Price Cut Leads To PS3, PSP Sales Boost

Klaidas writes "The BBC reports that sales of Sony's PlayStation 3 console in the US rose by 21% in June, though the machine still trails the Wii and Xbox 360. NPD numbers show 98,500 PS3s were sold, compared to 198,400 Xbox 360s (up 28%) and 381,800 Wiis (up 13%). Sony said that the $100 price cut to the 60GB PS3 led to a 135% sales rise over the last two weeks, though independent confirmation of that jump is not yet available. 'Nintendo's DS handheld sold 561,900 units , while Sony's PSP, which has been boosted by an April price cut, sold 230,100 units, NPD reported. Software sales in the US are 31% higher than the same time last year, the market research showed, buoyed by new consoles from all three firms.'"

Poor Sony

[the computer guy nex]

The Xbox360 came out a full year earlier, and it is still selling 100k more units per month? That hurts. Also nice to see the Wii still going strong.

I bet no one out there regrets their Wii360 purchase instead of just a PS3.

I Heart PS3

[BRock97]

Honestly, for the last four months, my PS3 has been getting more play time than my Wii and 360 combined. I have to hand it to Fall of Man (even more awesome the second time through and online is a blast), Virtua Fighter and Castlevania Symphony of the Night right now, but next month should see a continued demand with Lair and Heavenly Sword. That has translated into me convincing three people I work with to also get a PS3 over the same time period. Two did it for the games, and one did it for the movie playing capability. As much as I enjoy Sony's PR (or any PR, for that matter) shooting themselves in the foot, I have enjoyed the crap out of my system, both for games and for movies (Casino Royal and Pirates look incredible). Plus, the fact they let you use a keyboard and mouse for UT3 (and hopefully more FPS), is aces in my book.

In fact, this fall looks incredible (and expensive!) all around. My personal list of things to look out for in the next six months are:

PS3:

• Lair
• Heavenly Sword
• Warhawk
• Ratchet and Clank
• Assassin's Creed
• Tekken 6

PC:

• Bioshock
• Crysis
• Half-Life Episode 2/Portal/Team Fortress 2
• Unreal Tournament 3

Wii:

• Metroid Prime 3
• Super Mario Galaxy
• Super Smash Bros

360:

• Halo 3

If anything, I am most disappointed in my 360 lineup. Of what's coming out, Halo 3 is the only thing I consider "must own" (maybe Blue Dragon, I haven't decided). Oh well, it makes a good media extender to Vista...

Re:Poor Sony

[samkass]

The Xbox360 came out a full year earlier, and it is still selling 100k more units per month?

Well, the PS2 came out almost 7 years ago, and, at least as of May, was still outselling the PS3 and XBox360 put together each month. As the PS3 price comes down, it will be interesting to see if Sony can convert a substantial portion of the PS2 buyers into PS3 owners down the road. And while it's true that the PS3 has little exclusive content yet, I can't wait for the first virtual world-style game (Maybe a GTA?) that uses the Blu-Ray capacity to offer an order of magnitude richer world than you can get on anything else.

In other words, the game isn't over-- it's hardly begun.

Although I could have gone any of the 3 ways (the Wii seems fun but lacking in features, the 360 seems like it has a good online feature but lackluster specs, and the PS3 is expensive but featureful), I don't regret the PS3. Blu-Ray movies look awesome, the machine has horsepower out the wazoo, the LAN features just work-- it has everything I need for a long time. And it plays my PS2 games so I don't have to go out and buy hundreds of dollars in new games to have a little fun.

Re:Misleading headline

[LordKronos]

though independent confirmation of that jump is not yet available

Honestly, I wouldn't believe anything I heard from Sony. If it were a sunny day and Sony told me the sky were blue, I'd probably still look up to be sure. For all we know, what they really meant was that they shipped 135% more PS3s into the retail channel in anticipation for increased sales.