Sony Ships 2 Million PS3s, May Still Miss Goal

Despite the news (at Gamasutra) that Sony has already shipped 2 Million PlayStation 3s, Next Generation reports that analysts are still doomcasting Sony's early next-gen efforts. The Japanese investment firm Nomura is now saying they expect Sony to be able to ship approximately 4.5 million PlayStation 3 units by the end of the fiscal year in March. This is only 75% of the company's stated goal. From the article: "Despite early manufacturing issues and a subsequent European delay, Sony has maintained that it will still ship 6 million PS3s worldwide by the end of its fiscal year. The company recently said that it met its goal to ship 1 million units in North America by the end of calendar year 2006. NPD Group reported last week that the console sold 490,700 units in the US in December, with 687,300 sold life-to-date in the region." I think it's still a mite early to say what's going to be happening in March, but there are a lot of unhappy investors listening to these reports right now.

Comments

BFD

[supabeast!]

Sony needs to worry less about shipping PS3s and worry more about selling the ones that are already out there. If some really cool games don't ship this year the PS3 could just end up as another expensive game system nobody could justify buying.

Re:BFD

[AKAImBatman]

Sony's pockets aren't that deep at the moment.

They're still far deeper than Nintendos. Even if they don't have the cash reserves, they have sufficient credit to do nearly anything they need to do.

Personally, I hope the entire executive staff (also known as "pond scum") are evicted from their positions and replaced by a newer, more consumer-friendly bunch, but I don't think that's going to happen. At least not for a while. Which means that Sony will continue with their age old strategy of attempting to steamroll the competition.

Re:BFD

[GeckoX]

Yep, this is par for the course for a new Sony console. The only thing that _might_ make this fail is the other consoles. As for this release though, there are never many great games available when a new sony console comes out. This is for a number of reasons, but most revolve around the more complicated system they always end up putting out. It takes a couple of years to learn how to squeeze everything out of a new piece of sony kit.

There are always a certain number of people that buy a new PS immediately, but they've never had a console that just flew off the shelves at launch. They're like the locomotive in the industry, take a long time to get moving, but once they are look out. Prices fall, footprint reduces, games come out in droves, sales grow and grow and grow.

IMHO, all we can tell at this point about the current state of the consoles is this:
a) It's too early as usual to weigh in on Sony, but the indicators show similar success to previous launches.
b) MS is in a typical holding pattern. Picking up more sales due to the timing of games being available and specifically, a couple games that the japanese market is actually interested in.
c) The Wii is off to a great start...time will tell, but unless they screw up the games coming down the pipe in the future, it should be Nintendo's most successful console to date.

Don't expect much to change for at LEAST another year. Now taking bets on how many articles on this subject we'll see here within that time...I think we're already well over half a dozen ;)

Re:BFD

[twistedsymphony]

They will ship a few "cool" games this year. They mainly still only have their core franchizes however. Nothing much on the lines of new ones. My guess is that if they can get FFXIII (yes, we really are up to 13) out relatively soon they should see a nice boost in sales, combine that with other things like Devil May Cry, Dynasty Warriors, etc etc, and they might stil lhave a shot.

I agree that FFXIII would deliver the much needed boost however isn't that game more of a 2008 release? considering FFXII was just recently released XIII probably wont be out for at least another year, probably even longer considering it's a generation jump. And then comes the question if it would still be a PS3 exclusive if the sales haven't improved enough by that point. Devil May Cry would certainly help but that's another one rumored to be going cross platform, Capcom is making kissy faces with MS right now after the success of Dead Rising and the good response so far of Lost Planet (which is based on the same engine and DMC4 BTW). Dynasty Warriors is a full fledged cross platform title now, and has already enjoyed 2 released on the 360. Their best bets are MGS4 and Tekken6, but even those probably wont see light until about November and it's doubtful if even those titles could move a $600 console without a solid library to back them up.

Couldn't resist

[rlp]

So Sony's got a wii problem with their next-gen console.

So what?

[the computer guy nex]

I went to purchase the newest Warioware game for Wii last night and saw a half dozen PS3's sitting on the shelves of my local Best Buy.

Who really cares how many consoles have been "shipped" ?

ATTN: Slashdot Editors

[skymt]

Please stop reporting on the numbers that analysts pull out of their hats. It's not news, it's a guess. /dev/random would be just as good as these clowns at predicting sales numbers.

Doomcasting?

[2008]

That sounds awesome. What level do I have to be to cast that spell?

Re:Doomcasting?

[Kjella]

That sounds awesome. What level do I have to be to cast that spell?

Level 14 Market Analyst
+ Bonus to dexterity for rapidly being able to shift your position
+ Bonus to constitution for spouting bullshit all day
+ Bonus to charisma for being a sweet talker. Extra bonus for tech mags
- Penalty to strength since you just talk, you don't do anything
- You're an insult to intelligence and wisdom

Still want to play?

Re:Shipping more?

[nonsequitor]

*lowers voice to whisper* Those are display boxes, they don't actually have a console inside of them.

Re:Prize For Best Made Up 'PS3 On Shelves' Story

[greenrom]

Ten bucks off your next Xbox 360 defective unit replacement fee for the Xbot with the best and most inventive 'I saw unsold PS3s' story!

You might want to adjust your prize. Right now the defective unit replacement fee is $0. I bought a 360 at launch in November 2005. I think it was supposed to have a 90 day warranty. Last week mine started locking up after a few minutes of playing it. I think a fan quit. Anyway, I called Microsoft and they're replacing it for free even though it's over a year old. The phone rep said that they're currently treating all 360 units as if they were under warranty no matter when the unit was purchased. Maybe they have a design defect. Maybe they're just trying to compete with better customer service. Either way, I was happy.

I don't have a good "PS3 sitting on shelves" story, because I haven't seen any so I guess I wouldn't win the prize anyway. There really haven't been enough PS3s shipped to gauge demand. I don't think the PS3 will be the next Dreamcast. Even if there isn't enough demand at the current pricing levels, Sony will probably drop the price after doing some cost reductions. Still, I don't expect PS3 to reach the same marketshare as PS2. PS2's dominance of the market would be hard for any console to top.

Re:Here we go again

[grogdamighty]

And your post, if not ignorant, is at least as naive.

While shipped==sold in the longterm, this is not necessarily true in the short-term. What we have here is the rather unique situation of a console launch, where console makers produce as much as they can and retailers get as much as they can to sell. At this point, made==shipped. On the other hand, if shipped != sold (or close to it) in this time period, it becomes apparent that demand is not as high as it should be - which is what is happening right now. Considering their original estimates of shipping 6 million by March assumed (as Kutaragi said) that 5 million people would buy the PS3 even if they didn't make any games for the system, it is fairly clear that a low demand (as seen in low sales) now will equate to an eventual lower shipping rate (with a lag between the launch and when retailers realize they're not selling out their whole stock).