Sony CEO Claims PS3 on Same Sales Rise as PS2

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Sony's recent PlayStation 3 price cut and introduction of a 40GB baseline model spurred PS3 sales this month, which had been relatively weak since launch. In light of this, Sony CEO Howard Stringer told Hollywood Reporter the PS3's momentum at this point rivals that of the PlayStation 2 in its era.

"The momentum shift and the energy behind PS3 in time for Christmas is extremely fortuitous," Stringer told Hollywood Reporter. "It was planned by the PlayStation group, but I think this momentum now--particularly the number of games coming out, including our own as well as third-party--is the same as it was with PlayStation 2."

Though momentum is a somewhat general term, the PlayStation 3 sales at this point certainly don't match that of its predecessor's first year on the market--even with the PS2's 8-months of territorially exclusively Japanese sales. The PS2 had shipped 10.04 million units one year after its Japanese launch.

As of September 30 this year, Sony had sold only 5.59 million units of the PS3. The bump given by 100,000 consoles sold following the recent price cut do little to reconcile the difference between its current console's sales and that of the PS2.

Stringer also emphasized the difficulty developers have had adapting to Sony's new platform, although he claims this was the same of the PS2, furthering the argument that the system's "momentum" should not be considered on par.

"The amount of bandwidth and the processing power of Cell give game manufacturers a lot more work to do to use this system to its full benefit--and it's taken awhile to do it," Stringer added. "The same was true of PlayStation 2."

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    November 20, 2007 5:21 PM

    Momentum is the most vague term ever. What are is he talking about exactly? The numbers point to the fact that the PS3 is a failure on the magnitude of 50% when compared to the PS2 at the same point in its life cycle. Is he expecting to sell 5+ million PS3 during the holiday season? Id like to see that.

    Is it just more sony PR bullshit or am I missing something about the PS3?

    • reply
      November 20, 2007 5:30 PM

      Maybe the amount of revenue of each system sold based on its price. I mean since the PS3 sells pretty much twice as much as the PS2 did when it was released, selling half the number with twice the price would be the same.

      • reply
        November 20, 2007 6:54 PM

        Not really. If you factor in how much of a loss they were taking on the original PS2 vs 1st Gen PS3's and adjust for inflation and stuff, the PS3 isn't looking so hot.

        It was weird hearing Sony make a statement about the PS2 "being a force in making the DVD format mainstream." One, I never used it for DVD playback, nor did a lot of my friends or family. And two, if people were buying PS2's for DVD playback as a main focus with the games being a huge perk, then they picked the player with the worst playback. :/

        It's kind of exhausting seeing Sony putting themselves into constant "foot-in-mouth" situations, but whatever. The larger masses really don't hear about all these rumblings, nor care.

        • reply
          November 20, 2007 7:50 PM

          I can kind of agree with PS2 kickstarting the DVD format... I didn't have a DVD player until I got my PS2, and I haven't used anything else to play DVD's since I got my PS2. I know lots of other people that are in the same boat as me too.

        • reply
          November 20, 2007 8:15 PM

          at its release the PS2 was a very cheap DVD player compared to the stand alone sets. Plus it played Madden 2001.

    • reply
      November 20, 2007 5:43 PM

      Is it just more sony PR bullshit exactly

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