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Black Friday boosts Sony PlayStation hardware sales across the board

A price drop can work wonders in enticing customers who are on the fence to buy. Such is the case for the PlayStation 3, which saw sales triple during the Thanksgiving buying week.

Sales of PlayStation 3 experienced a 245 percent jump in the week of November 18-24 compared to the previous week. While Black Friday draws out armies of shoppers, Sony said that the sudden surge of sales was largely due to the price cuts introduced on October 18.

Sony’s other systems also performed well during Thanksgiving week, with PSP sales up 136 percent and PS2 sales up 287 percent compared to the previous week.

The 80GB PlayStation 3 dropped from $599 to $499; and on November 2, Sony launched its entry-level PlayStation 3 at $399, which includes a 40GB hard drive and further simplified hardware. According to Sony, the release of the 40GB model – the cheapest PlayStation 3 yet – has spurred sales to increase 298 percent between November 2 and November 24.

While Sony did not release unit figures, GameSpot extrapolates from October NPD numbers that around 321,750 PS3s were sold in November through Black Friday in North America. If those figures are accurate, Sony will likely have its most successful month this year.

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Black Friday
By Sunday Ironfoot on 11/28/2007 9:12:58 AM , Rating: 2
So a product see's a sales boost on Black Friday, well ain't that amazing, also did you know the sky is blue?




RE: Black Friday
By Chaser on 11/28/2007 9:19:05 AM , Rating: 2
I'd say in light of the sales rate prior to the price cut -noted in the article the beginning of November- a 298% increase in sales is a bit more that a Black Friday anomaly. In this case more like green.


RE: Black Friday
By FITCamaro on 11/28/2007 9:36:55 AM , Rating: 2
Well the $400 model helped too. But I think a lot of it was the Black Friday sales combined with all the people who've been waiting for it to get cheaper. I guess the question is how well did the 360 do.


RE: Black Friday
By mdogs444 on 11/28/2007 9:53:47 AM , Rating: 3
Im sure it was a mixture of 3 things: Black Friday, the $399 40GB PS3, as well as the Free 15 Blue Ray movie promotion over the weekend at Kmart.

Several things have already been proven - and not necessarily pertaining to the PS3:

1. Black Friday will always see an increase in sales
2. A price drop will always see an increase in sales (Xbox 360 anyone?)
3. Free give-aways & Promotions are meant to increase sales

So what happens when you mix all 3 together at one? You see an increase of almost 300%.

This isn't really rocket science at all. But what will really tell everyone the true story is how the sales figures continue throughout the holiday season, and what type of drop off you see following the holiday season. Because I'm willing to bet there was an increase this past weekend of Xbox 360's sold, and we've already read the other DT article citing the Wii sold more during the past weekend than it ever has.


RE: Black Friday
By StevoLincolnite on 11/28/2007 12:32:05 PM , Rating: 2
Its allot easier to multiply something when the numbers are lower, try increasing the Wii's sales by 300% and see how easy it is to do.


RE: Black Friday
By npoe1 on 11/28/2007 12:35:40 PM , Rating: 3
I bought a PS3 because the promotion of 15 BD movies at Wal-Mart and is collecting dust. The PS3 doesn’t have any games that interest me. Xbox 360 is still my main gaming machine.


RE: Black Friday
By Topweasel on 11/28/2007 9:55:54 AM , Rating: 3
No it sound exactly like a Black Friday anomaly. Just look at the PS2 sales. That is a system that everyone and their mother has yet it saw a 250+% increase. No-One not even Sony can use Black Friday sales to measure anything but how good a day it is. The real measuring stick would be to take pre-BF week sales and compare them to post-BF sales in comparison to other generally in stock competition (meaning Xbox360 because the Wii sales are still matching production).

Only then can you see how the price cut affected sales.


Lamest...PR...Ever.
By Verran on 11/28/2007 11:13:57 AM , Rating: 2
Wow! PS3 sales went up during the biggest shopping week of the year! That's amazing!

What was the percentage of growth for 360s, or Wiis, or any other competing console? The article avoids the pertinent context and doesn't say. For that matter, what was the percentage growth for vacuum cleaner sales?! Probably about the same, because EVERYTHING goes up this time of year.

But I guess it's all how you twist it, and we all know how good Sony is at that. I just didn't expect DT to blindly propagate figures like this without putting them in a real perspective.




RE: Lamest...PR...Ever.
By Murst on 11/28/2007 11:22:44 AM , Rating: 3
Here are weekly sales according to vgchartz for black friday week. Please keep in mind that these numbers are for the Americas only.

Wii Sold about 421k consoles. Previous week they sold 254k consoles, resulting in a 66% increase.

PS3 sold about 174k consoles. Previous week they sold 94k consoles, resulting in a 84% increase.

XBox 360 sold about 254k consoles, previous week they sold about 163k consoles, resulting in a 56% increase.


RE: Lamest...PR...Ever.
By Verran on 11/28/2007 11:55:23 AM , Rating: 2
Thanks, those are exactly the numbers I was looking for.

This article points out PS3 growth of about 300% from last month, but when compared with other console growth over the same time period (consoles that did NOT experience a price cut), the numbers seem rather lack-luster. PS3 only showed 28% more growth than 360, and only 18% more than Wii. Those are great numbers in comparison, but hardly as gleaming as the 300% that seems to be presented out of context.

Furthermore, Sony's data lists about 321k sold for November. However, 174k of those weren't sold until the week of black friday, three weeks AFTER the price drop. To me it seems like black friday played a much larger part in the sales increase than the price drop, yet the article seems to just blindly parrot Sony's assertion with quotes like this:
quote:
A price drop can work wonders in enticing customers who are on the fence to buy. Such is the case for the PlayStation 3, which saw sales triple during the Thanksgiving buying week.


RE: Lamest...PR...Ever.
By Murst on 11/28/2007 12:17:44 PM , Rating: 4
Perhaps I posted the wrong numbers... the numbers from above only relate to black friday week sales compared to the previous week.

In order to see where sony is coming from, it would be useful to take a look at the following graph:

http://www.vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii®1...

From here, its pretty clear that while at the beginning of october sales of the PS3 were pretty bad, they have increased at a much higher pace (in terms of percentages) than the 360. Of course, they're still behind the 360.

Another interesting thing that can be seen from this graph is that while Sony is correct that they have had a very good increase in terms of percentage of units sold, when you compare unit sales, the Xbox360 and the PS3 follow the same pattern.

If Sony can be happy about anything, it should be that the PS3 is doing very well in every region except the US when compared to the 360. When you compare world wide weekly sales, the PS3 and 360 are about equal now, even though the PS3 trails by a lot in the USA.


RE: Lamest...PR...Ever.
By BansheeX on 11/28/2007 5:31:40 PM , Rating: 4
Considering that the PS3 has the highest MSRP of all consoles, I'd say that those numbers are indeed impressive. The demand for the PS3 has always been there (150 million PS2s sold) and this has always been Sony's generation to lose. It was simply a matter of dropping the price to levels that appeal to pure gamers. I think that as soon as the price goes down to $350 with the RSX 65nm shrink this spring, and stuff like Silent Hill, GTA IV, Soul Calibur IV and MGS get released, PS3 sales are going to explode.


A little late
By Nik00117 on 11/28/2007 9:31:19 AM , Rating: 1
Their target audience isn't going shell out 600 USD for a console i'm sorry they simply aren't.

And their console doesn't attract the big spenders (PC gamers) I'm a PC gamer and would think nothing of it to spend 500-600 USD on a few upgrades. However I don't like console gaming.

Sony should of understood this from the get go. The console must be cheap, and it must be good or it won't sell.

When the price tag for the PS3 first came out I already knew it was a failure at that price. I mean sony is already losing like what 600 a console whats another 200 more in order to insure solid sales which result in more games being bought which is where they intend on making their $$$ back.




RE: A little late
By FITCamaro on 11/28/2007 9:39:43 AM , Rating: 5
Well the console no longer is $600. It's $400 and $500.

I think one of the biggest problems (and not just with Sony) is that gamers in the UK and EU are getting majorly anal raped considering the cost of the console is still the same number but given the higher value of those currencies vs. the US dollar, they're paying 1.5-2x as much for it as we are.


RE: A little late
By gumbi18 on 11/28/2007 7:33:33 PM , Rating: 2
Aussies are also getting majorly raped in terms of console price. The 40 GB PS3 retails here for AU$699 or US$618.86. Not to mention as well new, games cost AU$120 or US$106.24.

So I would have to say that the US buyers are getting considerably better savings. An extra US$218 for the PS3 cannot be justified by the smaller market for it here in Oz.


RE: A little late
By jhinoz on 11/28/2007 9:11:43 PM , Rating: 2
and yet we pay it...

wasn't that long ago they were AU$999


RE: A little late
By Brockway on 11/28/2007 10:59:36 AM , Rating: 2
I think your comment is off. The PS3 is *only* attracting the big spenders. You think the people who spent $600 on them are cheap or something? Who do you think are buying these things?


RE: A little late
By BansheeX on 11/28/2007 7:23:35 PM , Rating: 2
I bought mine for $320 during the 10-day long K-Mart deal mid-November.


Give it a year
By Chaser on 11/28/2007 8:58:15 AM , Rating: 2
And here we go. Smart move yet a little late by Sony.




RE: Give it a year
By 5c8wc4 on 11/28/2007 9:11:49 AM , Rating: 4
Better late then never. I think sony will have this in mind on the next generation, when it comes to pricing.


By reader1 on 11/28/2007 10:45:35 AM , Rating: 2
"PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) hardware sales increased by 245% when compared to Black Friday sales last year."

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?st...

The PS3 sold about 200k last November. I'm guessing it was around 125-175k for the week.




By Murst on 11/28/2007 11:04:09 AM , Rating: 3
The difference was that last november, sales were limited due to supply.

I'm not sure on the exact date, but I'm pretty sure that the PS3 came out a week before black friday last year. It was sold out in every store until around xmas.