House: PS3 has captured Wii's momentum

By Tom Bramwell Published 26 November, 2009

SCEE president pleased with Slim response.

Sony Europe president Andrew House has said that just as Nintendo's Wii has lost momentum, PlayStation 3 has picked it up - largely thanks to the launch of the new slim console and the price cut.

"I think at a time when we're seeing one of the major competitors somewhat losing a sense of momentum - at least in many of the markets I've looked at - it's gratifying to see a platform that's always had a very significant share of sales go to third-party publishers capture that momentum again," House told our sister site GamesIndustry.biz in an interview published today. He later confirmed he was referring to Wii.

"The knock-on effect can only be a positive one if publishers are making up 75 per cent of the sales on a particular platform, as opposed to a much smaller share elsewhere, then that's the platform I think it's in their interests to see succeed - and I think that's the dynamic we're seeing return right now."

Nintendo presumably wouldn't dispute the decline in Wii sales, not least because Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has acknowledged it himself, putting the problem down to a dearth of "strong software" to match the performance of games like Wii Fit in the past.

House told GamesIndustry.biz that he believes PS3 has "finally capitalised on inherent brand strength" with its reconfiguration and price cut, and that it's something he will look back as a highlight of 2009.

"Seeing us be able to establish momentum not purely based on price, but I think with a sense of capitalising on internal brand strength, is really gratifying for me," he said.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • grayn #1 2 years ago

    He wishes.

  • NotSoSlim #2 2 years ago

    He does say certain markets and on that he is right...looking at Japan

    Just good having 3 machines genuinely gunning for holiday sales, makes a change

  • GamerG #3 2 years ago

    Still struglling against the 360 though, at least in the UK

    [link url=http://tinyurl.com/yatavdu
    ]http://tinyurl.com/yatavdu
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  • canIdoyabombsforya #4 2 years ago

    "Seeing us be able to establish momentum not purely based on price, but I think with a sense of capitalising on internal brand strength, is really gratifying for me,"

    The brand was not strong at £425, £399 or £299, this is confirmation the initial price was wrong for a games console, and you're still losing a lot of money, so the design remains a gamble. I wouldn't feel gratifyed until everyone on the school playground ownes one, like your last Two consoles.





  • NotSoSlim #5 2 years ago

    GamerG

    Saw that article the other day and while it's true in Uk anyway 3:1 is a bit high imo but any losses will be offset by FF releasing in Japan in 2 weeks

  • Gouki #6 2 years ago

    3 machinces in the market for several reasons:

    varied games.... i mean look at mad world

    keeping the cost down by pricing against each other...

    the want and need to one up the comp..

    and most importantly the monopoly and mergers comission!!

    why do u think intel paid a bit of cash to AMD the other day.... they need a rival if not mr monopoly man comes knocking.

    i do feel sony fumbled a bit strapping a dated even by then gfx card and possibly over eng on the cell. but i luv my ps3 as i do my 3sixty (had to type like that lol missing the six key). And wii for mad world....

    thats my 2p's worth

    looking back that was little on a tangent me thinks..... but u get the idea.....

    PS DREAMCAST FOREVER......

    Edited by 3 at 26/11/09 @ 08:58

  • JahB #7 2 years ago

    if publishers are making up 75 per cent of the sales on a particular platform, as opposed to a much smaller share elsewhere, then that's the platform I think it's in their interests to see succeed

    is he suggesting that third parties should stop supporting sony and just make 360 games?

  • originaljohn #8 2 years ago

    i think this kind of talk is a bit early for sony to be coming out with.

  • RumpyStumpy #9 2 years ago

    +1 to JahB

  • Xerx3s #10 2 years ago

    I might be mistaken but I thought that the PS3 always had "momentum". Or was that just a load of PR spin bs?

  • CallousB #11 2 years ago

    There's a reason 3rd parties have a smaller market share on Wii..it's called releasing crap software for the platform....

    .....and barely marketing the software that does have sales potential (compare the tv marketing for Resident Evil darkside chronicles (non existent) to the tv ad campaign for RE5 (plastered everywhere).

    If this gen has proven anything..it's that Nintendo games don't sell because of fanboys (30 million Wii owners..didn't own a gamecube..so have no loyalty to Nintendo software)..but because they are the only ones really putting any real effort in.

  • Evolution #12 2 years ago

    Only took 3 years...

  • M_of_the_sys #13 2 years ago

    @ Xerx3s

    It's always PR spin bs... including what's in this article.

  • Quak #14 2 years ago

    I think at a time when we're seeing one of the major competitors

    Oh so Nintendo is a competitor now that you're catching their momentum? For 3 years when they were kicking your arse apparently you weren't in the same market... how odd.

    And dude, after 3 years of being the butt of all industry jokes and having companies like Activision threatening to dump you because your sales are so shit, it's a little early to be breaking out the champagne.

  • BabyJesus #15 2 years ago

    Counting your chickens before they've hatched?

    Isn't that why you got into the mess you are/were in...

  • xentar #16 2 years ago

    i dont know about cheapos using coupons to buy a console but the 3:1 ratio from such a source dosent have much credit. The consoles are neck to neck with pricing and PS3 has advantage in free online play. The prioce cut wass really needed and people are acknowledging it by buying the console. Its easy as that. If MS sells more.. it may because of the thousands banned machines but that doesnt make PS3 a crappy platform

  • Doctor_What #17 2 years ago

    @ Messiash999: "since the ps3 launch date they have made up virtually no ground on msoft or nintendo"

    Err... Yes they have. They've been consistently selling faster than the 360 since their launch date, if you compare the sales graphs from launch. (But yes, they've had the arse handed to them by Ninty.)

  • Alterego-X #18 2 years ago

    No, no, no! The Wii was falling for the whole year, and so was the PS3.
    Both of them were fixed with games and price cuts, now both of them have momentum and roughly the same sales than before.

  • secombe #19 2 years ago

    As has been said, I love how Nintendo are now a competitor, isn't PR spin awesome. Not so long ago they were nothing but an Early Learning Centre toy that had no place in the console sales 'war'.

    The PS3 will need to significantly outsell the Wii for a long loooooong time before it catches up.

  • makeamazing #20 2 years ago

    House needs to pick his words more easily... I think (who knows) what he is talking about is the recent discussion that EA are reducing development for the wii. Because there is no money in general for most 3rd party publishers.

    I am not really sure about his other comments, yes Nintendo are down on previous years sales, but they are picking up quite well, and globally outselling the PS3 and Xbox.

    Im just glad people are starting to buy the PS3 now, its a good machine and has some great 1st party games.

  • TonyHarrison #21 2 years ago

    The worldwide sales gap between the Wii and PS3 last week was approx 230,000 units. Before both respective price cuts, the gap was anywhere between 50,000-100,000 units.

    Therefore, the PS3 is losing ground on the Wii at a faster rate than before, so no, it hasn't 'captured Wii's momentum' at all...

  • xentar #22 2 years ago

    guys, relax, he was not taling about numbers but about trends and Wii is going down while PS3 is back on track, its change of sentiment not change of positions int he all time sales charts.

  • Xerx3s #23 2 years ago

    CallousB: Not true. There have been several wii titles that have actually been quite good. Further more, I'd reckon that wii games are the most marketed games ever. I've never seen so much telly, public transport, etc. advertisement as for wii material, I'd reckon that the ratio to all other platforms combined here is about 6:1. That includes titles from sega and such.

    It's just that people know mario. People buy a wii for fitness stuff. The group that buys the typical 'gamer' games is a very small minority on the wii.

  • sneetch #24 2 years ago

    @makeamazing

    That was EA Montreal, the studio, rather than EA, the publishers. The headline was a bit misleading.

  • Iain815 #25 2 years ago

    Is it lupus?

  • davisorle #26 2 years ago

    @NotSoSlim
    You are wrong cause thats where they are already doing as good as they can... So what will change in the Uk, rest of Europe and US by releaseing FF for the PS3 in a month? I just dont see your point. And the fact that FFXIII will be released on both PS3 and 360 wont help Sony anywhere. Sony doesnt need help in the market that FF will be released soon in December.Unless you think that it will make thousands of people buy a PS3 just to import FFXIII in a non English version. How many will do that?

    Anyhow, Sony came out last E3 and waved a wand. This instantly gave to people the WiiHD which isnt coming out. For that alone they "might" have got some of the mommentum of Wii.The rest is purely based on the pricedrop+slim+uncharted 2. If they think otherwise they are fools cause all of the great titles they have been talking about for so long havent been released except the stunning Uncharted 2. As for how their sales will keep going : Im not analyst, I'm always weirded out from the charts on the east cause they always contradict the European and American ones, which isnt a bad thing but just shows simply how different tastes we got in gaming etc. Good for Sony. Bad for Nintendo.Well Nintendo... thats what you get when you aim on such specific audience of gamers. I wish a Nintendo would offer me what id wanna play and I'd buy it. Now to simply get a Wii for my collection I see it pointless. And no I dont need WiiFit.

  • Vandrius #27 2 years ago

    The 360 has been stagnant since it launched. The multiple SKUs they've had have all been the same thing rebadged. Sony were far too arrogant to begin with, but they've now swung it around. The number of non-gamer types I've heard talking about getting a PS3 now that they are cheap, and asking about the games and bluray and stuff is amazing. The Wii is written off as a party toy, its old hat and has already lived the prime of its life.

  • man.the.king #28 2 years ago

    What Andrew House is really saying:

    Whew!!! and Thank God!!! The storm seems to be clearing up now...

  • freakzilla #29 2 years ago

    The standards have dropped significantly over at SONY, compared to the PS2 this pretty pathetic and they're still grateful for the recent bit of good news.

  • MDL199 #30 2 years ago

    The recent price drop persuaded me to finally go next gen and buy a PS3 and I have to say i absolutely love it!

    As a piece of hardware the PS3 is a million miles better than the 360 and when you consider most people will want a wireless adaptor to play their 360 online without messy wires and a subscrition to Live you could argue the PS3 is actually cheaper in the long run with wifi built in and online play being free.

    The PS3 also is an absolute top notch media player playing Blu ray, dvd, mp3, AAC, Wma, Divx, mp4 and Jpeg files. The 360 is certainly not the best media player and comes over as pretty cheap and in the looks department the new slim is a real looker and although i would say the 360 is also pretty sexy the slim pips it in the looks stakes. And of course let's not forget the 360's disgraceful reliabilty issue's which is one of the main reasons I haven't bought one.

    Games wise the PS3 is now starting to deliver and titles like MG4 and Uncharted 2 have the edge over what the 360 can deliver and there is probably better to come.

    At the end of this gens console race I think there is every chance the PS3 will outsell the 360. I don't agree that Sony should be comparing sales against those of the Wii wee toy that particular product has more in common with something made by Fisher Price than a games console.