PSP, PS2 Sales Skyrocket 196
Spurred by the scarcity of the PlayStation 3, hungry consumers are buying all the PSP and PS2 units they can get their hands on. The PSP's sales have shot up by 280 percent over last year, while the PS2 was up a respectable 115 percent. From the Eurogamer article: "Additionally, sales of first-party software are also up, according to SCEA. PS2 game sales rose by 120.6 per cent, with PSP software sales increasing by almost 168 per cent. Sony has yet to publish figures for exactly how many PlayStation 3 units have been sold in North America since the console launched there on 17th November."
Re:The question is... (Score:4, Informative)
I was walking through the local Fry's last night and was wondering why they were stacking the PS2s in the main walkway. Seemed to me there might be a more popular item to stick in the high traffic areas, but maybe they were sold out of everything else.
I think you overestimate the demand for new consoles (not just the PS3), this is the sales numbers for 2006 up to (and including) October
Now, the Nintendo DS was being outsold by the GBA until they released the DS lite
The fact is that most people buy a system really late in its life, and that all those people who bought a Playstation since 2000 may now be starting to upgrade to the PS2. Most of the time we think of how average (or below average) our income is compared to everyone we know, when you actually compare your household income to the mean you'd probably find out that you were quite wealthy (the mean household income in Canada is $50,000 meaning that 50% of households make less than that; I expect that the US is very similar). Half of consumers aren't questioning whether they should 'upgrade' to a HDTV, they're thinking whether they should replace their 20 year old 20 inch TV with one of those fancy 32 inch CRT TVs.
no the numbers are compared with last year (Score:2, Informative)
Old dogs don't need to be taught new tricks (Score:2, Informative)
-Large title selection
-CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP prices (example: just got quantum redshift for my xbox for 3 dollars from gamestop. THREE DOLLARS!!!)
-consoles have had their hardware revisions and work better
-gives me more time to finish the games that have been released
I have a 360 (again, a gift) and I am VERY seriously considering buying a Wii, but my Xbox and PS2 get MUCH more action than the 360...Just 8 months ago I finally finished the dreamcast games that I have (all 10 of em...yea, my 'cast didn't get much playtime, but I loved the playtime it got) and am jonesing to buy a gamecube soon.
Then again, if I bought a Wii, I would effectively have a Wii AND a gamecube...regardless, there is nothing wrong with waiting for systems to be around for a bit. I actually encourage people to do so! It will give you much more entertainment, much less money spent (or more for the same amount of money) and allows you to build MASSIVE game libraries for next to nothing.
I'm sure people have way more than this, but between NES, SNES, Game Boy & GBA, Xeye (that's a Genesis and a SegaCD in one case), Dreamcast, N64, Xbox, PS2, I EASILY EASILY have over 250 games...that doesn't include my PC either!
How was I able to afford all this? Not buying them the instant they come out:-)
Re:Hungry consumers? (Score:3, Informative)
The xbox 360 core (no hard drive) is far more gimped than the PS3 base model.
The rebate [mentioned elsewhere in the thread] is only useful to a pretty limited number of people - Microcenter doesn't sell the 360 online and there are only 19 retail locations in the country, at least according to their website.
The PS3 costs $500-$600, not $600-$700. Presumably you use these numbers to make your argument look better?
There new competitors to the PS2 that were not there last year. It probably wouldn't have surprised many people if the Wii had taken a big chunk out of PS2 sales, because it's not nearly as expensive as the PS3 or 360.
Yeah, otherwise this is an insightful post.
If people are choking on price, then why eBay? (Score:3, Informative)
So if people are "choking on the price" why are they still selling for so much on eBay?
I went into a Target yesterday and asked if they had any PS3. He said they had a shipment a few days ago, but they were gone within a few minutes. If the price is a problem, why does it take minutes to unload them at retail?
There probably is a point at which sales would drop off at the current price. But from the looks of things, that point is probably well over a million units, after which Sony can start slowly giving price breaks (or at least incentives like pack-in games).