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."

New record set for...

[Stormx2 (1003260)]

'Worst console ever'

Elaborately spun responses?!

[Balinares (316703)]

Holy shit. The cheek of it. "Until then, expect some elaborately spun responses from Sony's competitors." Really.

Reality check: Sony sold 165,000 PS3 and the rest are already sitting on shelves. Nintendo shipped how many times that many Wii? and is still sold out. How the HELL is that good news for Sony? Someone please explain me, I really don't understand...

PS3 isn't sold out

[rmccann (792082)]

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.

Re:

[LWATCDR (28044)]

As far as I can tell same thing in the US. I can get a PS3 anywhere but no Wiis. Nintendo had better get it's act together, Sony seems to have no problem making enough PS3s to meet demand while Nintendo keeps falling farther and farther behind.

Re:PS3 isn't sold out

[Boogaroo (604901)]

Poor Nintendo. They sell out everytime.
They're soooooo far behind that they're ahead by about 2 million units and catching up to the Xbox360.

I'm sure they're crying all the way to the bank.

Re:

[LWATCDR (28044)]

Wow I guess I really have to put a :) after every joke post.

Re:PS3 isn't sold out

[Pluvius (734915)]

So it's bad not to sell out now? How times have changed [vgcats.com] since November.

Rob

Supply is key

[paladinwannabe2 (889776)]

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.

Re:

[Trogre (513942)]

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

So... it's a bad thing that they had produced enough consoles to cover demand for the launch? Or is it a good thing that the competitors didn't? I don't follow.

(damn, what was that comic strip with the peas selling consoles, and one of them only has one in stock and claims to have the most popular console ever after the first sale?)

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

They do have a way to g

PS3 in NZ

[WozNZ (1079087)]

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.

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[pl1ght (836951)]

Because they can easily outmatch supply vs demand. I think lots of people have been ignoring that fact and taking their stock for complete lack of interest.

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[faragon (789704)]

I think that something similar is also happening in Barcelona (Spain, Europe): there is stock in every big store (AFAIK). One of the biggest electronic retailer chain (Media Markt) is giving a Blu Ray movie for free with the PS3 (599 euro) since today (no gift was given at the launch day), other stores are offering games with 25% discount (Carrefour, since the first launch day) when bought with the console. FNAC offers 10% discount for games and peripheals if you buy the console there, with an additional 5%

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[Trogre (513942)]

Perhaps no one wants to watch Casino Royal? :)

Actually I suspect they might have extended that deal somewhat. The stores I've been in all had PS3s in stock, but had sold about 75% of their original stock at a rough guess.

Yes, yes it does.

[The-Bus (138060)]

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.

When you ship 2-3x more than your competitors, you're bound to sell more. I wonder how many 360s or Wiis would've been sold had they also shipped 220,000 units.

Microsoft and Nintendo can spin this another way: Xbox 360 and Wii are the only next-gen consoles to completely sell out of their initial shipment!

Re:

[jandrese (485)]

On the other hand, WTF is Nintendo doing that it can't catch up to demand after 3 months? Are the Wiis being hand assembled by Monks in Tibet? It's hard to even find the Wiimotes in stock anywhere. The only thing all of the stores have in abundance around here is the stupid carrying caddy and stand thing.

Then again, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Nintendo pulled this same stunt with the SNES.

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[Kjella (173770)]

On the other hand, WTF is Nintendo doing that it can't catch up to demand after 3 months?

Well, by the end of this FY (March 31st) they have a target of 6mio consoles which they're going to come close to while the Xbox360 is looking at something like 11-12mio units sold in total. Any way you cut it the Wii is in good supply and is selling the fastest of all the three new consoles - it's just in even better demand. If they can keep selling at this rate (I doubt that) they'd overtake the Xbox360 this summer(!)

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[Tim C (15259)]

If the Wii were actually readily available in the UK, it's pretty likely I'd have one, and it's likely that my ex would too, so that's another 2 they'd have sold. Hardly conclusive evidence that they'd have gone like mad, but the very fact that even now it's hard to find them suggests that they may have.

Besides, for the price of a PS3 I could buy a Wii *and* an XBox 360, or a XBox 360 and the HD-DVD addon and some games; I'm not poor, but the PS3 is looking to be too expensive for me at the moment.

Re:Yes, yes it does.

[DrEldarion (114072)]

Actually, none of them are next-gen. They're all current-gen. Next gen is XBox720, PS4, and Wii^2, or WiiWii.

"Strong Launch" = Strange perspective

[Bobfrankly1 (1043848)]

With such large numbers being tossed around, it's sometimes healthier to look at percentages instead. Sony sold 100% of it's inital shipment. It did the same in Japan and America. Didn't Nintendo do the same? But Nintendo still is selling 100% of what it is shipping, whereas Sony is not.

I'm not trying to do the fanboi rant, as I'm more the PC fanboi, but selling out the first shipment of a next-gen console is kind of a gimmie. The only difference here is that Sony waited until they had more units to ship for thier launch. So the title of this article should be, "Sony waits until they have enough units to break a record, then launches console."
Big Whoop.
-
Sleep with one eye closed...the monkeys are coming...

Anti-Sony fanboys spin like tops

[Pluvius (734915)]

To the surprise of no one, the Sony bashers talk about how the Wii and 360 might have sold more units in an alternate universe somewhere rather than admit that despite the high price, despite the lack of games, and despite the constant negative publicity that Sony's gotten for nearly a year now, the PS3 has still sold more units at launch than any other console in UK history, and a whole 60% more than the Wii. Perhaps they won't admit it because that would also be admitting that they've underestimated Sony's chances of success in this console war.

Rob

Re:

[malevolentjelly (1057140)]

Dear Rob,

  The UK market is tiny and not a huge priority.

Love,
The Game Industry

Re:

[Pluvius (734915)]

Dear Game Industry,

The UK market is the largest in Europe.

Love,
Objective Reality, or

Rob

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[Rydia (556444)]

And South Africa is the largest market in Africa. Wooooo. That does not mean it is nearly as important as... well... anywhere else. Selling in the UK is preferable, but controlling Japan and the USA means controlling the market.

In any case, I am still suspicious of these numbers, mostly because from what I can tell the source ONLY does console launches and seems to rely heavily on company-provided numbers.

Re:

[pembo13 (770295)]

Now would be a good time to remind you that Sony doesn't give you a commision on every console sold, you really don't need to defend them - it's cool

Re:Anti-Sony fanboys spin like tops

[Rydia (556444)]

Consoles and companies don't need "defending." Doing so does not make you some sort of righteous arbiter of gaming justice. If popular opinion is swinging for or against a company, it is because that company is either doing something right or wrong to warrant it. This is how a market works, and defending a company against popular opinion because they "need defending" is actually counterintuitive; consumer dissatisfaction is how companies learn what they are doing wrong, and either correct it or perish.

Apples and oranges

[jchenx (267053)]

To be fair to both sides of the "console fanboy war", it's difficult to make comparisons of the PS3 launch to the Wii/360 one, because of the supply constraints with the latter consoles. It's far too early for "either side" to declare victory any time soon. Both anti-Sony fanboys, and the pro-Sony fanboys, should go on vacation for a few weeks, and come back when the sales numbers can be compared more adequately. Then, it will be a lot harder for anyone to "spin the numbers".

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[Tim C (15259)]

I couldn't care less how many PS3s Sony sells. All I know is that when you can buy a Wii [argos.co.uk] and an XBox 360 [argos.co.uk] together for only a little more than a PS3 [argos.co.uk], they're too expensive for me. Everyone else I've spoken to* likewise thinks the PS3 is too expensive. On the other hand, if Wiis were easier to get hold of, I may well have bought one by now and my ex almost certainly would have, and several of my friends already have. The bastards.

(* a massive sample size of "a couple of blokes at work", so hardly statisticall

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[metroid composite (710698)]

despite the lack of games

Slow down there a minute. The PS3 initally had some 30 games planned for European launch (compared to the 15 it managed in North America and the 5 it managed in Japan). I realize that a bunch of those got delayed, but even considering that, waiting four months still strengthened the launch lineup quite a lot.

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[Rimbo (139781)]

You truly are the king of the moral victory.

Sony only needs to sell 4 million more PS3's to catch up to where the Xbox 360 is today.

Of course, this assumes that Microsoft decides to stop selling the Xbox 360 for a period of time until Sony catches up.

Assuming European sales double the rest of the world's PS3 sales for each month, that means Microsoft would have to stop selling the 360 for about a year for Sony to catch up. (2*125k consoles/month * 12 months = 3 million. Not too shabby, really.)

Unfortunate

Sony is behind, difficult to catch up

[ConfusedSelfHating (1000521)]

Sony is behind the other console manufacturers. In order to catch up, it has to outperform its rivals. The European launch was a moderate success. The PS3 didn't sell out. Having an ample supply only counts if people want to buy your product for the price you're selling it at.

Mistakes Sony has made:

1. Including Blu Ray, Sony's dominance would almost certainly be guaranteed if it was releasing a console at the same time and price as the Xbox 360. Which would be possible with the use of a DVD drive.
2. Not securing exclusives, with Grand Theft Auto 4, Devil May Cry 4, Resident Evil 5 going to the Xbox 360, a lot of people don't have to buy a PS3. We will see if Metal Gear Solid 4 or Final Fantasy XIII goes multiplatform. Game publishers by default want to sell as many copies of games as possible, they inherently want to go multiplatform.
3. Failing to make Final Fantasy XII and God of War 2 PS3 exclusives instead of PS2 titles, these would have sold a lot of PS3s during a drought of good launch titles. They would have had to shell out a lot of money to Square for this, but it would have been worth every penny.

How can the Sony redeem itself? It has to ensure that there are a sufficient quantity of third party exclusives and a $399 price tag. Sony also has to understand that people are not going to buy a console just because it has the word Playstation on it. They need to learn from Nintendo's mistakes (and successes).

I think it would be quite easy for Microsoft to bring down the Playstation 3, but it will cost money. They need to buy Grand Theft Auto 4 exclusivity and pay to make MGS4 and FF13 multiplatform. Grand Theft Auto games account for 3 of the top 4 selling PS2 games (and Grand Turismo was bundled). Grand Theft Auto 4 exclusivity will probably cost them between $100 and $200 million. They have to replace lost PS3 sales (although a lot of people will buy an Xbox 360 instead of a PS3 in order to get the game) and pay a premium for the privilege. FF13 and MGS4 going multiplatform will cost less, simply because game publishers want to release multiplatform for more sales. Microsoft lost $4 billion on the first Xbox, so a few hundred million to drive Sony into the ground would make a lot of sense.

Microsoft can lose its battle with Sony if it assumes its lead will continue. It has to drive gamers and game publishers away from the PS3 before Sony significantly reduces the manufacturing cost.

The Wii is in a fight of its own. Any game that isn't designed for the Wii's control scheme isn't worth making. Any game designed for the Wii's control scheme will be impossible to port over to other consoles. The Wii needs to sell enough consoles AND sell third party games. If Wii owners don't buy third party games for it, it will just be Mario/Zelda box. Nintendo will make money, but console dominance will fall to Sony or Microsoft.

A Sony victory means your next console will cost $900 at launch because clearly people will clearly pay through the nose for graphics and Final Fantasy. A Microsoft victory will mean that next generation, you will have to pay for online play and downloadable content. A Wii victory will result in consoles with low end specifications and strange new control schemes.

Re:

[Pluvius (734915)]

1. Certainly Sony would succeed in the gaming industry if they hadn't included BluRay, but that's not all that Sony wants. You could argue that Sony is overreaching, but the dominance of BluRay over HD-DVD doesn't really bear that out. Also keep in mind that BluRay, like any other new technology, will drop in price rapidly, allowing for Sony to cut the cost of the PS3 in a short amount of time, probably around the time a decent game lineup starts to form. There's a good chance that this will be a better

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[donglekey (124433)]

A big part of the reason for the delay was that the cell was supposed to be a jack of all trades stream processor and handle the graphics too. This technique is probably too ahead of it's time and didn't happen, making the machine, late, unpolished and more expensive.

Xbox 360 shipped 300,000 and sold 70k

[iimaballa (1080445)]

Yup you read right, Xbox 360 shipped 300,000 to the PAL area and only sold 70,000 during Launch Weekend. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_launch [wikipedia.org] The Wii? nobody knows. They have said they shipped 1.5 million worldwide during launch. And if US sold 600K and Japan sold 370K that still leaves 530units unaccounted for.. hmmm

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[CorSci81 (1007499)]

You did notice the article is only talking about UK numbers, right? The PAL region extends outside the UK, so that 300,000 also includes the rest of the EU for starters. So, yes, the UK did buy 70k Xbox 360s and Microsoft did ship 300k to the PAL region, but that doesn't mean they didn't also sell out in the UK or the larger PAL area.

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[Pluvius (734915)]

According to vgcharts.org, which I think most people here consider reasonably accurate, the PS3 has sold over 500K units in PAL regions since launch. So either way the PS3 has done better at launch in the PAL regions than the 360 did. That's not too surprising, since the 360 had an epically horrible launch worldwide.

Rob

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[CorSci81 (1007499)]

Eh, I could care less about the total numbers, I'm just a logic nazi. The original post was (whether intentionally or not) misleading.

Gagging for it

[Chuck Chunder (21021)]

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).

Wait a minute...

[Kjella (173770)]

...so everyone that wants a PS3 has already bought one? I'm assuming this has nothing to do with the PS3 being shelf-ware in the US for quite some time and having a lot of surplus stock to send to Europe. Great for your opening week sales, I'd be very worried about week 2 though. Funny, with that infamous Blu-Ray shortage and all.

Let me check my usually pricewatch-like site, 0 of 14 stores have Wiis in stock and everything goes to preorders. In other words, Nintendo has put the pedal to the metal and after

A change of heart

[Colourspace (563895)]

(I have posted this on another thread too...)I must admit (I already have a 360 and a Wii) even a week ago I wouldn't have believed I'd be out on a cold UK night queuing up for one, and I am a total, complete and utter hypocrite (I have been less than enamoured of the PS£ previously on these very pages), but... After realising I could pony up most the cost by trading in a PS2 with 30 well played games (and keeping the good ones for back-compat), I could not resist its shiny allure - and god it is a shiny behemoth of a thing - and I think seriously well futureproofed. Previous posters have commented on the base cost of the 360 and I agree that the out of the box extras the PS3 has do outweigh the extra cost over the 360. Motorstorm is sublime, and having the 60 Gig HD out of the box to download game demos is great. Also, I never played online on the 360 simply because of the fee. Within half an hour I was playing other people on Motorstorm and I know everyone goes on about the XBOX live experience, seriously the PS3 network isn't like it's terrible. In fact I found it quite easy and pleasant to use - apart from the text input but all the systems suffer that. No the launch line up isn't great but I'm really looking forwards to littlebig planet and of course the titles will get better over the next year. There don't seem to be so many exclusives round so far this gen - the result? I seriously think I might can the 360 to recoup some more of my cash (finished Gears, but will miss Crackdown, great game). I'm not a Sony shill, far from it, but I'm trying to add some balance to the argument. As for the Wii? Well, that is in a class of its own. Zelda as usual is great, if only my wife and mother in law would stop kicking my ass at bowling...

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[powerlord (28156)]

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.

Re:Is it really impressive?

[drinkypoo (153816)]

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

Well, if they run out of UK PS3s, they can always recall some of the stock from the US, it's probably just a BIOS change to make it PAL. God knows we have plenty left over here :)

Every console launch ought to be a new record these days, or at least SOMEONE ought to set one every generation, because the number of gamers is increasing steadily.

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[goodEvans (112958)]

Heh. Not just a bios change. They would have to rip some guts out [slashdot.org] too.

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[ZakuSage (874456)]

Actually PS3 is region free for games. As with PSP, it's a simple firmware alteration to be able to play Region 2 Blu-Ray/DVD.

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[donaldm (919619)]

You are right and wrong at the same time.

All PS3 games will be region free, however PS1 and PS2 games will be region locked hence anyone in Europe or Australia/NZ importing a PS3 from the USA or Japan better have PS1 and PS2 NTSC games from those regions otherwise any existing PAL games they have will not play. In case you don't believe me get a PAL PS1 or PS2 game and try to play it on a US NTSC PS2 (unless it is chipped) or the other way around. Can anyone tell me if any of the Grey PS3 importers warned t

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[drinkypoo (153816)]

I'm quite sure they could handle that change at the hypervisor level... But of course they would disable it. Otherwise they'd have to start maintaining a PAL option in the hardware emulator, which would necessitate a hell of a lot of additional testing.

Wii/360 were supply-constrained

[jchenx (267053)]

The Wii and 360 were supply-constrained, so they sold out 100% of their respective shipments. I don't know exactly what they were, but seem to recall around the 100k number. A cynic would say that the reason why the PS3 broke records is only because the competition couldn't make enough to sell. On the other hand, having enough supply to meet demand isn't exactly a bad thing either. On the gripping hand, having a lot of product sitting on store shelves isn't going to make retailers very happy.

The numbers are going to be the most interesting a few weeks after launch. If the launch numbers reflect everyone who wanted a PS3, well, that's obviously a bad sign for Sony. However, if we see comparable sales numbers in the coming weeks and months, then it's a sign that demand is still flowing and isn't just one-time.

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[AKAImBatman (238306)]

A cynic would say that the reason why the PS3 broke records is only because the competition couldn't make enough to sell. On the other hand, having enough supply to meet demand isn't exactly a bad thing either.

A cynic would also point out that the reason why the Wii didn't have as many units at launch was because the console was effectively launched in all markets simultaeously. Sony, on the other hand, waited until they had significantly more supply on hand. The market will decide which maneuver was the be

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[DrEldarion (114072)]

OH god I love this, don't you love the whiney Wii/360 people "but but our console didn't have enough so we sold out"

And, because I love pointing out this sort of thing, the 360 fanboys were the same ones who, during the PS3 launch, were saying "People aren't going to be able to find a PS3 so they'll buy a 360 instead!". Damned if you're in-stock, damned if you're out-of-stock.

(and no, I'm not anti-360. My PS3 has been folding while I've been playing Worms nonstop.)

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[DrEldarion (114072)]

Well, actually, one of the reasons I bought the 360 version is because it supports HD. Otherwise, I'd be playing Worms Armageddon in SD.

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[CorSci81 (1007499)]

Again, that 70k is for the UK, not Europe at large, so this is a faulty comparison.