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UK PS3 sales take a massive hit

After a rather successful United Kingdom launch last week, it appears that interest in the PlayStation 3 is quickly dying down. The PS3 launched with a bang in London and Sony even gave the first 100 customers waiting in line a free 46" HDTV and a free taxi ride home. According to Chart Track, over 165,000 of the consoles were sold within the first 48 hours of availability. Sony provided roughly 220,000 consoles for the UK launch.

The numbers for the second week, however, are down significantly for the PS3 in the UK according to Chart Track. "Yes, sales of PS3 hardware have dropped by 82 per cent," said a spokesman for Chart Track. Likewise, sales for Resistance: Fall of Man and MotorStorm have cooled off by 60%.

Sony's PS3 is priced at £425 ($834 USD) in the UK. Many have commented on the relatively high price point compared to competing game systems like the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360. Sony executives, however, have long championed that the PS3 is built for the future and that the high price tag is justified.

"Many people are saying we're now joining the next-generation console era, but I believe we've stepped over the current next-gen to create the real next-generation," said Sony UK managing director Ray Maguire. "That's what we've done with just about every single component in the PS3. Whether it's the Cell chip, which is the best super computer brain that can handle lots of data, or the Blu-ray component which is the way to get 60GB of data into the marketplace, or the output that's required -- full 1080 and HDMI connections -- that's the way of the future."

So far Sony has declined to comment on the 82% decline in PS3 hardware sales.

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Makes Sense
By bkm32 on 4/3/2007 3:25:27 PM , Rating: 4
If 165,000 units were sold in the first 48 hours and a total of 200,000 units were initially available, then that leaves 35,000 units left for sale during the next 12 days.

Hmmmm.

Now, I dislike Sony products, but even I can see the bias in this article. I own an Xbox1 and plan on buying an Elite when the chipset reduces to 65nm, but until then, forget it (I hate defective electronics).

This could really mean that for the next 5 days, 4,900 PS3s were sold, which left only 29,000 units to sell in week 2.

This doesn't conclude that PS3s aren't being sold at a high rate. It could mean that Sony is having supply problems in the UK. Despite the high price of the system overseas, it is still selling better than the PS2 (and Xbox) did in the same timeframe.

Give credit where credit's due! Sony is kicking butt considering the price of the PS3. They're selling this thing with little to no marketing in place. This is a multi-billion dollar (profit!) company, and they aren't spending jack to market the PS3 (100 TVs is a "drop in the bucket"). I believe MS spent about $21M advertising the X360 (or was that Vista).

Can't we all just get along?




RE: Makes Sense
By greeklightning on 4/3/2007 3:53:24 PM , Rating: 2
I agree completely. While it might not be selling as fast as a Wii, there is no need for article after article to come out begging for people to rag on Sony. We get it, you don't like the PS3. Can we get some real tech news please?


RE: Makes Sense
By Malhavoc on 4/3/2007 3:55:37 PM , Rating: 3
Kudos. Glad to see someone pointing out an alternative reason behind the numbers. Who is right? I can't tell with the information given.

It would be nice to know what was shipped after first week to see whether Sony needs to be bashed or not. Sure they should have shipped more, but how knows ...


RE: Makes Sense
By jtyson on 4/3/2007 6:46:44 PM , Rating: 3
Perhaps Daily Tech will change the name of the article to something a little more accurate, like "After Record-Breaking First Week, Unit Sales Slow At An Un-Alarming Rate".

Kinda like they did with that "Sony UK Exec Calls US Consumers 'Cheap'" article...

I say keep it up, Daily Tech. Your unwavering bias is what sets you apart from all the others.


RE: Makes Sense
By themadmilkman on 4/3/2007 7:26:46 PM , Rating: 2
If you seriously think that there exists such a thing as unbiased news, I fear your ability to critically analyze pretty much anything.

DT has a bias. So does everyone else. Get over it.


RE: Makes Sense
By jtyson on 4/3/2007 11:10:46 PM , Rating: 3
You know, I never thought of it like that...

You're right; if I see someone's posting news that is clearly biased, I shouldn't call them out on their shit. I mean, everybody's doing it, right?
Yeah, if I read an article that's misleading or completely one-sided, I should just get over it .

Thanks for the help.


RE: Makes Sense
By Orpheus333 on 4/3/2007 11:52:24 PM , Rating: 3
okay...

...or you could realize that an 80% drop in sales is indeed massive. Sony should be left to comment on availability, but if supply IS the problem I doubt there would be 30,000 consoles floating around, especially considering the length people will go to get it...


RE: Makes Sense
By Zurtex on 4/3/2007 4:27:03 PM , Rating: 5
While I can see where you are coming from there seems to be 2 things wrong with that analysis.

1, is that the article says 220,000 consoles, 2 is that when I go in to town there are a load of PS3s in every store remotely to do with electronics (I live in one of the major cities of the UK). I realise 2 is only anecdotal evidence, but it seems to be quite wide spread, everyone I know all around the country has the seen the same.

Saying that it sold better than the PS2 in the UK is a red hearing. The PS2 got the highest sales for a home console, this was broken by the Gamecube, its record was broken by the Xbox 360, its record was broken by the Wii and its record was broken by the PS3. It more shows that consoles as a whole are being bought at a higher rate, rather than one particular company doing particularly well. I think if supply issues didn't dog both the 360 and the Wii due to their world launch, the PS3 might not have the crown for best selling console on launch in the U.K.


RE: Makes Sense
By mircea on 4/3/2007 5:21:40 PM , Rating: 4
quote:
If 165,000 units were sold in the first 48 hours and a total of 200,000 units were initially available, then that leaves 35,000 units left for sale during the next 12 days.


From what I know you have to stock before a launch but you also have to continue with weekly shipments? So why would you think only the left over launch consoles should be caunted for the rest of the sales? Why would you think that Sony didn't claim a sellout if that was true?

Now I know weekly shipments are not as many as the launch units, but they certanly add to the total. I believe that most who really wanted one got one, so now mainly impulse buying adds that's why the sales are down.


RE: Makes Sense
By Mithan on 4/3/2007 7:21:43 PM , Rating: 2
I see where you are going with this, however whether you are correct or not depends on knowing how many units Sony shipped to stores before hand, and continued to ship after launch and the fact is, we don't have any real numbers to indicate availability.

In other words, you may be totally correct and the reason they have a huge drop is due to no units being available to sell.

----OR----

The initial hardcore guys rushed the system (as normal), and the decline is due to lack of interest/affordability/etc and has nothing to do with availability.

Shrug. Doesn't really matter I guess.


RE: Makes Sense
By Reflex on 4/3/2007 7:31:00 PM , Rating: 2
Purely anecdotally, Brits I know personally say that they have zero problem getting thier hands on one, and that they are being pushed at buyers who come in asking for a Wii or other system. If there is no supply problem, then the sales dropoff is real.

Of course thats anecdotal evidence, so take it with a grain of salt.


RE: Makes Sense
By Adsski on 4/4/2007 3:51:02 AM , Rating: 2
As a resident of the UK, Colchester Essex to be specific, i'd like to confirm the following supply situation in my town and share my thoughts on next gen.

360 - Avaliable in all stores
PS3 - Avaliable in not all but most stores, look and ye shall find.
Wii - Mission Impossible! Hens teeth!

As for the consoles themselves I've tried all 3 and own a Wii (which i was luck enough to pre-order for release date) I think they all all good in their own way, 360 is a good console at a sensible price with a large games catalogue including some great titles Halo etc. And as vitually all HDTV's sold in the uk have component as well as HDMI it's HD credientials are good enough. The Wii is another good console, slightly lacking in horsepower compared to the others but still more polished than the previous generation and with hugh game play appeal when friends are round. I bought mine for the social gaming side - so sue me! The PS3 is very impressive in terms of graphical quality and blu-ray movies look amazing. (i've never seen an 360 hd dvd to compare) my friends have one and i must say that it takes the traditional games formats, driving, FPS etc. to the next level in terms of picture quality. However £425 is just to expensive and a major obstacle to most normal people, when you consider adding a game at £50 and a second controller at £35 and an HDMI or Component lead to replace the crap in the box at £17.99 your actually looking at £527.99 before you an a fried can enjoy you new PS3 in HD.

Personally i can't drop that kind of money on a console out of my wage packet and still pay the bills. I think this is selling slow cos most young people will have to save to get one.


RE: Makes Sense
By DingieM on 4/4/2007 5:12:42 AM , Rating: 1
"sensible price with a large games catalogue including some great titles Halo etc".

Due to its much better hardware architecture and vastly superior graphics hardware the Xbox360 is the better games console. Advantages lies in lighting, HDR, massive render speed, features, picture output quality that is generated by the graphics hardware themselves (and not streaming video from disc).
Proof is with Gears of War, Forza 2, Mass Effect, PGR4, Halo 3 to only name a number of games that are exclusive to the Xbox360.
Then there will be the games that will only run on Vista and Xbox360 due to its online integrated services, like Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures, Shadowrun etc.
Next to that many former PS3 exclusives are becoming cross-platform including Xbox360.
This is only the tip of the Iceberg because developers are only beginning to understand what the Xbox360 is capable of. Gears Of War doesn't push the Xbox360 to the limit, there is much headroom left.

The PS3 has only a very slight advantage due to its already built in Blu-Ray and HDMI that can output 7.1 lossless audio. But who can hear the difference between DTS 5.1 and 7.1 lossless...well 5% of the people if not less.
That's a niche market.

Remember the Xbox360 can already output FULL-HD on component and VGA since end of october 2006, and the Elite will be able to do that with HDMI. This shows the capabilities.


RE: Makes Sense
By Darthefe on 4/4/2007 8:02:00 AM , Rating: 3
quote:
The PS3 has only a very slight advantage due to its already built in Blu-Ray and HDMI that can output


Ur mad PS3'S Blu-Ray gives it a huge advantage same as the HDMI. More space = more content. You know why Gears of War is so short( 8 hours ) because of the graphics, it took to much space PS3 can have the same Graphics and longer(Blu-Ray) gameplay and on top of that better Artificial Intelligence(due to the Cell Microprocesser).

If games come out for both platforms and a price drop comes people would favor the PS3 more since more people are familiar with Playstation than X-Box

X-box might have the better Graphics and Architecture but is not able to use these advantages fully due to the simple CPU and only 9GB space to put a whole game in.

On the PS3 you can do a whole lot more than on a X-box 360.

Dont say i a fanboy cause i am not i am just correcting those fags which write bullshit.Since u r one of them stop talking out of your ass.


RE: Makes Sense
By zsouthboy on 4/4/2007 9:48:00 AM , Rating: 2
Gears of War is short because they made it that way.

Sure, Bluray = (potentially) more content.

However, the price of content has escalated enormously - in fact, ask Epic, the Gears of War guys. It's one of the most expensive games so far (to make).

Art is expensive. Programming is expensive. Marketing and distribution is expensive.

It's not getting cheaper to make games.

Pretending that giving developers more space is going to equal longer, prettier, better games is naive.


RE: Makes Sense
By Darthefe on 4/4/2007 11:27:19 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Pretending that giving developers more space is going to equal longer, prettier, better games is naive.


Dude, what i meant is to give developers some free space and not lock them up in a 9GB disc where they can only use selcted features.

I do get it the Longer the game in most cases the more money it takes to program all the crap.

quote:
Pretending that giving developers more space is going to equal longer, prettier, better games is naive.


I know just because game takes ages to beat dose not mean that it is good but if they are only 5 hours story and the gameplay is only passable why pay 70 euros, it is already unfair enough that we have to pay in Europe 599 Euros which is 800-900 dollars for a PS3 even though we dont have EE+GS we still have to pya more compared to Japan where they have to pay only 319 euros which is half the price. You would want more for ur money.


RE: Makes Sense
By DingieM on 4/4/2007 11:25:38 AM , Rating: 2
Man where did you learn that language.

You have no idea of the technology.
More space on media does not result in better graphics.
It is the total architecture between CPU's, internal memory and GPU('s).
Xbox360 "might" have the better GPU...I'm sorry to say so but its a cold and hard fact that its superior to the RSX.
Developers may (if they have the skills) unlock special graphics tricks further on the Xbox360 than on the PS3. There have been numerous technical investigations on the web that say so.
And then Sony is lying about the specs of their system, and people are just falling for that trap. Its far less powerful than they say. I won't be fooled.

You say better AI through the Cell, now this really shows that you don't understand. Cell has massive calculation bandwith ultimately suited to streaming data. Now AI is about branching and need general purpose CPU's to perform best, for which the PS3 has only one. The 7 SPE's are solely optimized for streaming calculations.
Offcourse the Cell will eventually be able to do tricks that the Xbox360 barely can do, if developers can unlock it that is.
Go read technical articles and if you don't understand them just shut up.

More and more developers are just pissed off by the major drawback of the Cell: complexity.
The Cell isn't designed for games as the nr.1 application, it just isn't.

Sure, the PS3 will be a succes but far less than the PS2.


RE: Makes Sense
By Darthefe on 4/4/2007 11:37:02 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
You say better AI through the Cell, now this really shows that you don't understand. Cell has massive calculation bandwith ultimately suited to streaming data. Now AI is about branching and need general purpose CPU's to perform best, for which the PS3 has only one. The 7 SPE's are solely optimized for streaming calculations.


So u are sayig that the CPU of the X-Box 360 would be more powerful than the PS3 my point was that the PS3 had a better CPU. IF i was wrong sorry. And also i did not say that the Graphics of the PS3 was better than the X-box my point was that the IF GEARS OF WAR WAS ALSO ON PS3 THE DEVELOPERES COULD USE THE SAME GRAPHIS FROM THE X-BOX BUT WITH MORE CONTENT THAT WAS SUPPORTING BLU-RAY. And just one Question is the X-box 360 only slightly better in Grahics or considerebly.


RE: Makes Sense
By sinisterDei on 4/4/2007 3:26:42 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
my point was that the IF GEARS OF WAR WAS ALSO ON PS3 THE DEVELOPERES COULD USE THE SAME GRAPHIS FROM THE X-BOX BUT WITH MORE CONTENT THAT WAS SUPPORTING BLU-RAY


Yes, we all got your point. HIS POINT, and now mine, is that the storage capacity of the media in question (DVD 9GB) was not likely the defining limitation for why Gears of War was a short game. One of the advantages of using a common format disc (DVD9) is that its pretty easy to see how full the disc is - simply stick it in a DVD drive and make a disc image and see how big the file is. I don't happen to have a copy of Gears of War handy, but thanks to the wonders of the internet and peoples love for posting game "backups" on various torrent sites, in the timespan of about 30 seconds I was able to determine the Gears of War DVD image is only about 6.5 GB in size. That means that nearly 30% of the DVD9 disc isn't even being used for Gears of War - so its pretty obvious they haven't hit any kind of storage limitation.

Your