the Wii and no I don't want to be friends with you.
required @ Mar 27th 2007 3:06PM
Crono, it is nintendo hype.
Jacob @ Mar 27th 2007 5:18PM
All the cancellations were probably people buying to sell on eBay realising that the PS3 wouldn't sell out and they'd make a loss.
RoroCo @ Mar 27th 2007 3:09PM
Correction. "I can tell you that they are not 'collecting dust on shelves.'"
Work is interfering with my blog commenting.
jc @ Mar 28th 2007 5:39PM
Its kind of bullshit that a company gets bad press for actually producing enough consoles to meet demand. Are the only successful consoles, ones you cant find anywhere? It was a pain in the ass to find a wii, even after all the talk about 4 million launch units, and how they were making so much profit off the hardware. PS3 might be a failure, but at least they produced enough of the things.
Sloar @ Mar 27th 2007 3:14PM
Q. How many fanboys does it take to change a lightbulb?
A. 103
1 to take pictures documenting the contents of the box, 1 to mod it, 1 to blog about installing it, and 100 to argue about which brand was bought.
Get real people, it's not like Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo killed your dog. If you can't think of one good thing about either the PS3, 360, or Wii, then you really are a moron. It really is sad to think of everything your ancestors went through so that ultimately you would be born. Please, show your ancestors some respect.
RoroCo @ Mar 27th 2007 3:14PM
And required... it is not Nintendo hype. The Wii shortage is real you tool.
Per http://www.itrackr.com/home.aspx
Wii -> 1% availability in the US
PS3 60G -> 93% availability
Hell... Even the 360 Premium is only at 79% availability.
Spin those numbers.
Jack of No Trades @ Mar 27th 2007 3:16PM
@ Crono
"It not nintendo hype, moron, its peoples personal experience."
There are more casual gamers than hardcore gamers, you idiot. Of course the Wii would sell more with a bigger hype and more potential buyers. The world is ran on hype and money.
andres @ Mar 27th 2007 3:19PM
"12. @ andres
So, you're saying there is no good way of launching a system then?
Too many systems, and they're sitting there, too few, and you're not supplying enough.... How can both be bad.
No matter how you look at it, those PS3 will eventually sell (and Im sure it won't take all too long) Either Sony will get the money slowly as they ship out small shipment by small shipment, or they can get it all at once, reguardless, the same amount of moeny will be coming in. I don't understand how you put a negative on them providing enough systems.
If they made 50 million and put them all on the shelves, yeah, bad idea, nobody knows if they will sell, but you'd have to be a damned fool if you think the rest of the PS3s on the shelf won't eventually sell.
Not selling out of a system when you launch with a lot is not a bad thing. If they launched with 100 unites, and didn't sell out, then they can worry."
Thats exactly what i am saying. There is no good launch.
A company needs to make money. They do not make money with having systems on the shelf. So they want a sell out.
However a complete and total sell out IS good depending on when you have restock. If the restock is a week after the launch then maybe it could be a good thing. The restock serves as the people that want the item that couldnt get it the first time as well as to sell to the casual gamer.
Where as a WII sell out where its hard to find them, as someone put it, "in the wild" you get people still looking HOWEVER you will also get people that get frustrated and just decided to get another system.
Also I'm not saying MS can sit back and relax now cause of the 10-11 million sold. What I'm saying is they do not have to worry about marketing the system as much as PS3 and WII still have to. All they need to do is worry about the games.
As far as nintendo having me believe in the "goofy hype" Its not true. My claim to get a WII was on the grounds that the response to the wireless is a tight as they (nintendo) promised. To me it is. So i went on a mission to find one. I was lucky to find 4 at my local best buy a good 3 months after I tried it out. I got mine someone saw me with the one I bought so they bought one havent seen the other 2.
Jack of No Trades @ Mar 27th 2007 3:21PM
@andres
My claim to get a WII was on the grounds that the response to the wireless is a tight as they (nintendo) promised.
Yea duh thats called hype.
Tufas @ Mar 27th 2007 3:23PM
Funny Cronos:
Everywhere here in Portugal, Wii's for sale. And I dont mean 2 or 3 each store, but 10 or 20. - Nintendo might be purposely holding out on supply to generate more interest and increase demand. People tend to forget this is a business and Nintendo have a very professional academy-trained marketing department. I mean, how else can you get away with a control-scheme gimmick and a console that sells out in some countries but DOES NOT SELL in others (where their marketing doesnt reach) - Ooops found the secret
required @ Mar 27th 2007 3:23PM
RoroCo, your ungodly trust in itrackr is tacky and your numbers do not require spin as they are non sequitur.
why not the LS2/LS7? @ Mar 27th 2007 3:24PM
The cancellations make sense to me. I'm sure people were preordering 2 and 3 of them, thinking they could maybe eBay them, and if not, cancel the orders.
The launch seems like a success. It's not a runaway success, but it's a success. Orders will of course die down due to the lack of games though. Sony needs to get on that.
Slaziman @ Mar 27th 2007 3:25PM
Man you Sony fanboys are dripping with ignorance. The "record" is not spectacular, it has successfully measured the demand for the PS3, and let me tell you, that demand is low. Will the PS3's sitting on shelves sell eventually? Yes, but how the hell is that relevant? If they sell to slowly, retailers won't order shipments at Sony, which means NO MONEY FOR SONY! There is nothing spectacular about selling more consoles than your competitors which didn't delay the product 4 months and therefore had supply issues. Wii and 360 would've demolished the PS3's "record" had they been delayed 4 months and released with plenty of supply.
JET @ Mar 27th 2007 3:30PM
*sigh* 360 hasn't sold 11 million sonsoles. It has sold just under 9m worldwide, with over half of those in the U.S. and nearly none in Japan. I actually believe the number is closer to 7m worldwide, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and go with the "Rest of World estimates." As we've said here before, SHIPPING 11m consoles is not SELLING 11m consoles (at least not to customers, and who cares how many 360's Wal-Mart owns?).
There are units in stores in the US and the UK because Sony didn't drop the ball like Microsoft. Ps3 just had the biggest launch in UK console history. PS3 is outselling PS2 in Japan and is nearly on par with Wii. Casino Royale just set a media record by achieving 100,000 units on Blu-Ray, months faster than the first DVD title to reach that number. Where is the glass half empty in that?
You can't win in console sales without decent sales everywhere. That's where Microsoft has failed: They have not grown their market. Nintendo has. Sony has.
How in the world is having product available to sell customers a bad thing? Ask Microsoft how much it sucked that customers who would have bought a 360 if they could have at launch simply sat out the system and waited for the next big thing.
JET
andres @ Mar 27th 2007 3:32PM
"20. @andres
My claim to get a WII was on the grounds that the response to the wireless is a tight as they (nintendo) promised.
Yea duh thats called hype."
No it wasnt hype. It was Rob, a friend of mine who bought the system came over to a friends place and had me play WII sports. After that game my girlfriend agreed with me to get the system. So we looked and I found it.
Hype would be reading a magazine on how my life is worthless if I do not have the system.
That wasnt the case.
RoroCo @ Mar 27th 2007 3:32PM
required... I am not saying iTrackr is 100 percent accurate, but even if you add a 20 percent buffer for error you are still not close. Regardless, iTracker makes a stronger case than "I have seen them collect dust."
You probably have only seen the empty display boxes and nothing more.
Now, I can not attest top the stock in Portugal, but I would doubt that their is over stock there. They are a fickle people. I know... I am one of them.
RoroCo @ Mar 27th 2007 3:33PM
Edit: Now, I can not attest top the stock in Portugal, but I *wouldn't* doubt that their is over stock there. They are a fickle people. I know... I am one of them.
Man I am having a hard time putting things in negative terms today....
Diman @ Mar 27th 2007 3:37PM
If the Wii is not on the shelves and the PS3 is, what do you think clueless people will do?
It's not hype, it's a short phenomenon that will die out at the some point in time.
Slaziman @ Mar 27th 2007 3:39PM
@JET
hahaha
Being outsold 3:1 is "being on par" in your book?
Japanese hardware sales for March 12 - March 18:
System - Weekly sales (Compared to last week) - 2007 sales - Lifetime sales
1. DSL - 121,471 (+12,959) - 1,718,799 - 9,168,683
2. WII - 67,070 (+22,575) - 915,139 - 1,834,782
3. PSP - 43,769 (-12,406) - 603,928 - 5,136,057
4. PS3 - 21,635 (-10,040) - 316,475 - 774,033
5. PS2 - 13,321 (-1,264) - 223,953 - 20,378,812
6. 360 - 2,910 (-423) - 71,632 - 336,334
7. GBM - 727 (-85) - 14,499 - 574,379
8. GBASP - 557 (-122) - 11,988 - 5,930,939
9. NGC - 367 (+127) - 5,039 - 4,174,507
10. NDS - 159 (+40) - 1,256 - 6,583,513
11. GBA - 9 (-4) - 454 - 8,823,660
Kye @ Mar 27th 2007 3:46PM
We've been copying and pasting haven't we andres?
Kye @ Mar 27th 2007 3:46PM
We've been copying and pasting haven't we, andres?
maylon @ Mar 28th 2007 2:33AM
@JET
Ok, you hate M$ and Bill Gates, we get the picture. You want Sony to dominate, and for no one to have any real choice. We get it.
andres @ Mar 27th 2007 3:49PM
yea no one read my post elsewhere :(
Crono @ Mar 27th 2007 3:52PM
Jack,
It might be selling because of hype, I never denied that. But what I was saying is that tales of Wii being sold out are NOT Nintendo hype.
Lets remove the modifiers so that your primitive brain can understand.
Tales are Not hype.
Matt B @ Mar 27th 2007 3:58PM
Plus Jet, no one takes into account that returned "bricked" 360's to some stores and replaced with new are counted as new sales for MS. So even the 9M could be inflated by more than 10%, maybe even alot more.
theDude @ Mar 28th 2007 11:40AM
Wow, there's a lot of anti-Sony sentiment here.
Tin foil hat moment.
I wonder how many of those pre-orders were placed by "other companies" with the intention of generating bad press like this. This leads to the speculation that people trying to place pre-orders may have been told there were no more to be had early on, turning their opinions sour too, if the pre-orders were made by those "other companies".
Historically, the PS2 did not sell out in the US at it's launch while the PS3 did. I wonder what was being said back then about that fact.
RoroCo @ Mar 27th 2007 4:21PM
Matt B... who would buy a new system when you can send a bricked system back to Microsoft for an exchange? Nice stretch though.
mccomber @ Mar 27th 2007 4:28PM
Oh yeah, there's the negative. Thank god, I thought for a second there the world had gone all topsy-turvy and we wouldn't be seeing bad news about the PS3 selling well in the UK... despite everything "wrong".
IB @ Mar 27th 2007 4:31PM
Oh these Sony haters. I've become convinced that this anti-Sony sentiment is some Japan-US rivalry. Perhaps spurned by the fact that the Microsoft consoles are reviled in Japan. This has touched a nerve amongst the Americans and causes this rampant Anti-Sonyism. I wonder if Nintendo will be on the receiving end of this should they win this console war. That this site and all the collection of fanboys commenting on it could take a record breaking launch for Sony and make it bad news is nothing short of phenominal. Its also the tone of the article itself:
"So, widespread cancellations and the console still broke sales records? Then why are there still units on the shelves?" I can almost see some scheming, bitter, twister hack concocting these words and rubbing his hands gleefully. Classic.
Konchu @ Mar 27th 2007 5:05PM
I think its good thing if Sony is doing good in Europe. I personally dont want to see there be a lack of compitition and but I definatly dont want to see a one sided Sony victory like last gen as Sony has needed a humbling to get back on track for a while now and I hope they have had that(Nintendo got their slice of humble pie too the last few gen and it has been good for developers and gamers).
There are alot of things that go into account for a successfull launch and the ability to make these sort of numbers. For one and most important there has to be enough systems to meet those numbers and Sony has been able to do that. With World wide launches on both the 360 and the Wii it is hard for them to be able to match launch numbers of a system that was delayed. And Im sure the lower demand here in the US for now helped to allocate more units to a European launch. That said I dont want to steal its glory or have it fail miserably but the whole picture should be looked at and I think Sony still has its work cut out for them to make it succede.
Im sure the US PS3 launch would have been better and would have been less crazy if there would have been more systems.
Jdoki @ Mar 27th 2007 7:04PM
On the subject of the launch. It's impossible to compare the 360, Wii and PS3's launch sales - who can speculate on how many units Nintendo and MS would have sold if they had ample stock?
Sony should be congratulated for selling so many PS3's, and for having stock on shelves... but does that justify a 5 month delay in Europe?
It's a double edged sword, too few units and ppl will get ruthless on ebay and call Sony out for still having production problems, too many and the launch is seen as a failure. Sony couldn't win!
I think it IS worrying that Sony have masses of stock in Europe. Having worked in logisitcs for a while I know that quite often it's the manufacurers who pay the warehouse costs for the retailers.
So not only are Sony losing money on each console sold, but they will be compounding that loss by paying their own warehouse costs and possibly the warehouse costs of the retailers as well. It's something most people forget... these units don't magically appear in the shops; and every part of the distribution and warehousing costs money...
So, if Sony shipped 1million PS3's in to Europe and sold 600k they still have 400k that are currently costing Sony more and more on a daily basis. Not something that will help the Sony bottom line.
Despite the great launch numbers (165k in the UK is impressive), the problem is that here is a distinct lack of buzz about the PS3. Both the Wii and Xbox360 had a real buzz about the lead up, launch and post-launch periods and I think this was partly because of limited stock and partly because they were offering something new. There's no tangible difference to the average consumer between Xbox360 and PS3.
Sony came to the table late, with a higher priced unit riding nothing but negative publicity and a very low-key and somewhat mystifyingly crap marketing campaign. The hardcore faithful and the 'must-have-the-latest-gadget' segments are pretty much filled so it'll be interesting to see how quickly the PS3 sells over the next 3 to 6 months.
Aberu @ Apr 22nd 2007 8:08AM
"With a high-price tag, plenty of stock, and no crazy Christmas shopping crunch, the European launch could never live up to other recent events, but we're sure the 100 lucky winners of the televisions -- "a reward for gamers' patience" -- don't mind."
From the linked Joystiq blog. A little bit of an apology might be due?