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PlayStation 3 beats all but the Wii during January hardware sales

Holiday sales figures for gaming console hardware were predictable. Nintendo Wii was at the top, Xbox 360 somewhere in the middle and the PlayStation 3 near the bottom. But 2008 is a new year and so far looks nothing at all like 2007 – except, of course, the Wii is still number one.

Nintendo’s console sold the most in North America with 274,000 units, likely still selling out whatever is shipped to retailers.

Believe it or not, second place belongs to the PlayStation 3, selling 269,000, just 5,000 fewer units than the Wii. The PS2 wasn’t far behind either, with 264,000.

The handheld systems occupied places fourth and fifth, with the Nintendo DS moving 251,000 and the PSP doing 230,000.

Surprisingly, the Xbox 360 tied for last place with 230,000 units for the month. Microsoft told the press before the release of NPD data that its console recently experienced shortages.

"You could say we misjudged demand ... We're literally out of stock in many stores," Jeff Bell, head of global marketing for Microsoft's games business, said in Reuters story. "We think this will have an impact on our sales. It may cause the overall industry number to be down a little bit ... Retailers have been really upset, they are on allocation. It is a lag I think we're seeing in January and that may continue into February, then as spring ramps up, we'll be able to meet that demand."

Sony, on the other hand, appeared to be exceptionally pleased at its excellent placement in January. The PlayStation 3 finds itself in unfamiliar territory being near the top. One possible explanation could be that the Warner Bros. announcement regarding exclusive Blu-ray Disc support pushed those on the fence to finally pick up a PlayStation 3. Another reason could be that, with the PS3 being the bottom seller during December 2007, there was still plenty of stock remaining in retail channels to make up for shortages of other systems.

Regardless, Sony was happy to boast that its PlayStation brand as a whole generated the most U.S. retail dollars in the industry with $486 million, 25 percent higher than Nintendo and 61 percent higher than Microsoft.

“Coming off a great holiday sales season we see strong momentum behind PS3 in 2008,and feel confident about the year ahead. We have an exceptionally diverse lineup of exclusive games, from Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Resistance 2 to more mainstream games such as LittleBigPlanet and SingStar,” Said Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America. “Beyond that, we have Blu-ray emerging as the de facto high def standard, the developer community is hitting their stride, consumers are recognizing the tremendous value and innovative services such as PlayStation Home are all in the works, so this is definitely shaping up to be a breakthrough year for us.”

Despite January being a typically slower month in the videogame industry, the first month of 2008 was up 18 percent as compared to the same period last year, with games leading at 50 percent higher. Overall, the U.S. games industry pulled in $1.18 billion in sales during January.

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Will it keep up?
By Zoomer on 2/15/2008 9:43:19 AM , Rating: 3
It'll be interesting to see if this keeps up. It's particularly interesting to see that it's almost besting the Wii, despite the Wii having a much lower price.




RE: Will it keep up?
By Hiawa23 on 2/15/2008 9:59:17 AM , Rating: 3
The other thing is that to most, the Xbox360 is just not as capable as the PS3. You have to buy so much add ons on for 360 just to make it as capable as the PS3.

If we are talking about games, the 360 is just as capable as the PS3. Yeah, RPGs will probably be on multiple discs cause the 360 uses DVD9, capable of 8 gigs, versus Blu ray which is 25single, 50dual layer. RPGs usually waste most of the space with all the FMV & stuff. If we are talking about games, the 360 is as capable as the PS3, & this is all I buy consoles for, to play games. I know alot of gamers have had RROD of death, but my 11/03/05 unit continues to work fine, but I am sure that may be a reason some are moving to Sony's side.


RE: Will it keep up?
By NullSubroutine on 2/15/2008 10:24:01 AM , Rating: 2
Most games dont do FMV as it is easier, cheaper, and more efficient to do in-game cut-scenes. With these next generation consoles, the in game cut scenes are about just as good as you get in FMV.


RE: Will it keep up?
By othercents on 2/15/2008 10:38:25 AM , Rating: 2
Personally I think the 360 is more capable than the PS3. However not everyone will use the features that I want like Media Center Extender. I'm also wanting to just download HD movies instead of buying blueray or HDDVD. Media is a thing of the past and everything should be going to downloads at this point.

Other


RE: Will it keep up?
By BZDTemp on 2/15/08, Rating: 0
RE: Will it keep up?
By Bryf50 on 2/15/2008 2:21:46 PM , Rating: 1
So basically you only read his first sentence before you replied.


RE: Will it keep up?
By Denigrate on 2/15/2008 11:15:56 AM , Rating: 5
Considering MS has stated (and they new it was a problem) that all first gen 360's will experience the RROD, be glad they've given the extended warranty. Hope the 360 refresh truly fixes the problem. The RROD and built in Bluray is why I went PS3.


RE: Will it keep up?
By Denigrate on 2/15/2008 11:33:37 AM , Rating: 1
knew, not new.


RE: Will it keep up?
By noirsoft on 2/15/2008 11:46:06 AM , Rating: 2
Microsoft has never stated that _all_ 1st gen 360s will experience a RRoD. Even the worst estimates of 30% failure rate (probably grossly inflated) still indicate that _most_ will not fail.


RE: Will it keep up?
By BladeVenom on 2/15/2008 12:56:12 PM , Rating: 1
Those estimates are only for the first year though. Those 360s have 4 or 5 more years to go before the next generation. By that time, I think most all will have failed if they are used regularly.


RE: Will it keep up?
By Topweasel on 2/15/2008 2:13:00 PM , Rating: 2
I know this an example of the whole product range, but I have a week 1 (had it shipped from best buy 3 days after release) 360 that is still running strong 2.5 years after I got it. Gen 1 units are more likely to have the issue since its a problem with heat dissipation lacking causing the mobo to warp but that's not to say every single unit will eventually have this problem. At this point I would think that I am just as likely if not more to have something else fail due to its age then the main RROD issue.


RE: Will it keep up?
By chick0n on 2/16/2008 9:30:01 PM , Rating: 1
if u play 1 hour a week your Xbox360 should last u couple of years. but we're talking about 3-5 hours a DAY for 1 year straight.

Come back in a year.


RE: Will it keep up?
By robinthakur on 2/15/08, Rating: -1
RE: Will it keep up?
By Hawkido on 2/15/08, Rating: -1
RE: Will it keep up?
By ajvitaly on 2/15/2008 10:44:50 AM , Rating: 2
The only reason the PS3 is so close in sales to the Wii is because the Nintendo can't make them fast enough. If more Wii's were made, the sales gap would be much higher.


RE: Will it keep up?
By StevoLincolnite on 2/15/2008 12:41:46 PM , Rating: 2
Well that may be part of the issue, Personally I like my PC, Nothing beats a good ole' hashing on Crysis.

Still:
"Regardless, Sony was happy to boast that its PlayStation brand as a whole generated the most U.S. retail dollars in the industry with $486 million, 25 percent higher than Nintendo and 61 percent higher than Microsoft."
Is that actually "Sales" money? Or Profit, I was slightly confused by that :/
If that is profit, Then how did Sony profit so much when Nintendo Out-sold them and gains a larger Profit Per Console, over the PS3?


RE: Will it keep up?
By AlphaVirus on 2/15/2008 4:06:27 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Is that actually "Sales" money? Or Profit, I was slightly confused by that :/

I think about this everytime a new "console war" article comes out.
People boast that the Wii is outselling the 360 and PS3 but given they are all priced different, which is actually making the most profit at the end of the day.
I am not going to back anyside because I truly have no clue of the answer but it would be interesting to have a breakdown from each side.

quote:
PlayStation brand as a whole generated the most U.S. retail dollars in the industry with $486 million, 25 percent higher than Nintendo and 61 percent higher than Microsoft."

The only thing that really messes this statement up is
quote:
PlayStation brand as a whole

because that includes PSP,PS1,PS2,PS3 (dont think I missed anything). And while PS3 may not be such a high profit, Sony is gaining ground with the PSP and PS2.

Microsoft will probably always be in the rear because it has no handheld devices and only has the 360 to push its fight. Nintendo and Sony will be competing till the end, we will see what happens.


RE: Will it keep up?
By keiclone on 2/17/2008 1:24:56 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
People boast that the Wii is outselling the 360 and PS3 but given they are all priced different, which is actually making the most profit at the end of the day.


If you're using profit as your metric then Nintendo still wins because they're the only ones making a profit off the hardware.


RE: Will it keep up?
By goog40 on 2/15/2008 11:37:57 AM , Rating: 5
The sales are low for the 360 (for reasons mentioned already) and the Wii because Nintendo was shipping Wiis by air to America prior to Christmas but changed to shipments by boat afterwards, which take several weeks longer. Because of that, virtually no retailers received any shipments of Wiis for the first three weeks of the year, besides Gamestop which had to fulfill the preorders from December. It looks like stores are back to receiving shipments of Wiis about once a week now.

I would expect the February numbers to return to normal for the Wii, but not the 360 since apparently it is still sold out everywhere. I checked the availability of 360 Pros in local stores through their respective websites - CC is OOS in all 10 local stores, GS has limited availability in 2 out of 23 stores, Target has limited availability in 1 out of 10 stores. From what I've read, the Elite is even harder to find.


RE: Will it keep up?
By Samus on 2/15/2008 9:59:08 PM