With head held high and a twinkle in his eye, president of SCE Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida continues to beat the drum of PlayStation positive thinking. "All the things are now coming together in terms of the right hardware, cost and pricing," said Yoshida to Videogaming247.
He refers, of course, to the increased hard disk space in the new PS3s which will retail for the same value of previous, lesser gig-happy SKUs. It's interesting to take note of his comment on "cost," which tells us that producing PS3 is becoming more cost-efficient ... possibly due to unpublicized hardware revision. As any head of a company would, Yoshida assures that this year is a strong year for PS3 and that 2009 will be just the same holding scores of new titles both announced and unannounced.
Sep 9, 2008
Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter has jut posted his hardware sales estimates for August. And here they are:
Wii - 550,000
PS3 - 225,000
360 - 200,000
The analyst is predicting sales of $600 million, up 23 percent compared to last year’s $489 million.
EEDAR also put out its estimates today, as you can see here.
The firms are almost agreed on the Wii figure, but Iron Mike’s a fair amount up on both PS3 and 360.
NPD data will release on September 11, this Thursday.
VideoGamer247
Aug 20, 2008
Sales have accelerated since the arrival of the Slim & Lite PSP in September 2007.
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has today announced that its PSP handheld gaming system has now sold over 13.4 million units across Europe.
The platform holder announced the sales figure at the Leipzig Games Convention and noted that the format is gaining "overwhelming support from a wide range of consumers all over the world". Sony attributes the success of the PSP to its "exciting" line-up of software, the introduction of colour variations and the launch of the Slim & Lite PSP in September 2007.
Sony will shortly add the PSP-3000 to its product line-up, a new model which features an improved screen and a built-in microphone.
Videogamer
Aug 19, 2008
The PS2 is unquestionably one of the greatest successes of videogaming history. However, it appears that the high manufacturing costs of Sony's latest effort has negated all the profit they made from the PS2 hardware -- at least according to developer Dave Perry, with information obtained from research firm DFC Intelligence (via 1UP). It's estimated that the console, which cost Sony up to $260 of losses per system sold, has left Sony with a total loss of $3 billion in the PS3's life so far.
While these figures seem rather bleak, one has to note the careful language used in the report is specifically about hardware, not software. Ultimately, Sony's goal is to profit off of its first-party offerings, and the licensing fees imposed upon third party developers.PS3FANBOY
Aug 15, 2008
Sony may have won the July NPD battle against Microsoft, but things have changed quite a bit in Japan. Shockingly, Microsoft's console has beaten the PS3 across the Pacific -- a strange coup we never saw coming. The wild demand for Tales of Vesperia, an Xbox 360 exclusive (for now) spurred sales of the non-Japanese console, defeating the unusual xenophobic fears of the Japanese gaming public ... if only for this week.
Nintendo DS - 60,434
PSP - 58,501
Wii - 38,506
Xbox 360 - 24,962
PlayStation 3 - 9,673
PlayStation 2 - 8,503
The difference between Xbox 360 and PS3 this week in Japan almost fully negates the one month lead PS3 earned in America. With Microsoft aggressively pursuing other RPG franchises, like Star Ocean and Final Fantasy, it'll be interesting to see how fierce the console wars can get in Sony's home territory.
PS3FANBOY
Aug 5, 2008
Konami is in a good mood. Well, you would too if you were touting number spikes like a 116 percent jump in net revenues. Konami is reporting massive positive growth in its first quarter earnings and no doubt a huge chunk of that is due to the success of Metal Gear Solid 4 -- which has shipped three million units worldwide on its first week. Konami stated that sales for the PS3 exclusive Solid Snake adventure were "sensational" with sales still "steadily increasing."
As for all the final numbers for Konami's first quarter earnings for the period ended June 30, here they are: ¥70.8 billion ($654 million) in net revenues, operating income climbed over 165 percent to ¥11.6 billion, and net income grew about 47 percent to ¥5.66 billion ($52.3 million). Konami expects these numbers to rise to ¥330 billion, ¥45 billion, and ¥26 billion respectively for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009.
PS3Fanboy
Jul 29, 2008
Sony, the Japanese electronics and entertainment titan, may be poised to lose its 13-year title as the world’s biggest games console maker despite a surprise jump in profits at its Playstation division.
Though currently riding high on continuing strong sales of the Playstation Portable and the recent launch of Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 4, Sony seems likely to run a close second to Nintendo by the end of year if the two companies attain their respective shipment targets.
Efforts to lower the production costs of the hefty Playstation 3 appeared to have paid off, with operating profit Y5.4 billion in the quarter as opposed to the Y29 billion loss recorded this time last year.
But the return of black ink at the games division after so many quarters in the red was small consolation to investors, after the Japanese electronics giant yesterday unveiled group-wide results which one analyst at KBC said were “not pretty, however you slice and dice them.”
The downbeat numbers follow months of apparently brightening prospects under Sir Howard Stringer – the group’s first ever non-Japanese chief executive who has spent nearly three years attempting to re-craft the company.
But yesterday’s reckoning of quarterly net profits, which took a 47 per cent year-on-year nosedive, suggests there remains a mountain to climb.
Analysts said that the numbers, which were difficult to assess properly because of changes to the way they were calculated, demonstrated Sony’s continuing vulnerability to the overall economic picture and the US and European slump.
Fund managers wincing at the group’s sharpest drop in electronics profits for two years said that it was now difficult to become bullish on Sony’s prospects because of the “visibly tightening purse-strings of the American consumer”.
A stronger yen has also taken a heavy toll on the company’s margins and higher material and shipping costs have weighed heavily on the core electronics division. The impending Beijing Olympics, much to Sony’s dismay, have yet to kick-in as a spur for Chinese consumers to buy large, high-end televisions.
For the company’s movie division, the prospects of a massive summer blockbuster on the scale of last summer’s Spiderman 3 now rest in the hands of Will Smith’s Hancock, which was released after the April-June period reported yesterday.
Performance was weak at the company’s mobile phone joint venture, Sony Ericsson, as competition from the iPhone took its toll and increasingly cash-strapped consumers in Europe shunned the sort of higher-end models in which Sony Ericsson specialises.
Sony did not add any detail to mounting speculation that it is planning to spend Y100 billion buying Bertlesmann out of a 50-50 music joint venture, known as Sony BMG - that has strong market share in various parts of the world. where Sony's core music business has gaps.
business.timesonline.co.uk
Jul 19, 2008
VGChartz reports that their estimate for American hardware and software chart for week Ending July 12th, 2008 is as follows:
Total Hardware: [Last Week #]
DSL: 166,413 (+4%) [159,611]
Wii: 139,641 (+3%) [135,879]
PSP: 69,301 (+11%) [62,435]
PS3: 68,793 (+14%) [60,224]
360: 48,435 (-11%) [54,641]
Wii: 31,537 (-3%) [32,512]
Top 10 Software:
1 Wii Sports (Wii) 139,641 12,830,822
2 Wii Fit (Wii) 79,725 1,425,906
3 Wii Play (Wii) 74,917 6,615,661
4 Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution (360) 69,571 69,571 [NEW]
5 Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS) 67,798 502,280
6 Battlefield: Bad Company (360) 52,347 387,138
7 Unreal Tournament III (360) 48,756 48,756 [NEW]
8 Guitar Hero Aerosmith (PS2) 47,674 192,010
9 Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3) 39,889 980,221
10 Guitar Hero Aerosmith (360) 38,862 174,982
Other New Releases:
14 Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution (PS3) 31,314 31,314 [NEW]
Software Totals: [Last Week Total]
DSL: 965,514 (-8%) [1,052,029] Tie Ratio: 4.32
Wii: 914,719 (-18%) [1,120,090] Tie Ratio: 6.18
360: 878,284 (-7%) [944,866] Tie Ratio: 9.25
PS3: 483,884 (-10%) [536,329] Tie Ratio: 6.42
PS2: 367,549 (-24%) [480,712] Tie Ratio: n/a
PSP: 219,409 (-7%) [234,700] Tie Ratio: 4.03
Updates:
Wii: 31,537 (-3%) [32,512] Should read: PS2: 31,537 (-3%) [32,512]
N4G
Jul 17, 2008
Guess what? PS3 sold pretty well because of this "Metal Gear" game. The PS3-exclusive and limited edition 80GB bundle accelerated sales to over 400k. PS3 sold 405,488 systems, 84% higher than the Xbox 360. Year-over-year sales in June went up 311%, and month-over-month growth went up 94%.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was the best-selling video game, with 774,647 units sold. More than 2.4 million software units were sold for PS3 in June, representing an increase of more than 300% from this time last year. (Software totals do not include software units sold as part of the Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots PS3 retail bundle).
The incredible success of the PS3 this month shouldn't come as a surprise. We really hope that Sony will be able to continue the momentum of the PlayStation brand in the coming months with its upcoming holiday lineup. Sony's official word, after the break.
"The PlayStation brand is truly hitting its stride on its long-term opportunity across all three platforms. Our strong June numbers serve as proof to the continued momentum of the PS3 and affirms that we're exactly where we expected to be. This month's success can be attributed to the exclusive blockbuster Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and we're poised for continued growth into the back half of the year with a much anticipated line-up, including LittleBigPlanet, SOCOM: Confrontation, Resistance 2, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, and NBA '09: The Inside. Additionally, the new PlayStation Network video delivery service will be a big driver for the PS3 and PSP, allowing consumers to extend their multi-media and entertainment experience."
PS3Fanboy
Jul 5, 2008
When the PS3's launch back in late 2006/early 2007 was met with largely disappointing sales in many territories across the globe, analysts and Sony fans alike increasingly looked to the future to cite possible PS3 titles that could lift sales to PS2 levels.
Gran Turismo was mentioned. Metal Gear, of course. Lair, The Getaway and Grand Theft Auto were all named. Even Fatal Inertia - itself later delayed (and almost cancelled) on PS3, launching on Xbox 360 instead - was cited as an exclusive title that might have sent sales skyward.
Of course, for the most part, all of the above titles have either made their debut or disappeared off the radar altogether. Out of all of them, Metal Gear arguably made the most difference, though evidence suggests its effect is already waning.
The latest sales figures from Japan have the PS3 falling steadily back to its pre-MGS4 sales levels (to 17,973 units this week, to be specific), drifting way behind the Wii just weeks after it stole headlines and surged past it - admittedly only for one week.
But it does beg the question; if one of the franchises most synonymous with the PlayStation can't rescue the PS3's fortunes, what can? Have we reached a time when software no longer pushes hardware, with consumers making their purchasing decisions based upon media specifications and firmware updates?
I hope not. I don't want to end up reviewing firmware for a living.
Jolt
