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A Million PS3s Sold in Japan

Posted by Zonk on from the i've-heard-slow-and-steady-wins-the-race dept.

Reuters is reporting that the PlayStation 3 has reached 1 million units sold in Japan. The article notes that the eight months the console took to reach this mark is roughly four times slower than it took the Wii. Of course, the 360 has only managed to eek out 420,705 units sold in a much longer timespan. To put things in perspective, an aging news report suggests that the PlayStation 2 sold 1 million units the first weekend it was released in Japan. Even the Wii didn't hit that, though that may have been an issue of supply rather than demand. Do you think there is a specific reason the PS3 isn't selling as well as the PlayStation 2 did, or is the market just a different place than it was 7 years ago?

12 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. reasons? by Thanatos69 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Do you think there is a specific reason the PS3 isn't selling as well as the PlayStation 2 did, or is the market just a different place than it was 7 years ago?

    If this isn't a setup for a flame war, I don't know what is.
  2. shipped != sold by sidb · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Sony typically reports the number of units shipped to retailers, not actually sold through to consumers. If there as many PS3s stacked in Best Buys in Japan as here, it may be a few more weeks (or possibly months) before a million PS3s are actually hooked up to Japanese TVs in people's homes.

    1. Re:shipped != sold by AndyG314 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Most companies report the number of shipped units rather than the number of units sold there are a few reasons for this: 1) Shipped is a bigger number, there is always a few more shipped than have actually been sold. 2) Shipped is way easer to estimate, as you know how many you have sent out the door, it's very difficult to get sales estimates from the countless different realtailers. 3) Shipped is good enough.

      --
      If it's dead, you killed it.
    2. Re:shipped != sold by badasscat · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Sony typically reports the number of units shipped to retailers, not actually sold through to consumers.

      This is counting units sold, not shipped. Sony can report whatever number it wants, but there are third party organizations and companies devoted to counting units sold at retail, and Enterbrain (where this number is coming from) is one of them.

      All manufacturers, not just Sony, count units shipped and announce those numbers. MS does the same (they just announced 11.6 million Xbox 360's shipped, not sold), as does Nintendo. It's all they know, after all - it's just an inventory. It takes a separate company to go out there and count units sold at retail, which Enterbrain, Media Create and at least one other company I'm forgetting right now do.

      NPD does it in the United States.

    3. Re:shipped != sold by rlp · · Score: 4, Insightful

      As long as Wii manufacturing is not meeting demand, for Nintendo: shipped == sold.

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      [Insert pithy quote here]
  3. HD TV is a big reason by Kohath · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The PS2 worked on your old TV. The PS3 does too, but you might as well buy a PS2 if you're running on old TV -- or wait on consoles altogether and save your money for a new TV.

    If there were as many HDTVs now as there were SDTVs when the PS2 was released, the PS3 would probably have sold as well as the PS2.

    1. Re:HD TV is a big reason by tzhuge · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "but you might as well buy a PS2 if you're running on old TV" That's really just not true. There's still worlds of difference between a PS3 on a SDTV and a PS2 on a SDTV. Certainly there are other things to recommend the PS2 (price and the huge games library), but this notion that this new crop of consoles isn't any better than the previous generation on SDTV is just plain false.
    2. Re:HD TV is a big reason by GeckoX · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's not an exclusive argument though, but of course, this is /. so I must forgive the expected assumption that all is binary.

      The PS2 had extra selling features that for those with a PS2 and a SDTV already, the PS3 just doesn't offer. The PS2 was the first DVD player for a LOT of people, and that worked with their SDTV as well.

      Most people do NOT have HDTV's, so those people do not care about BluRay being a feature. People also tend to feel that they'd be missing out on the game experience if they were to play PS3 games on their SDTV...that does not insinuate at all that PS3 games wouldn't look better than PS2 games on an SDTV, of course not. It's just not a deal maker by any means.

      Further, the massive existing PS2 base have large PS2 libraries at this point, and some of the best games to come out on the PS2 have come out recently or are coming out soon. It's not a dead horse, unlike the PS1 basically was when the PS2 came out.

      Further, the game console market is much more saturated this time around than it was when the PS2 first came out.

      Further, the must have PS3 games aren't there yet in the quantities required to really push adoption solely based on that front. It's coming, but we're still in the very initial uptake curve of a new console.

      At this point, just about anything could happen in the future of the PS3 in terms of uptake and success, not all of which is in Sony's control.

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      No Comment.
  4. Re:The numbers by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the simple fact that the 360's hardware is better suited for games

    I don't know that this is justifiable as an opinion, much less a "simple fact".

    It may be true that the 360's Xenon CPU may be more familiar to developers than the PS3's Cell, but I'm not sure that translates into being "better suited for games". There's no reason that a game written to take advantage of the Cell architecture could not be better than one written to take advantage of the Xenon.

  5. Re:People aren't making enough to spend enough.... by VGPowerlord · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't know about in Japan, but in the US, it's not just more expensive, it's twice as (or 100% more) expensive as the PS and PS2 were at launch (PS: $299; PS2: $299; PS3: $599).

    By comparison, the Wii launched for 25% more than the Game Cube, which itself launched at the same exact price as all of Nintendo's previous console systems (NES, SNES, N64, GC: $199; Wii: $249). The XBox 360 launched for 33% more than the XBox (XBox: $299; XBox 360: $399).

    Seriously, though, the PS3 launched for $200 more than the already overpriced console that had been out for a year. That's seriously dumb.

    --
    GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
  6. Re:The numbers by MikeBabcock · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You overlook a big issue in Japan -- the PS3 is huge. Did I mention its pretty big? Or heavy? Or huge?

    The Japanese have less space to work with in their living spaces and tend toward small slim and lightweight devices. The PS3 is none of the above. The DS which is selling well is portable and small. The Wii is also small.

    --
    - Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
  7. Re:Sony parallels nintendo by Squarewav · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I suppose its a matter of opion. I personaly cant stand the spot the analog stick is, I find it hard to hold my thumb that far down for long periods of time esp after using a 360 or even gamecube controller. If the analog stick was ware the d-pad is and vice versa I would like it alot more. The dual shock was pritty much a hack to add analog sticks to the original ps1 controller w/o changing the button layout for older games.