Sales show PS3 outsold again--now by the PS2

PS2 outsells more powerful consoles. This is not a repeat from 2002.

(Credit: Sony)

I'm starting to feel bad for Sony and the PS3 camp. I really am. Sales figures from The NPD Group, a prominent business research firm, show the three top spots for April's console sales went, respectively, to Nintendo for the DS, Wii, and DSi.

Then came Microsoft with the Xbox 360. Finally, Sony rounds out the rest, with the PS3 coming in sixth--behind its predecessor, the PS2. Ouch.

Of course, this likely has much to do with the price drop we reported on more than a month ago that took the PS2 to the $99.99 mark, a significant price point.

Still, it's got to be hard on the PS3 team knowing it got beat for a month by its 9-year-old little brother. And this doesn't mention the PSP, which comes in seventh place behind even the PS3.

The PS3 remains the most impressive gaming console in terms of hardware, but if Sony can't find a way to gain some sales traction and stop the declines, it might not matter.

[baggyguy1218]

No surprised there. I will be waiting for the price drop of the PS3. Maybe Sony should stop making the PS3. That would ramp up sales...if they dropped the price.

[seamonkey420]

honestly doesn't bother me as a PS3 owner. just means less crapware on the system since software has to be good to turn a profit

PS3 exclusives still keep coming even though we are the bastard stepchilds of the current gen. plus, if i get bored gaming i can always whip up hulu on the browser or watch one of my top 150 movies sitting on the harddrive :)

xmas time, well that could be a whole different story or more of the same. nonetheless, i'm still happy as a PS3 owner.

[7aji88]

The thing is at a full PC price. Maybe If the PS3 would come preloaded with Linux as Sony said that you can do with it, maybe the PS3 would look more appealing for normal users who are the reason why the Wii sales are on the top. However gamers would pick which ever console they want (XBOX360 or PS3 that is)

I love my PS3! I think it's the best gaming console Sony put out so far. The only thing that I am very disappointed in (as a lot of other people I'm sure) is that it's not backward compatible. I know there's a lot people like me that has a LOT of money tied up in PS2 games!!!

[kingrah1]

i got my PS3 sunday!!

[mythrilfan]

Psst. The PS2 is the PS3's *older* brother.

[fanboy420]

All over the net this is shown as bad news. Sony knew Ps2 would sell strong if it cut the price to
99 dollars. This is good news for sony. The Xbox is dead, and the Ps2 still selling with the big boys.
I believe the Ps3 is ahead of its time in features. It will be a slow but rewarding 10 year plan and reassures my faith that when and next gen comes the ps3 will still be pumping out great games like its uncle ps2. The glass is half full just the FF13 demo and Killzone 2 alone put ps3 ahead of wii
in sales in Japan. GO Ps2!!!!! Pave the way...

[sensualeye]

Would you buy a 10 year old computer?

[paulimusmaximus]

Eh, these things happen. Maybe Sony's time is up. Just like Atari and Sega had their heyday, and are now gone, maybe sony is next. So now Xbox and Wii will be on top until something else comes along. There are a lot more failed video game system makers than their are ones that still make them.

[rich12313]

Amen to that. Sometimes the era just ends...its over for Sony. The ps2 was good but thats it.
xbox360>Wii>Ps3

[mgillespie2]

Are you insane? PS3 is the best hardware this generation, it's also got the best software these days too. Sure it costs a few $$$ more than the competition (which is either last-gen or built with cheap crappy components), but it includes so much more for the like $70 difference. Blu-Ray, Wifi, proper 1080p and HDMI 1.3 with lossless 7.1 sound, better interface, free online play, Home and so forth.

[Kwasiowusu]

@ mgillespie2 :" but it includes so much more for the like $70 difference. Blu-Ray, Wifi, proper 1080p "

# 1.The difference between the Arcade 360 and the PS3 is actually $200, not $75.
# 2. You don't need wifi to play online. As a matter of fact, lag times for fast paced online play are better with the cat 5 that the 360 comes with, than with wifi.
# 3. Blu-ray is irrelevant to game play. As a matter of fact, the DVD-drive on the 360 has much faster load times, than the slow-mo blu-ray on the PS3.
# 4. The 360's 1080P is every bit as "proper" as that of the PS3.

[hightechfanboy]

I have a ps3, and i can tell u thats a fine piece of technology. is good at everything it was design for. it might not be the most selling piece of tech, but as long as it sells enough for sony(and games) to keep supporting it I'll be with us for a long time. Am just glad that I own one of the best pieces of technology thats is available to this day.

[He_And_Him_Studios]

It's still the best system you can get, no matter the price, I want one, and I'll prbaly get one a year before the PS4 comes out, then I'll bet the Sony system that came before the new one, as it has always gone.

[iceman721]

Its time for Sony to cut the price on the PS3 400 & 500 dollars are too high for this gaming system in the current economy. Blu-Ray players are coming down in price and have been for months. Value conscious consumers can purchase a Xbox 360 and a Blu-ray player for the price of a PS3. I am on my 2nd 360. I have never had the RROD but know many others that have. I sold my 1st 360 (no HDMI) for $90.00 with the 20GB HD included. I had upgraded my HD to the 120GB (90.00 on sale) and added that to the core system I bought at a CC closeout sale (140.00). So in the end I paid $50.00 to upgrade from a 1st gen 360 to a new "Jasper" model. I still want a PS3 for my 2nd HD television and I'm waiting on the inevitable price cut. Sony may not want to but the market will win. They don't have a choice. Drop the price or watch sales continue to slide and the system become less & less relevant.

[colossus44]

ps3 = windows vista

ps2 = xp

have to love xp

[blackshadowed]

Nice one. I say CNET closes the thread here.

[make_or_break]

Wait a sec...when did the PS3 *EVER* outsell the PS2? I seem to recall that during many months over the past couple of years the PS2 was the top selling console among all the models. Maybe in the earliest months following the PS3 release it might've done better than it's older sibling, but the cheap price of the PS2 has always made it a strong seller in the month-to-month tallies. Old school thrills it may be, but it's CHEAP old school thrills.

[fandy_ooo]

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[mgillespie2]

Anyone ever wondered who pays of all these American media blogs? Concidently their biggest advertiser is Microsoft.. Hmmm wait a minute, I smell a rat...

The fact remains. Sony have sold 22m consoles a year quicker than Microsoft managed to sell 22m, and Microsoft had the luxury of a lower price point and market exclusivity for 12/18 months (depending where you live as the PS3 launch was staggered).

Anyone that thinks the PS3 is not selling, has been sucked in by the paid-off media..

Work it out for yourselves.

22m PS3's in 30 months (26 in Europe) = 900,000 a month globally on average (calculated by spliting the release dates)
28m 360's in 42 months = 660,000 a month globally on average.

There you have it, all you Americans have been fooled by the Microsoft sponsored media.

[sperrypt]

Isn't this an American tech site though, which happens to report current trends in the United States? Why is it the first thing to be said by any fanboy, that there is either a bias or hate for a system? The fact to be seen is that in the current economic status, a cheaper system is going to sell be it the wii, ps2, or xbox. Looking on the global slate, it would be appropriate to say that in Japan, rarely has the xbox been competative compared to the wii or ps3 (just like the previous model). So factors can be disproportionate depending on where you look, but we are reading about U.S. sales figures, which show that Nintendo and Microsofts systems' are the top sellers followed by Sony.

[Kwasiowusu]

@ mgillespie2 :"28m 360's in 42 months.......Sony have sold 22m consoles a year quicker than Microsoft managed to sell 22m, "


Umm.. the 360 has sold 30.2M, not 28M.
While accusing others of being biased, you might at least try not to fudge the figures and cheerfully shave off 2.2M from the 360's sales figures.
A few other points.
# 1. At a gap of 8M, the 360 is ahead of the PS3 by a bigger margin today worldwide, than it was when the PS3 was first launched.
# 2. In the US, the 360 has outsold the PS3 by close to 2M since September last year alone.
# 3. The PS3 sold 22M quicker than the 360 mainly because of Japan, where the 360 has struggled becausapart from in rare cases, the Japanese don't tend to buy foreign products.
# 4. even in Japan, 360 sales are up over 3 times this year as compared to last year, while wii sales are down over 60%, and PS3 sales are barely up 30%.
# 5. PS3 sales have fallen every single month in the US(year on year) for 6 straight months(since November). Not a good sign for a console that's been out only 2 years.

@ mgillespie2 : "and Microsoft had the luxury of a lower price point "

It took a massive 22 months before the 360 had it's first price cut. The PS3 on the other hand had it's first price cut pretty quickly..after only 8 months if I recall correctly.

[mmntech]

I've always been curious about people complaining about the PS3 being overpriced. I've looked around and you'd be hard pressed to buy BOTH an Xbox 360 60gb and a BD-Live player for $400. The cheapest BD-Live (Profile 2.0) players at the usual stores are all around $250 with the 360 being $299. Even if these two go on sale, you're still saving with the PS3 is you want both a gaming system and BD player. It's still the better value, even though PS2 compatibility is now gone.

As for the PS2, it's tapping into a new market at the $100 price point. People who wanted to but previously could not afford to buy a gaming system. The games themselves are relatively cheap. Keep in mind that a lot of legacy consoles (eg. NES, Master System) sold vary well in low income markets long after they were abandoned by North American gamers.

[mgillespie2]

I'm saying, do you REALLY believe what you are being fed in the name of sales? As if you listended to NPD numbers, it would suggest that Sony were getting hammered, but official end of year sales show that the PS3 is selling MORE than the Xbox in totals...

The fact is, Microsoft makes loads of noise about sales, and even go on record and claim that the "PS3 is hemorrhaging at retail", when clearly the numbers show otherwise. And financial report numbers don't lie....

Microsoft are:

a) an American company
b) a big advertising spender.

Nobody wants to upset them, they can't afford to lose advertising revenue. Take a look at the last 6 months of stories here, and you will surely see a trend, praise Xbox, slate PS3. I wonder why that would be....

[Kwasiowusu]

@ mgillespie2:"As if you listended to NPD numbers, it would suggest that Sony were getting hammered, but official end of year sales show that the PS3 is selling MORE than the Xbox in totals... "

Utter rubbish!
Sony IS getting hammered in NPD..and in total end of year sales too.
Stop making things up.

@ mgillespie2:"And financial report numbers don't lie.... "
Financial reports don't lie..but you sure do. I happen to have read the latest financial reports of both Sony and Microsoft..the 360 is solidly ahead of the PS3.
www.microsoft.com/msft/earnings/FY09/earn_rel_q3_09.mspx
www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdataps3_sale_e.html

[Carrick1973]

Do these numbers even count when MS has to replace a high percentage of failed units? Now many of the original units are hitting their 3 year warranty limit, and how many of those will hit a RRD in the next year or two? The PS3 will probably last 10 years on average. In that time frame, two X-boxes would need to be purchased due to their cheap quality. Sounds to me that the X-box is way more expensive over the long haul. Typically, many are penny wise, and pound foolish, thinking only of the short term costs, and not the aggregate costs (including x-box live account costs).

[Carrick1973]

Here's an interesting article on the failure rates of the 360.
http://gamer.blorge.com/2008/09/06/in-depth-expos-reveals-microsofts-xbox-360-failure-rate-was-68/

[Kwasiowusu]

:@ Carrick1973 :"Do these numbers even count when MS has to replace a high percentage of failed units?"

NPD doesn't count consoles that Microsoft has repaired, or replaced during the 3 year free warranty, which is the best warranty amongst the 3 console makers. Nobody does.
The PS3 is overpriced, and it's going to continue selling like crap, untill Sony cuts the price. Now we understand Sony has had big losses so have not been able to cut the price of the PS3 quicker, but they will have to cut the price of the PS3 sooner rather than later, if they want to increase PS3 sales.

[MoKraak]

I don't feel sorry for Sony at all. I've had serious problems with many of their products over the past 20 years and wonder why I keep going back. In fact, one of the more memorable moments was when my lightly used PS1 died from "shoddy laser syndrome" right in the middle of Final Fantasy VI!

Here's a partial list of Sony products that have literally died on me way before their time: Sony Ericcson phone, PS1, AV Receiver, Portable world band radio, wireless portable speakers, Trinitron TV.

Sony recently admitted that it needs to make products that consumers want, not products that Sony wants to make for consumers. I'm not surprised.

[roachbrain]

Man what's with the Sony hating on all these articles. You think the staff at Cnet wanted to purposely give the PS3 bad PR. Look if it's the 360 you want by all means go for it, but it doesn't change the fact that PS3 is a quality system with great games. I go by what's around me because lately these articles have been very bias and somewhat misconstruing. Maybe Sony isn't doing all that well with there counsel but I am very happy with my PS3. My brothers and most my friends have the PS3 and we clan up on COD with no problems so the free net works, the games are awesome - MGS, LBP, Killzone, and up and coming God of War, love my movies in blu ray and yes worth the 28 bucks, and it?s an all around great gaming experience for the money. If I were picking a system now I would still go with PS3 because in the long run it's just a better deal.

Developers have a great chance to show off there skills on the PS3 yet most are just too lazy and after the quick bucks hence all the sequels and prequels to other games. It's like an artist settling for black and white because using colors would add more work.

[Kwasiowusu]

@ roachbrain:" You think the staff at Cnet wanted to purposely give the PS3 bad PR"

The truth hurts.
PS3 sales not doing great. PS3 sales have fallen year on year for 6 straight months.
There's just no getting around it. So sorry.

[humourguy2000]

ps3 rocks...

http://registryplayer.blogspot.com