The lights are on
Sony touted its 2009 holiday numbers, which stated that the PS3 sales were up. Despite this success, the company says that profits for its games division remains relatively unchanged.
From October to December of last year, sales of the PlayStation 3 grew by two million as compared to the same time period in 2008 thanks to the system's price drop to $299, an aggressive and notable ad campaign, and the unit's new slim design. The company says it sold 6.5 million PS3s during this time period worldwide. Sony says it expects to sell another 13 million PS3s worldwide in the current fiscal quarter.
While the PS3 saw a healthy increase of sales, the PS2 and PSP – even with the new PSP Go – declined. PSP sales for the period were down from 5.1 million to 4.2 million for the same period in 2008, and the PS2 sales were down to 2.1 million from 2.5 million. Overall, Sony says that advantage it saw due to the decreased manufacturing costs of the PS3 was offset by this decline in PS2 and PSP sales.
On the software front, the company sold 47.6 million PS3 games, 15 million PSP games, and 11.2 PS2 games over this holiday period.
Could Sony be hitting its stride? Do you think that it will carry through with its 10-year support plan like it's promised (and is doing for the PS2)?Source: Gamasutra
Email the author Matthew Kato, or follow on Twitter, and Game Informer.
First! ha had to do it. but yeah good news for sony. now all they need is better online support
Oh yeah, classic PS2 games for download on PSN would be sick (disgaea Ratchet and Clank anyone?)
It's great to hear the sales numbers!
Back in 2006 and 2007, it seemed like the Sony Computer Entertainment company was going to go out of business!
Good thing they're doing successful now... FINALLY.
I still don't understand why they are continuing to support the PS2...if PS3 is your system, then commit to it.
thats too bad. i think the better sony does fiscally, the better it'll be for everyone. AND I WANT A PS3 SO BAD I COULD PEE MYSELF! ffxiv and ffxiii versus, uncharted, gow ... so many amazing titles...*sigh
i'm one of those 33.5 million. After they announced the slim for the same price as the elite with free online play there was no way i was getting a 360.
Yesss!Finally the PS3 is catching up to the Crapbox360 which can do only one thing consistently-The RROD.
Still confusing these numbers are. If your going to buy a PS3 why aren't you buying games for it? Maybe PS3 owners talk games but don't play them.
Awesome! Go PS3!!!
The decline of the PSP is because of the joke that was PSP Go and the lack of any good games and as far as the PS2 is concerned there is no way it will survive till next year.
Anybody buying a PS2 in the time of the PS3 is stupid.
@ nineteen93
It's not stupid if you want to play your PS2 games, but have a PS2 system that is too old to run them...
Remember: Current PS3's don't support PS2 games, so that's what some people have to do to play them.
I will say that it would be stupid to buy new PS2 games though...
THEY SOLD 11.2 PS2 GAMES!? HOW DID THEY SELL A TWENTIETH OF A GAME!?
It was pretty obvious, it's rivals are a nearly obsolete console, Xbox 360 and a cheap gimmicky console that only gets blockbuster games every blue moon, The wii.
PS2 sales don't really matter, because no matter what the sales are it is the best console to ever be released. Even now I can go play my PS2 and have more fun on it than on the 360,Wii and PS3.
PSP GO, Despite the fact that it's a neat idea, ir needs more support to gain sales.
Wewt
I misspoke. I meant to say twenty percent of a game. I fail.
@jpow11
I did not say it was stupid to play PS2 games.If you wanted to play older masterpieces then its perfect,but if you buy a PS2 now hoping for any good new games then you are foolish.
I only have a PS2 and PSP which i bought 2 years back but sadly no good new games are coming out for both of them so i keep searching for older titles which I have not played(remember that the PS2 during its lifetime has had hundreds of good games so i might not run out of good games for quite a long while). And its sad that there is no backward compatibility in the PS3(and Sony boasts in the PS3 adverts that "it only does everything").
Some of you fanboys are funny....
@ Cougan Waddell
The reason the sales are only 47 mil when the system sold 33 mil is because tons of people just buy it for the Blu-Ray player. I worked at Best Buy for the past 6 months, and all of our home theater guys recommended the PS3 for a blu-ray player instead of any of the dedicated ones.
And everytime someone buys a PS3 for blurays, sony loses a ton of money on the system and makes none of it back if they don't sell any games or extra hardware (which blu-ray customers don't need extra controllers or peripherals so they don't ever get them).
The Blu-Ray player may be touted as a huge success for Sony, but its inclusion also costs them millions of dollars since so many people just buy it for that.
I'm a couple months ahead of myself, but the 2 best video games EVER made are PS3 exclusives, Uncharted 2 and God of War 3. Hell yea. I love that Sony owns overall game of the year exclusively, and the 360 game of the year is also available on PS3. Finally, I've stopped hearing all the 360 gloating from friends.
I am also very glad to hear Sony is doing good now. I have always loved PS better than Xbox. The only reason I still play my Xbox is because there is WAY more people on that than on the PS. Everything is better about the PS than the Xbox!
Now let's add PS2 emulation support on the PS3. I'd pay like 10 bucks.