PS3 software tie-in ratio rubbish

By Games Industry.biz Published 14 November, 2006

Less than one game per console.

Enterbrain, publisher of Famitsu, has revealed the the tie-in ratio of software to PlayStation 3 sales is 0.98 - less than one game per console.

The figure suggests that a portion of the 88,400 units sold were bought with the intention of selling on as part of the 'grey market', the unofficial channel for second hand machines via internet auctions and retail stores, which label the stock as 'used'.

As previously reported, Namco Bandai's Mobile Suit Gundam and Ridge Racer 7 were the top-selling titles, clocking up sales of around 30,000 units each.

Picture of Games.

About Games Industry.biz

Read more articles from Games by visiting the Games Industry.biz archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (79) Latest comment 5 years ago

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

  • #1 5 years ago

    Tis a bit pants, but is there anything actually worth buying along with it?

    Why can't it open Word and Excel docs? It's virtually useless without it :/

  • Zomoniac #2 5 years ago

    Hehe, Sony must be losing a rather substantial fortune :)

  • lennon #3 5 years ago

    Sounds like most people have bought one to sell it on!

  • the_sas_man #4 5 years ago

    how does one buy 0.98 of a game?!

    :-D

  • AtomicBanana #5 5 years ago

    'how does one buy 0.98 of a game?! '

    I dunno, many release games are 0.98 of a game ;)

  • rudedudejude #6 5 years ago

    Well EA games should be ok, as they are typically only 0.27 complete.

  • the_sas_man #7 5 years ago

    Maybe if Sony released the Army Men games they could make up that 0.2 of a game

  • Feanor #8 5 years ago

    So the PS3 is so popular that most were bought to be resold at a high markup, so the price obviously wasn't high enough, rather than being too high.

  • the_sas_man #9 5 years ago

    Demand far outweighs supply, so there are a few rich idiots out there. But it certainly was overpriced, because if you are like me, you will wait till the PS3 is reduced in price before buying one.

  • Steroyd #10 5 years ago

    didn't Sony say that people would buy a PS3 even if it came with no games?

    who was right huh, WHO WAS RIGHT?

    :D

  • groovychainsaw #11 5 years ago

    Well, the launch games didnt impress me much either, if you were that keen on most of them you'd have bought a 360 instead...

  • corimi #12 5 years ago

    "Why can't it open Word and Excel docs? It's virtually useless without it :/"
    Totally. That's not the half of it. I heard it couldn't even run a Powerpoint presentation.

  • BartonFink #13 5 years ago

    Wasn't the tie in ratio of the PS2 far worse than this? (bad memory maybe)

    That is pretty bad though.

  • SCiARA #14 5 years ago

    its probably more to do with people buying it for blu-ray movie use rather than games..

    now that will fuck sony

  • RedPanda #15 5 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • Darren #16 5 years ago

    In comparison, I believe the Xbox 360's game to console ratio was around 2 I believe if I remember what I read last year.

    Remember it's possible that those tech-happy Japanese consumers might be buying the PS3 to watch Blu(-ray!) movies on as I recall that the PS2's launch games sold poorly in Japan when it launched in March 2000 as the Japs were buying it as a cheap (in more than one sense of the word as it turned out!) DVD player

  • Steroyd #17 5 years ago

    why? that's precisely what Sony's selling it as.

    Plus if you can count the number of games launched on one hand of course the tie in ratio will be bolocks.

    It would be a more impressive feat with the number of US launch titles.

  • Moogrose #18 5 years ago

    its probably more to do with people buying it for blu-ray movie use rather than games..

    now that will fuck sony

    Um, considering they have a great deal of interest in blue ray succeeding (and collect royalties on each disc)... i don't think it will actually - you know - fuck them.

  • chupachups #19 5 years ago

    Of course loads of people are going to buy PS3s just to sell them on, in fact you'd be crazy not to sell it on at this stage in the game.

    Cost of buying PS3 at shop in Japan = £300
    Price of PS3 on ebay = £800 - £1200

    Ignore the hardware, look at the money. The shops are effectively giving away £500 to £900 to anyone who can make it through the queues and lotteries. If someone manages to buy more than one, they could earn thousands of pounds in just one day.

    It's free money, pure and simple. If you sell your PS3 now you'll make enough money to buy loads of games as well as the console itself next year. If you don't sell your PS3 now, you're effectively paying £500 to £900 plus the cost of the console itself just to play the mediocre launch titles.
    Edited by 3 at 14/11/06 @ 13:53

  • Yossarian #20 5 years ago

    it's more to do with scalpers than anything else... plus when your console's price point is high you're less likely to have spare cash to squander on a variety of launch titles

  • JayPee #21 5 years ago

    O_o

    This has to be the worst in history for launch week right? Less than 1 game per console sold?

  • chronom4n #22 5 years ago

    how can you have less than 1 game per console?

  • chupachups #23 5 years ago

    "how can you have less than 1 game per console?"

    Because so many people have been buying PS3s just to sell them on Ebay without any games. Anyone with a PS3 right now can easily make hundreds of pounds profit from it, so it's incredibly tempting to sell it on.

  • in5ane #24 5 years ago

    Let me ready my fanboy calculator!

    At $200 loss per console, 88,400 consoles = $17,680,000 lost ?!

    0.98 attach ratio means 86,632 games sold ($10 profit per game?), which means they managed to recoup $866,320 - Surely this is deep in Microsoft territory for throwing money away?

    At the going rate of EG's London importer story (1 console + 5 games = £1500), the black market worth of PS3 so far is £2,589,600!

    Roll on the US launch :)

  • captainrentboy #25 5 years ago

    A negative PS3 story!!!Ohh for fuck sake,EG are sooo biased....

  • alpha-0ne #26 5 years ago

    Well most of the games are crap what to people expect japanise do not like FPS games either resistance sold 13,000

  • SCiARA #27 5 years ago

    "Um, considering they have a great deal of interest in blue ray succeeding (and collect royalties on each disc)... i don't think it will actually - you know - fuck them."

    considering the loss they are taking per console and the hope of recuperating some costs on games and accessories I think it will hurt, I cant see that they are happy about launching a games console if its only going to be used as a blu-ray player by the few techie's that will but it.

    Also, I’m sure the revenue generated by the games division will be more than the money generated by blu-ray movies which, lets face it, has an uphill struggle against HD-DVD


  • Steroyd #28 5 years ago

    360 was actually 3 games to each console in North America. Once again I say, if you're going to launch with bad games you're going to have poor sales. And this is even worse as most games released for launch day do really well.

    But what about the Xbox 360 in Japan?

    MS shipped 100,000 to Japan like Sony, and more or less shipped with similar games bar a platformer (Kameo) so surely you've got to compare Japaneese sales with Japan.

  • AcidSnake #29 5 years ago

    @steroyd:
    But surely the x360's attach rate in Japan was higher than 0.98?
    Even at launch...
    No scalpers there for the x360...Everyone who bought an x360 (not a lot granted) must've bought a game too...

  • Greebo #30 5 years ago


    "A negative PS3 story!!!Ohh for fuck sake,EG are sooo biased...."

    That's a news story reported with every console released. Would you rather EG didn't publish it, so as not to appear PS3 bashing?

    It's a crap ratio for a console release. Get used to it.

  • Feanor #31 5 years ago

    Why didn't Sony only sell their PS3s in Japan in bundles with one or two games? They still would have sold out, so I don't see a down side.

  • chupachups #32 5 years ago

    "But what about the Xbox 360 in Japan?"

    Actually the attach rate for the 360 in Japan might well be even higher than in America. The 360 sold incredibly badly there, really really badly, so there was no market at all for scalpers, anyone who wanted a 360 in Japan could just go into a shop and buy one.

    The few people who bought a 360 in japan did it purely for the games because what other reason could there be? The console wasn't fashionable, it wasn't profitable to sell on.

  • SCiARA #33 5 years ago

    cant really sell only 1 package with two games and then brag about the ratio

  • Foxclose #34 5 years ago

    "Why didn't Sony only sell their PS3s in Japan in bundles with one or two games?"

    They don't want their console to get the reputation of costing more than it already is?
    The main focus of Sony should be: get as many of these things installed and the software sales will follow. I am sure whoever ends up with these consoles via the grey market will buy lots of upcoming software.
    Edited by 4 at 14/11/06 @ 14:31

  • Royal Fool #35 5 years ago

    The large majority weren't buying it as a multimedia hub or or a cheaper Blu-ray player. They bought it to sell it on ebay, Yahoo or other places. That's why the scalpers did not buy software along with the units - they would do so elsewhere, seperately to either bundle with their overpriced auctions or to sell seperately online.

  • rhinoxious #36 5 years ago

    I can't see why anyone would pay so much money for a PS3 now.

    Surely the price of ebay PS3s must come down once the bulk of the available stock hits the US market on Friday.

    It's only a week to wait!

  • belziah #37 5 years ago

    I think the ebay prices are drop like a stone. There are only a few people out there crazy(high) enough to pay £1000+ and once they're gone and it released in the states the "crazy money" market dies.

    How do you "launch" with 5 titles?

  • captainrentboy #38 5 years ago

    Greebo I was taking the piss,mehh.

  • Steroyd #39 5 years ago

    I can't see why anyone would pay so much money for a PS3 now.

    Surely the price of ebay PS3s must come down once the bulk of the available stock hits the US market on Friday.

    It's only a week to wait!

    And it's four months for us Europeans

  • lennon #40 5 years ago

    Will the problem get any better when it releases in the US? Surely there will be more people that want one than can get one not to mention the number of ebayers that will be up to no good trying to get their hands on 5000 consoles to sell themselves.

  • monkey-ken-wizard #41 5 years ago

    Namco Bandai's Mobile Suit Gundam looks shocking.
    I feel for those 30,000 people.

  • symmetry #42 5 years ago

    I don't get it. Most ebay PS3 auctions I have looked at come with 1-3 games.

  • PearOfAnguish #43 5 years ago

    Namco Bandai's Mobile Suit Gundam looks shocking.
    I feel for those 30,000 people.

    It's Japan. You could sell people fresh, runny dogshit over there if it had the Gundam logo on it.

  • toy_brain #44 5 years ago

    "But what about the Xbox 360 in Japan?"

    "Actually the attach rate for the 360 in Japan might well be even higher than in America. "

    If memory serves, the 360 had a very similar attach rate to the PS3's launch - in other words something around 0.91% (though I cant find a decent link to support that).

    The reason was most likely e-bayers. With the 360 initially in short supply (in America) there was plenty opportunity for Japanese consumers to flog their hardware to desperate westerners for a tidy profit.
    If you read Kotaku's recent article about this you'll see its not something that has anything to do with the quality of available games or the consoles added features.

  • Inflatable #45 5 years ago

    Very bad news for Sony, because it means they're losing a lot of money on each PS3 sold and not making up for it thru gamesales..

    [link url=http://news.com.com/Microsoft+ex ec+lauds+Xbox+360+sales/2100-1043_3-6018580.html
    ]http://ne ws.com.com/Microsoft+exec+lauds...[/link]

    Xbox 360 game attachrate was close to 4 at the end of 2005.. So I have no idea why some here are saying it did just as bad as the PS3 now.. Maybe they are in denial the Xbox 360 'might' actually do better then the PS3..

  • Batman2100 #46 5 years ago

    Surely the attach rate will go up, once those people with far too much money have got thier consoles from Ebay and buy games for them. You gotta realise, the PS3's bought purely to be resold haven't reached thier final owners yet, hey'll buy the games once they've got the hardware, then we'll get a clearer picture...

  • BartonFink #47 5 years ago

    Yea had a look at those Mobile Suit Gundam videos and it looks like a bad port of a bad PS2 game, truly awful.

  • Steroyd #48 5 years ago

    Inflatable is that worldwide or just Japan?

  • Xerx3s #49 5 years ago

    0_o

  • Inflatable #50 5 years ago

    @Steroyd, worldwide offcourse.. Why would MS just show Japan numbers? It's worldwide that matters..

  • toy_brain #51 5 years ago

    "Xbox 360 game attachrate was close to 4 at the end of 2005.. So I have no idea why some here are saying it did just as bad as the PS3 now.. Maybe they are in denial the Xbox 360 'might' actually do better then the PS3.."

    I'm talking specifically about the JAPANESE LAUNCH software attach rate.
    Nothing else.
    Not the USA launch attach rate
    Not the Europe launch attach rate
    Got that?

    Here, I even found a decent link to a news story for the time:
    http://ww w.cnet.com.au/games/xbox/0,2390...

  • kangarootoo #52 5 years ago

    @Zomoniac

    "Hehe, Sony must be losing a rather substantial fortune"

    Yeah 'cos if people buy PS3s to sell on, those PS3s disappear into a black hole. They don't at all end up in the hands of gamers who will then buy games for them over the next few life years....

    You sir are a business whizzkid!

    /needs emoticon for sarcastic both-thumbs-up

  • Ikari2001 #53 5 years ago

    wasnt the attach rate for the PS2 rather bad when it launched? most were buying it as a cheap DVD player then, perhaps the same is happening here, PS3 = a cheap Blur-Ray player?

  • Calgon #54 5 years ago

    captainrentboy: Despite your sarcasm I had to look twice myself... it is a negative title for the article and the original article is from GI.biz too!( the usual GI.biz/EG responce is along the lines of:"Famitsu takes a pop at Sony";) Do my eyes fail me? This trully is a next gen first. \0/ Theres hope for you yet EG! :)
    Edited by 2 at 14/11/06 @ 17:38

  • Psychotext #55 5 years ago

    kangarootoo: You're right of course, but how many games are going to get bought when you just paid £1000 to get a PS3 from ebay? Sure to loads of people that is no money at all but that sort of price is bound to cut down the amount spent on extras.

  • MadMirko #56 5 years ago

    The one thing that could absolutely kill them now would be a way to run pirated content. As each PS3 has a built in HDD, you wouldn't even need a BluRay burner. Just copy the game image to the HDD over the network or from DVD(s)...
    Edited by 1 at 14/11/06 @ 18:15

  • JediMasterMalik #57 5 years ago

    No surprise, not only are the japanese launch titles utterly crap (as far as having such few games), alot of people who would buy the games haven't got the launch units yet. EBay ftl this time.
    Edited by 1 at 14/11/06 @ 18:19

  • stoopidgreg #58 5 years ago

    perhaps the reason is because there's no good launch titles... or the consoles are so expensive no one can afford games, making them $600 paper weights

  • MadMirko #59 5 years ago

    Jedi: Crap games? Didn't think you would say that about Resitance and Ridge Racer. :)

    But I agree, they are crap for a Japanese launch. The Japanese are known for their love of (S)RPGs, platformers, puzzlers. They are also known for their dislike of sports games and FPS.

    The battle Sony is fighting is for the US! They try for those people..., who have no clue what the product will cost.

    What a world. :)

  • dredd97 #60 5 years ago

    your link doesn't work microsoft stooge...

  • BartonFink #61 5 years ago

    A credible source would be a good idea too.

  • MadMirko #62 5 years ago

    Fixed link, and source is Gamasutra.

    Google helped me achieve all this. :)
    Edited by 1 at 14/11/06 @ 19:32

  • JediMasterMalik #63 5 years ago

    @MadMirko, despite me beleiving that RR7 and Resistance are rather good as launch titles, having 5 titles is simply not enough for a good attachment rate. That's what I meant. :)

  • mrbandersnatch #64 5 years ago

    Kagarootoo:

    ""Hehe, Sony must be losing a rather substantial fortune"

    Yeah 'cos if people buy PS3s to sell on, those PS3s disappear into a black hole. "

    Actually : [link url=http://www.i4u.co m/article7098.html
    ]http://www.i4u.co m/article7098.html
    [/link]

    *grin*

  • Feanor #65 5 years ago

    And the Worst New Poster award for November 2006 goes to.... ESM.

  • thinktank #66 5 years ago

    I have six PS3 pre-ordered for the euro launch, i hope they keep messing up the production.

    I plan on retiring afterwards :D

  • Hughes. #67 5 years ago

    @EuroVirginMachine

    You FUD flinging format fanatics are so desperate it's not funny.

  • Psychotext #68 5 years ago

    Hughes: I think you mean antics...

  • tiddles #69 5 years ago

    This just in, PS3 is to launch in North America with only 120K consoles. They've had to recall over 150k due to faulty Blu-ray diodes. Sony said there would be 400k for launch it's now 120k

    er, the Gamasutra article quotes an analyst who says 150-200K without any particular explanation or justification... your "120K" comes from a bloke who posted in that NeoGAF thread saying he had a mate who works in CompUSA who had a memo that said it... someone else claims to have a mate in Best Buy who's been told 280K... funny you chose the lowest number to quote as fact, eh? And they all sound like really reliable sources, too...

    Various US retailers have certainly had their allocations reduced, but at this point in time nobody on the Internet knows what the total day 1 shipment is going to be, and anything else is pure wishful thinking on your part.
    Edited by 2 at 14/11/06 @ 21:41

  • The-Bodybuilder #70 5 years ago

    >"'how does one buy 0.98 of a game?! '"

    You pay to download the rest.

  • DanMW #71 5 years ago

    What a shocker O_O

  • dredd97 #72 5 years ago

    well we'll find out on friday what the ps3 launch numbers could be, and if it is just 120k (not very likely imho) then there's no way sony would be able to deliver 6 mill by end of financial year...

    they say about 400k units, but knowing sony and their love of the US market (or their trojan horse tactic to get blue ray into the as many homes as possible) i wouldn't be surprised if sony had found a few thousand blue ray diodes down the back of the sofa, and have a launch of about 500k...

    but then again i still wouldn't be surprised if they only launch with half that amount..

  • Inflatable #73 5 years ago

    @toy_brain, so the Japanese like to buy new expensive gameconsoles without any games, so what? We already knew they are weird people.. ;)

    And to see the big picture you have to look at the worldmarket, that's what matters.. Japan is only a small part of that, yet so many are still so focused on it (because Japan has dominated the consolemarket for so long).. For MS Japan matters even less because their mainmarket is the Western world..

  • IronGiant #74 5 years ago

    Give it a chance the thing has only been out a couple of days. Talk about sensationalist journalism. Once the scalpers have buggered off and there's more choice of games then attachment rates will be much more realistic.

  • SlackMaster #75 5 years ago

    If you read the Kotaku article you'd not be surprised... apparently a large proportion of the consoles were brought with the intention of selling outside of Japan by homeless or poor mainland Chinese people paid to queue up for equivalent of £90 a piece.

  • penhalion #76 5 years ago

    Wasn't demand far out stripping supply because of the substantial discount that the Japanese buyers recieved from sony. Even then most people who got one could only aford the one game. In fact it now looks as though many of the consoles were simply bought in order to sell on to the west and make a bit of money on the deal.

    It will be interesting to see how things go state side. Will they be buying the consoles in order to sell them on to gullible europeans?

  • Steroyd #77 5 years ago

    Inflatable the most creative, fun and popular/critically acclaimed games come from Japan which MS wants a piece of the pie.

    Also Japan accounted to around 30 million sales to PS2 that is quite significant chunk of the world.

  • kangarootoo #78 5 years ago

    @Psychotext

    I figure anyone who spends £1000 on a PS3 has big deep pockets and can probably buy plenty of games too. People who will spend that kind of premium probably budget for things like cars rather than games :)


    @mrbandersnatch

    Now that is bizarre. So they are buying a Blu-ray player, removing almost ALL of it, and then selling the remining bit for twice the price of the player? Reminds me of that article on theonion.com about a guy planning to buy something made of titanium.

  • Batman2100 #79 5 years ago

    @ Kangarootoo

    ""Hehe, Sony must be losing a rather substantial fortune"

    Yeah 'cos if people buy PS3s to sell on, those PS3s disappear into a black hole. They don't at all end up in the hands of gamers who will then buy games for them over the next few life years.... "

    I love bein the new guy on boards, I say summat, it gets blanked by all, someone else says it, people argue... ;)

  • YUSHi #80 5 years ago

    This isn't too supprising really... i'm sure when the console comes out here there will be many people (if anyone can get one) will buy the system purely for the Blu-Ray drive since stand alone models right now cost upwards of a grand.