PS3 Breaks Records in UK Launch

Aided by racing titles MotorStorm and Formula One, the PlayStation 3 had the best UK console launch ever, according to Joystiq and MCVUK. This generation saw the Wii kick off with 105,000 units and the Xbox 360's sell through 70,000. The PSP still holds the record at 185,000 for a portable console, but I imagine Sony's pretty happy about this either way. "With plenty of consoles left in the 220,000 strong initial shipment, it would appear that a strong supply is the key to launch victory. Will sales remain brisk in the foreseeable future? We'll find out soon enough, but until then, expect some elaborately spun responses from Sony's competitors. Perhaps UK journalists ought to return those stacks of beer to Microsoft -- then again, alcohol already seems a likely explanation for steering the Xboat to the wrong continent."

Comments

Re:Is it really impressive?

[powerlord]

Actually according to TFA they sold 165,000 out of 220,000 allocated to the U.K. launch (the summary above butchers the numbers a bit :) ). So they sold ~75% of available supply.

According to another article I saw Virgin (who is partnered with Sony on the launch) stated they expect to sell out shortly.

PS3 isn't sold out

[rmccann]

A friend of mine works in a popular video game store here in Ireland. A fews since the PS3 launch and they still have PS3s on the shelves. However they have been constantly sold out of wiis since it came out months ago. Any wii shipment is sold out the day it comes in.

Supply is key

[paladinwannabe2]

I don't want to undercut Sony too much here- after all, they did sell an impressive number of consoles- but I feel the need to point out that:

1. They set the record because all the competition sold out.

2. They are in the market late; they have a long way to go to reach the Wii or XBox numbers.

Sony is getting what it needs to do well, though. If Sony wasn't able to move over 150,000 at launch I would have said they were screwed.

PS3 in NZ

[WozNZ]

Not sure about the UK launch but here in NZ they advertised that the first 4000 PS3s sold come with Casino Royal on Blue Ray. We have gone through the weekend now and the adverts on TV and Radio still say that you can get the Casino Royal blue ray disk if you purchase a PS3 and slight discounts are starting to appear. I can walk into ANY retailer that advertises the PS3 and they ALL have stock, this is not like any other launch I have seen for a console.

Gagging for it

[Chuck Chunder]

Sony should sell a lot initially. There are a lot of people who a year ago (when the Xbox was launched) decided for one reason or another (perhaps they have a PS2 and were under the impression that the promised backwards compatibility would be worth something) that they were going to wait for a PS3.

They have been waiting and waiting (and had time to save!) so it is no surprise there is a large amount of initial demand. This isn't a weeks worth of customers, it's a years worth.

The real trick will be to see if there is ongoing demand like there has been for the Wii (though even that may be threatened, at least here in Australia, if we don't start seeing a quality games a bit more regularly).