NPD reactions: Sony focuses on future

By Robert Purchese Published 15 May, 2009

Microsoft on third-party, Nintendo on bank.

Sony is focusing on the "envelope-pushing" future of PS3 games, after a disappointing round of NPD figures for April.

"We're revving up the new fiscal year with a broad tent of content and services across our platforms with envelope-pushing PS3 games like inFamous, MAG, and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves," said Sony America's Peter Seybold.

He vowed that the company will more aggressively push the console's media utility fans are apparently often "surprised by".

"We know our consumers have varying entertainment lifestyles from the Blu-ray movie fanatic to photo enthusiast, so we've outlined our most aggressive marketing plans to help showcase this tremendous value proposition to all our consumers," he said.

"We've got a proven history in delivering the best entertainment experience and there is no doubt the PlayStation brand is staged for another big year."

Microsoft's flagship console posted lower numbers than last year but Xbox 360 software sold well, providing the PR machine with something to focus on.

"Sales of third-party games on Xbox 360, a key measure of platform health, hit USD 98 million in April, more than any other system," said Microsoft.

The company noted that this April there was no Grand Theft Auto IV to boost the market. Nevertheless, sales of Xbox 360 from January to April are up 28 per cent from the same period in 2008.

"Xbox 360 is the fastest-growing game console in the US so far this year, with retail sales jumping 28 per cent year-over-year in the first four months," the company added.

That leaves a smug Nintendo, which beamed as the DSi broke hardware launch sales records by shifting 827,000 units. Combined with the DS Lite, the handheld amassed an enormous 1m sales throughout April, taking its lifetime total past 30m.

The Wii was no slouch, either, and nearly doubled numbers posted by nearest competitor, Xbox 360. Nintendo's flagship console is fast approaching the 20m lifetime sales mark for the region. April's software sales were dominated by Nintendo, too.

US vice-boss Cammie Dunaway is pleased. "Nintendo systems and software represented 56 per cent of the industry total shares in April, indicating continued strong consumer preference for quality and value," she said.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (48) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • menage #1 3 years ago

    Make up your mind Sony, first it was a media machine, then it was a games console, now it´s a media machine again.

    Photo enthusiasts, pfff.
    Edited by menage at 15/05/09 @ 12:33

  • lcmnick #2 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 12:48:44 14-04-2012

  • Dizzy #3 3 years ago

    >Photo enthusiasts, pfff.

    ROFL ;)

  • Olemak #4 3 years ago

    Nintendo has zero percent growth in year-on-year sales, because they were jammed up against the production limit ceiling a year ago, and they still are today. If they could produce one more console per month, then they would sell one more console per month. But they can't, hence the flat year-on-year sales graph.

  • agparrot #5 3 years ago

    What menage said, basically.

    I'm not sure the problem for the platform is one of identity.

  • breedob #6 3 years ago

    Sony need to cut the price of the PS3 soon and rumours are they will announce this at E3.

  • Xerx3s #7 3 years ago

    "Nintendo systems and software represented 56 per cent of the industry total shares in April, indicating continued strong consumer preference for quality and value,"

    Heh.

  • SYS64738 #8 3 years ago

    Didn't know the PS3 can run PhotoShop(tm)

  • bad09 #9 3 years ago

    "He vowed that the company will more aggressively push the console's media utility fans are apparently often "surprised by"."

    It's weird, so many people I know paid out for PS3 yet don't use for anything other than a game of COD or FIFA. I think if the public were tech savvy they would shift more. Media is the one thing stopping me selling the damn thing.

    Problem is (just like VMP on 360), they will dictate what you can rent/buy on the store, so to get any content YOU own on YOUR machine, you need to do it yourself by converting/ripping/streaming/copying etc..and the public just do not have a clue about ANY of that.

    Make it easy to transfer your existing media (including good old PSP - another media DIY or don't bother machine) sell more on PSN and they will come Sony.....

    (think you've lost most of the gamers though, casual or otherwise....)

    Edited by bad09 at 15/05/09 @ 13:01

  • geeza2020 #10 3 years ago

    Sony may announce a price cut at E3, but i expect us europeans to either get a much smaller drop in price compared to everyone else or no drop at all. Thats the way sony like to treat us Europeans (or suckers as they call us), as im pretty sure this has happened in the past.

  • luckyse7en #11 3 years ago

    "our most aggressive marketing plans to help showcase this tremendous value proposition to all our consumers"

    I feel grubby...

  • Madafunkola #12 3 years ago

    "We know our consumers have varying entertainment lifestyles from the Blu-ray movie fanatic to photo enthusiast..."
    So now they're not even acknowledging GAMERS!??!?!

  • Doctor_What #13 3 years ago

    The Sony guy does have a point. As Bad09 says, loads of people seem completely unaware of what the PS3 can do. It's replaced the stereo in our living room, as well as being the main source of TV from downloaded TV shows. I've described what we do with the PS3 to other people and they always say 'oh, that sounds good'.... Which is then followed by 'how much does it cost?'

    Not sure about the photo enthusiasts though! It was nice to be able to show wedding photos to my parents on the living room TV with the slick slideshow presentations on there, but I'not really used it otherwise.

    I think if more people were aware of the media capabillities (which my girlfriend loves) as well as the gaming side (which I love) then the cost probably looks more manageable for a household.

    Once again, I basically agree with the Sony guy's message but really wish they could say these things without sounding like bimbling idiots in their search for quotable phrases.

    (Edited for a typo.)
    Edited by Doctor_What at 15/05/09 @ 13:32

  • woodnotes #14 3 years ago

    A sizeable ($100) price cut from Sony could put quite a bit of pressure on MS from a month-to-month sales POV. It doesn't look like MS has got much more room to move on price.

    Having said that, who knows what they've got lined up for E3.

  • Dizzy #15 3 years ago

    >The Sony guy does have a point. As Bad09 says, loads of people seem completely unaware of what the PS3 can do

    I would make sense if the 360 could not do that but it can (except Bluray ofc). So why is Sony obsessed with that? It is about the games!

  • Widge #16 3 years ago

    Yeah, as soon as I found out about Tversity, that was me sold. Regardless of price. I'd been after something that did that for ages, I just thought the Łage saved on spindles of Ritek's would balance out in the end! My madam is chuffed as she now has complete seasons of Charmed sat on the HDD, ready to go. I 'did' have remote play working yesterday, but I think there is an issue with Linksys and the PS3 that is causing me issues... remote playing my HDD to my desk at work would be nifty though. Loads of tunes, and videos, also gave Pixeljunk Eden a blast.

    That sort of stuff is great, the only way to get the message out is to take a leaf from Apple's advertising for the iPhone where they take ONE function and do an advert about that. "This is media streaming, you have stuff on your PC, and now it is here on your PS3", "This is remote play, your stuff on the PS3 is now portable" blah blah blah.

  • woodnotes #17 3 years ago

    @Widge: To be fair, the 360 does all that too. Not just via TVeristy, but also via Windows Media Centre and/or Windows Media Player. Does WMVs too without transcoding.

    There's only really two major advantages for PS3 in the media area, and that's really nice DVD upscaling and Blu-Ray.

  • lennon #18 3 years ago

    "a broad tent of content and services" - Wow. Nice one.

    /ponders if he can use that phrase this afternoon without looking like a cock?

  • Doctor_What #19 3 years ago

    @Ashen-Shugar: True, but I think Sony is trying to expand its console's audience. The Wii did it with games, Sony is trying to do it with media.

    And... Sony adverts have been crap for years, so they'll probably fail to get this message across entirely.

  • Sunyavadin #20 3 years ago

    Uh, they're going to market the PS3 as a slightly bigger, less portable ipod?

  • Widge #21 3 years ago

    oh yea you can use media player and all that. Bluray was a big draw too as I'd just got the tv

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #22 3 years ago

    The Sony guy does have a point. As Bad09 says, loads of people seem completely unaware of what the PS3 can do. It's replaced the stereo in our living room, as well as being the main source of TV from downloaded TV shows.

    A possible fly in the ointment of this strategy, is that all of that can also be done with an Xbox 360 (even an arcade model) for less than half the price, right down to the wedding picture slideshows.

    If you install the homebrew channel, you can do most of that with a wii as well.

  • Widge #23 3 years ago

    True, but it seems the PS3 does the entire media thing best out of the bunch.

  • schnide #24 3 years ago

    No sympathy for Sony whatsoever.

  • figgis #25 3 years ago

    An old softmodded xbox does media much better than any of the new consoles.

    (Apart from HD)

  • El-Dev #26 3 years ago

    "No sympathy for Sony whatsoever. "

    Why? Because they have an expensive product. It's dickheads like this really piss me off.

  • CallousB #27 3 years ago

    A big drop in everything bar the DS and PS2. I think the next few months could be pretty bleak for hardware and software sales across the board. I doubt even the mighty Wii Sports Resort will do half the business it would have done at this time last year.

  • NotSoSlim #28 3 years ago

    Lets have a Microsoft monopoly of the gaming industry...been gret for the PC industry hasnt it??

    End of the day certain people may not like Sony but competiton is good

  • Spekingur #29 3 years ago

    Wait. So Sony are bragging about something you can do with a probably 100-150 USD machine now?

  • Ryze #30 3 years ago

    Yeah, I was enjoying listing the best features of the PS3 in the forum until the resident ignorant arsehole, dirtbox decided to derail it.

    Many of the best and most surprising features are indeed media related. It's a fantastic, all-in-one media playback device, and the media focussed element of the marketing should really push that. SEPARATELY to the games marketing.

    The best exclusive games are excellent, and the PS2 compat is great with wireless pads and upscaling- but alas now non-existent.

    PS2 game installs would have made the whole thing a perfect package.

    As it stands, I want to get a cheap new PS3 once the price is right - in order to both prolong the life of my BC unit, and to take advantage of the lower power consumption for features such as Remote Play and PlayTV when it eventually gets re-released in HD.

    The web browser's not bad, either - but could do with emplying this well known feature called... VIRTUAL MEMORY - as the console seriously lacks RAM.

    Unfortunately, the gaming experience with installs, patches, logging in for online features, long load times, disconnects and timeouts online, poor online features generally - plus the laughably useless Homelol, make the PS3 clearly 2nd fiddle to the 360 in terms of a gaming device.

    The best games, once running, are undeniably great, though. In most cases they're effectively just the same as on 360 as long as you don't go online.

    This is all software related, however - and can potentially be fixed. Not easily, at this stage of the game, though. Plus this is Sony we're talking about here - they clearly can't 'do' network software and services very well.

    Please prove me wrong...

  • Xerx3s #31 3 years ago

    Do you never get bored of writing that same old crap?

  • Widge #32 3 years ago

    /appendix omelette added to internal dictionary

  • Ryze #33 3 years ago

    Widge+1

    re marketing the PS3

  • Burkey123 #34 3 years ago

    Nintendo continue to kick ass! My God, I knew the DSi would sell but come on! 827,000! That's quite brilliant.

  • Widge #35 3 years ago

    Makes sense really. SPELL IT OUT FOR THE STUPIDS.

    I think that more than doing adverts saying "It plays games" because frankly if you haven't got it into your head by now that a Playstation might actually do that after 3 iterations of the thing then no chance. Lure people in via the back door. Like Mr Nintendo.

  • maximusfarticus #36 3 years ago

    To all you microsoft loving retards on here, don't get things out of proportion.

    The crapbox shit60 is selling better than the PS3 in the States but the PS3 is absolutely thrashing microsofts piss poor unreliable mess of a console in Japan.

    The fact is, wankosoft can cut the price of their third rate excuse for a games machine as much as it wants in Japan and most of the Japanese are still far too intelligent to buy one. On the other hand, when Sony do cut the PS3 price in America, it'll be bye bye 360 and good riddance.

    Can't really blame you microshit trolls spending hours on here typing crap though, you've got fuck all else to do and, with fuck all games coming out for you this year, I expect we'll be seeing more of your inane drivel.

  • TRUTH #37 3 years ago

    I'm from Europe and no the Ps3 is not thrashing 360 or Wii in EU, most game space is smallest for PS3 in many game shops!...EU is still a small but growing market place for gaming. It's biggest market is the UK, where the 360 is ahead.
    Edited by TRUTH at 15/05/09 @ 21:32

  • maximusfarticus #38 3 years ago

    What's your point TRUTH?

    The shit60 isn't winning anything in the UK, the Wii is. In fact, the last few months sales figures show the Wii winning the US and EU market and the PS3 winning in Japan. Don't cry too much though, the turdbox 360 has the sad, spotty, too ugly to get a girlfriend market all sewn up. You should be proud.

    Now fuck off.

  • Spekingur #39 3 years ago

    Get a life, maxfart. Of course the X360 isn't doing better than PS3 in Japan. That is pretty much given. It's impressive enough that MS is able to sell X360 in Japan at all.

  • captain_desperado #40 3 years ago

    "Sure the 360 can do a lot of media stuff as well but the PS3 does it better. A lot better. I think it's incredibly lame that stuff cannot be stored on the 360 HDD and has to be played/streamed from an external source. It looks very nice having all my favourite movies on the PS3 with those little video Thumbnails. Being able to copy stuff to the PS3 HDD and then onto another source is also handy. The 360 by comparison is rather limited. "

    As a standalone media playback device I think you're spot on - the PS3 is ahead, however when you put the 360 in as an extender into a windows media center based environment the 360 is leaps and bounds ahead. I have such a system - in the MCE box I have all my DVDs/Music/Photos/Home Movies/TV Tuners/Recorded TV and in everyroom I have a 360 - from each 360 I have instant access to all my media listed above through a extremely fluid and TV/remote control friendly interface. Its even clever enough to transfer your viewing from box to box - if I start watching a movie in the front room and then decide to watch the end in bed, when I go into the bedroom the movie will resume from where I stopped it even though i'm now on a different 360.

  • Dizzy #41 3 years ago

    >Being able to copy stuff to the PS3 HDD and then onto another source is also handy

    Most of us have our media on some NAS type HDD. I do not want to copy all my media to my console... I want my console to read my NAS. The 360 does that without any problems... as does my iPod, my laptop and my PC. They all read the same media from the same NAS.

  • Kbone28 #42 3 years ago

    The PS3 is a sleek bit of kit, but it came way too early.
    The HD Tele's have now begun to saturate the market, making the high def standard more affordable.
    Hopefully now the PS3 (B.ray) will start looking more attractive to everyone. So things will only improve for the platform, it definitely has longevity.

    I dont think the PS3 will ever rival the Xbox360 for games. The PS3 hardware is far more complex to code for, this in turn leads to higher development costs and fewer titles being released. The PS3 could have been so much more, but instead of developing a console for their fan base, they were greedy and focused their attention on locking down their own media standard and cpu architechture.

    What is likely (essential) however, is Sony releasing a number of killer titles that really utilize the hardware available.
    I think over the next year or so well see games that really start showing off this platform. Unfortunately by which time MS and Ninty will have their next systems well underway for release.

  • Ryze #43 3 years ago

    ^ They just need decent marketing. Sony have completely failed to tell the public what their product does.

    I'm an enthusiast - so I was vagely aware of its functions, while totally aware of its hardware spec.

    The hardware spec means NOTHING to the general public - they need to know what it does, what it plays and why they should buy it.

    It happens to play EVERYTHING apart from MKVs, NTFS partitions, PS2 games, HD DVD/VCD/SVCDs and Xbox/Nintendo games.

    They could for example, run an ad where at a social gathering, a fella's mates bring several different media devices / formats to play: DVD-R/+-RWs, Blu-Rays, USB sticks, HDDs, memory cards, cameras, PSP, PS1 games, iPods... and all of them are placed into the PS3, rather than any other 'box'.

    Everything that's put into the console will play - until last guy passes him a beermat/coaster to play. It'd damn near play that as well - by the looks of it. You don't REALLY need any other box under the telly if you have a PS3 and a Play TV.

    It's the new Playstation - and it pretty much plays everything. They NEED TO TELL THE PUBLIC WHY THEY SHOULD BUY THE CONSOLE - using cool and interesting adverts.

    Edited by Ryze at 17/05/09 @ 11:10

  • secombe #44 3 years ago

    Why don't they just concentrate on marketing the Blu-Ray side of things? HD TVs are slowly becoming more commonplace, and the PS3 is - pound for pound - the best Blu-Ray player by a long way.

    As soon as we get an HD TV later this year , a PS3 will be on our shopping list if prices reduce a little.

  • zedzee #45 3 years ago

    Sony really have NO CLUE what's going on with the PS3 and why they can't sell it, do they?

    My goodness, the brain of their whole marketing and brand teams seems to have beamed off somewhere else, because they sure as hell can't organise a p*ss up in a brewery, let alone run the one-leading PlayStation brand.

    It now looks tired, confused, lost even! The console is STILL the most expensive unit (and has been since launch), BluRay has proved useless, because of things like upscaling (let alone DVD being a perfectly fine medium, most people have yet to upgrade to HD.

    The utter chaos in UK/Euroland of the delayed launch, the lack of backwards compatibility and the shambles of releasing the SixAxis, followed by a 'eat our words' retreat to the DualShock3 has all left Sony bereft of any decent strategy to fight off Microsoft's ever-deeper pockets and Nintendo's resurgence with the Revolution console (I'm sorry, but I just can't bring myself to call it by its crappy commercial name).

  • Ryze #46 3 years ago

    ^ harsh, but

    +1

  • Law07 #47 3 years ago

    "They could for example, run an ad where at a social gathering, a fella's mates bring several different media devices / formats to play: DVD-R/+-RWs, Blu-Rays, USB sticks, HDDs, memory cards, cameras, PSP, PS1 games, iPods... and all of them are placed into the PS3, rather than any other 'box'.

    Everything that's put into the console will play - until last guy passes him a beermat/coaster to play. It'd damn near play that as well - by the looks of it. You don't REALLY need any other box under the telly if you have a PS3 and a Play TV. "

    I agree 100%, send that to Sony please

  • VeyronMick #48 3 years ago

    That's not a strategy that will really appeal to anyone.
    I can't really figure out what they want to do with the brand...

    PS3 = Blueray (that's one option but revenue is tiny compared to games)
    PS3 = Gaming console (lost exclusives, games severely delayed, rubbish online)
    PS3 = Media center (not really a selling point as all consoles can do this, hell my PSP, DS, and mobile phone can do this).

    Clearly it's a good Blueray but this is only a fraction of the kind of revenue Sony need.
    It's a good gaming console but hugely expensive compared to the competition.

    For the people who want Blueray+gaming it's a good option.
    If you don't care about Blueray it's a very expensive option (not ideal to be twice as expensive in the current economic climate).

    A price cut is Sony's ONLY hope of getting back in the game.