PlayStation 3 sales plunge 82% in UK

Zoinks! D:

The visual images of "Skydiving Walrus using an anvil for a parachute" ... simply breathtaking. Makes me giggle.

What did anyone expect? Sony selling 165,000 PS3 consoles week after week? Such a drop-off is only to be expected since at least 80% of those first week sales were pre-orders made many months before.

The really interesting thing to know the current sales numbers compare to current Wii and Xbox sales.

What did u expect its only the hardcore fans buying it.

That is still very good. 30,000 is more than they sell in Japan every week and I am sure it is still the best selling console in the UK this week. It's also one third of what the 360 and Wii managed to do IN THEIR FIRST WEEK. Sorry it couldn't break the alltime record for consoles sold in the UK two weeks in a row.

@silkylove

QFT

Agreed DRO4LIFE.

I like that mental image. WE NEED AN ARTIST TO DRAW THIS PICTURE STAT!

This makes sense. If Sony couldn't sell out at launch, why would they be able to keep selling PS3s like crazy?

harold keep in mind the xbox and wii were both severely strained by quantities

Yeah, that walrus image... thanks for that. XD

It's the 2nd week Harold. See who's talking next week when they plummet to below 10k.

USA! USA!

Expected fanboy comments:

"That's because everyone who wants one already got one lol"

"599 US Dollars!"
"Idiot, this is for UK sales."
"Oh. Then... 425 British Pounds!"
"Idiot."

"What's wrong with those people? PS3 is great, they should all be buying them out."


Any others I miss?

Add something about HOME and you'll be all set BPM.

Ah, thanks.


I get working on a walrus image when I have some free time. :D

Much love BPM.

@ BPM

You forgot:

"Looks like someone hit the PS3 for Massive Damage!"
"lol."
"aLL you nintendards and X-bots are gey!1!"
"hey at least the psp is selling better than the ps3"
"Dude, the GBA is selling better than PS3. In America."

I file this under - No Shit. Of course the initial release buzz wears off.

you also forgot the inevitible "Nintendo is for kids!" argument that will surely come up in this thread, just like every single other thread on joystiq, whether they are about nintendo or not.

I'm guessing the people who bought it in the last week were the people who were waiting for payday before they could afford it.

So within the next week or so they'll sell out the initial UK allocation?

That's good, yah?

Do you want videogames to go back to the Dark Ages? CUZ THAT'S WHAT'LL HAPPEN IF NINTENDO TAKES THE LEAD!

Rut row Raggy...

Doinks! Scoob! This must be the end of PS3...

Oh my god...finally the end is here. Wahhhhhh!!

Wahhhhhh!!! What are we to do?

England blew it's load on launch, this must really be the end of PS3.

I'm nobody's fanboy. I don't want to see the Playstation line end with the PS3. Competition is always good for the consumers.

With that in mind, the entire executive-level Playstation team at Sony needs to be fired. Hire an entirely new group and please start working to fix the Playstation brand before it's too late. And no, I do not think it is already too late, but it's getting damn close.

I'll tell you what can save the PS3! Do you want to know what it.. *cut off mid-sentence*... IT'S RIDGE RACER! RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDGE RAAAAAAAAACCCCCCORRRRRR!

(I know it was originally a whale, but...)

Ahhh! Woooh! What's happening? Who am I? Why am I here? What's my purpose in life? What do I mean by who am I? Okay okay, calm down calm down get a grip now. Ooh, this is an interesting sensation. What is it? Its a sort of tingling in my... well I suppose I better start finding names for things. Lets call it a... tail! Yeah! Tail! And hey, what's this roaring sound, whooshing past what I'm suddenly gonna call my head? Wind! Is that a good name? It'll do. Yeah, this is really exciting. I'm dizzy with anticipation! Or is it the wind? There's an awful lot of that now isn't it? And what's this thing coming toward me very fast? So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like 'Ow', 'Ownge', 'Round', 'Ground'! That's it! Ground! Ha! I wonder if it'll be friends with me? Hello Ground! [dies]

Curiously the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias, as it fell, was, 'Oh no, not again.'

This thread makes me laugh.

Someone should make reference to the PS3's stamina being equal to Mike Tyson's.

@samfish

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is freaking hilarious. I love that movie.

"PlayStation 3 sales have come down to Earth with all the grace of a skydiving walrus using an anvil for a parachute."

Ludwig, have I ever told you that I love your way with a metaphor?

SingStar + HOME = EUROPEAN DOMINATION

Sites seem to neglect to mention news about how the PS3 has dominated softwares sales across the continent since launch or is selling well across Europe. Regardless, I still don't get how it became cool to track weekly sales of a console... I seriously think this will be the last generation for me if the consoles start pumping out games like Pokemon and Mamas Cooking on a regular basis. I don't want a machine that my grandmother wants to play...maybe I'm alone on that one

The PS3 only broke the record because it shipped more consoles than any console previously. The Wii and 360 sold out for many weeks. Had the 360 shipped 300,000 in week 1, maybe it would have sold the record. People just love comparing apples and oranges on Joystiq.

With that said, 30,000 for a week is still very good, considering anyone who wanted one could get one the week before. The PS3's UK launch has been successful so far. But you can't say more people want it there than the Wii or 360 at their launches.

"..with all the grace of a skydiving walrus using an anvil for a parachute."

XDDDDD Comedy GOLD!!

Thank you samfish!!!

@samfish:

My thoughts exactly. Just hope that bowl of petunias doesn't come back to kill off Joystiq Bloggers...

And to think, just yesterday, we had a thread of pissed off Nintendophiles yelling about how Joystiq is biased towards Sony/Microsoft...

Personally, I don't care who's number one, just so long as they all get plenty of good games.

Having said that, I would normally be all over that walrus picture request but my computer is dead and I brought my PSP with me to work today instead of my sketchbook because of DJ Max Portable 2... sorry I can't oblidge.

If I could be serious for a moment,and by God of War I will try my best! =P... I'm with Dracula on this one, and Frankenstein too! Darn, I couldn't even last one sentence, ha. But honestly now, I don't want to see Sony die, but they have pulled so much crap lately that I think they could use the beat down.

You see, they think they're gods right now. They think because the PS1 and 2 sold well that they can't be touched. And they need to learn that they're not an immortal brand that can withstand anything.

Nintendo went through the same phase. They were king of the hill with NES and SNES, but then they got too cocky and made some bad choices with the Virtual Boy, and the N64 (awesome games aside), and some even worse choices with the GameCube. After they received their beating, they learned their lesson and came back swinging with the DS and Wii which so far have been very successful sales-wise.

I call this the Germany syndrome, and I believe every company receives it eventually. Germany tried to take over the world, the world took them down, and Germany changed for the better. Nintendo got too big, Sony took them down, and they came back twice as strong. Microsoft thought it was the king of OS', Apple showed them that they weren't, and Microsoft came back with Vista putting much more effort into their products (not quite enough, but it's still a major improvement).

The point is, when you get too full of yourself, you choke. Sadly though Sony has three problems. They're on shakey ground with the PSP (it could go either way at this point), Sony is suffering from a god complex (IE Germany syndrome), and the PS3 is ahead of it's time, meaning they could be the next Dreamcast. It's all about learning modesty, hopefully Sony gets their groove back because the PS2 was and is an amazing console.

@35 DBX00 You're saying you don't want games that your grandma wants to play but you clearly mentioned Singstar which Grandma and kids and women like will lead to PS3 domination?

Release the killer app and $200 price drop...Count me in.

More like all the people that:
-wanted one at launch
-had the money for it
-didnt care about what games were available

....got one at launch when the sales were spiked high.

What do you expect? It's a console launch. Spin this for the worst if you must, but your 360 is collecting dust while you're too busy lol-ing all the PS3 articles online.

How would the PS3 be selling if they did not put the Blu-ray drive in, launched the same time as the 360 and was priced the same as the 360? I think the PS3 would have out-sold the 360 2 to 1. I'll bet MS was grinning ear-to-ear when the heard the PS3 price and delayed launch.

Bless you, samfish. Awesome quote. So apt.

"This means they sold 30k in a week, IN THE UK alone, after a launch week, when all consoles sales drop. That is actually a pretty good number."

Multiply 30K by four (hint, it's 120K). That's roughly the same number Sony posted in the U.S. last month. You know, the month where they got beaten by the GBA, the PSP, the 360, the PS2, the DS, and the Wii. Saying it's fine because they are doing a dismal 21K-22K in Japan and this is higher is like saying they're setting the world on fire because they're seling faster than the Gamecube.

Really, is this what all the hype's died down to? Sony fanboys happy that they're selling the same ( a week after launch) in Europe as they are in Japan, a country with roughly 150 million less people?

i expect constant sell outs at a console launch, what do you expect OrganicShadow?

a bunch of machines on the shelf so soon in Japan, US and the UK?



.

Where's Jack Tretton when we need him?

I know this is a bit sad but I've been checking stock levels of PS3 at my local Argos and they've sold 1 in the last week....and it's the school holidays here! I'm no Sony hater but, in the UK at least, this has been a poorly received launch.

samfish gets cool points. Dolla Dolla loses his for referring to the movie rather than the books which are way better and have been around a lot longer than the movie(s).

Well, time to go yell at those kids that are on my lawn.

Come on now, Digi Smalls, be nice. Only two consoles have been sold out this long and still hard to find, the 360 and the Wii. That's an unfair comparison ...

... wait ...

How is this news? It's the week after launch. Sales drop dramatically at this time for any system. The PS3's high price points is accountable for the higher-than-average drop in sales, but despite what everyone wants to believe, this is not a nail in the proverbial coffin. If the PS3 is still selling this poorly every week for the next 12 months, THAT will be news. 'til then.

~

@Cutriss

Can I gain some cool points back by saying I played the text-only game?

:(

"Multiply 30K by four (hint, it's 120K). That's roughly the same number Sony posted in the U.S. last month. You know, the month where they got beaten by the GBA, the PSP, the 360, the PS2, the DS, and the Wii. Saying it's fine because they are doing a dismal 21K-22K in Japan and this is higher is like saying they're setting the world on fire because they're seling faster than the Gamecube."

Mark Felps, keep in mind that the UK has a fifth of the population of the US. With that in mind, selling 30,000 PS3s last week is great news for Sony. It remains to be seen if the sales numbers will keep up but so far Sony must be very pleased.