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Sony System Sales Slide, LBP 2 Sells 350K
Sony's hardware and console sales have taken a distressing decline. A recent analysis of Sony NPD data by industry news website Gamasutra shows a trend of disappointing sales figures for the console maker.
The PlayStation 2, which has enjoyed a surprisingly long reign as a viable console in the marketplace, appears to be making a final descent into irrelevance. PS2 sales were only 1.5 percent of hardware unit sales in January and its software accounted for only 0.7 percent of software sales. The PSP, now on its way out with the announcement of Sony's NGP, had a decline of 24 percent compared to the same month last year, with 76,000 unit sales for January. In fairness, the fact that Sony got 76,000 people to actually buy a PSP could be impressive, depending on your perspective.
The Gamasutra article also contains a detailed breakdown of where PlayStation 3 sales are in a historical perspective, but suffice to say the system's high price point is a drag on sales. In January, 267,000 PS3s were sold, placing it behind the Xbox 360 and Wii, and down 3.6 percent compared to last year. Hopefully, Sony can reverse this trend with the PS3 price cut rumored to be coming in June.
In better news, the company's LittleBigPlanet 2 moved 353,000 units in January, even though it was not released until the 18th of the month. This bests the original LittleBigPlanet's first-month October 2008 total of 215,000 units. The original went on to sell 1,470,000 units total (including a 2009 Game of the Year edition).
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