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PS2 outselling PS3 and PSP News
PlayStation 3 PlayStation 2 PSP News by Matt Martin
Sony has revealed that the PlayStation 2 is its best-selling console, as PS3 and PSP numbers decline to produce a loss for the financial quarter ending 30th June.
The company sold 1.1m PS3 consoles and 1.3m PSP consoles worldwide, compared to 1.6m and 3.7m during the same period last year. Sales of the creaky-boned PS2 console reached 1.6m for the quarter.
Sales for the PlayStation business as a whole were down 37.4 per cent year-on-year "due to lower game and VAIO PC sales", said the company. Specifically, Sony noted a decline in software and PSP hardware sales.
PS3 game sales reached 14.8m for the quarter, down from 22.8m units for the same period last year. Game sales for the PSP dropped too, from 11.8m last year to 8.3m this year.
And although the PS2 recorded decent console sales, software dropped from a beefy 19.3m last year to just 8.5m this year.
The effect of all this caused Sony as a whole to record an operating loss $268m. That's a lot of money, especially when the company turned a profit of nearly three times that number for the same period last year.
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thebuzzard
30/07/09 @ 10:23
+8
Makes me wonder what people would buy if Sony had dumped the PS2 like MS did with Xbox.
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+12
I just got a new slim PS2. I still have too many good games (and many more to still play) on it to abandon it just yet. Its a great little machine (even more so now its slim ;), lots of software which is really stable, mainly because there was no culture of patching games post launch in those days. Hardly any hardware problems either.
Im going to hold on to my PS2 for years to come.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 30/07/09 @ 11:28
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Rangerwave
30/07/09 @ 10:29
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I must be one of those people, I've had a PSP for ages, but bought a PS3 in February. When I was playing games like MGS4 and Ratchet and Clank I really had the urge to go back and play the older games that lead up to it, so I bought a new PS2 a few weeks ago. I wonder if there are many others in this similar boat?
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+7
You have to give it to Sony really... the PS2, after a shaky start, has gone on to be a massive success and it's impressive that it still continues to sell after almost NINE years. Wow!
As for the PS3, I think it's still far too expensive for most people and Sony really need to drop its price below £200 if they want the sales to pick up. Arguing that its expensive compared with the competition still because it has a Cell processor and a Blu-ray drive will no longer hold water IMO, especially as you can now pick up standalone BD players for under £100 and a BD drive for the PC around £50. Unlike Microsoft, Sony have no base PS3 model to sell and that makes it a less attractive buy than the Arcade 360 which is less than half the price. If you only want the PS3 for games then it is an expensive luxury.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 30/07/09 @ 12:10
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Well theres three reasons for this 1) devs are still supporting the ps2 as it's cheaper/easier to program for 2) theres no backwards support on the PS3 and 3) the PS2 is cheap as chips atm.
I mean dispite reason 1, 2 and 3 are the main reason people aren't jumping on the PS3, thrown in PS2 support, drop the price the PS3 will fly off the shelfs... I did only resently buy one due to the price however I havn't regreted buying it, it's a damn good format, it's just that with money as it is what you going to buy? A £300 format or a £30-£50 one? Either way the PS2 is still a Sony product so a sale is still a sale, not the one that Sony want you to buy but still |
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+2
"We shipped 1.2 million Xbox 360 consoles during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009, compared with 1.3 million Xbox 360 consoles during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2008. "
That's in the link so generously proved by Dizzy above. They also mention that they got less revenue due to the price decrease of the 360, and that this less revenue was partially offset by Live subscriptions and such. I still have a PS2 as well as a BC PS3, and a bunch of PS2 I've yet to finish, but frankly there are too many great games on PS3/PSN out so that I don't see myself ever returning to them. Maybe just maybe I might play GoW2 some more just before GoW3 comes out, but even that doesn't seem very likely.
Edited 3 times,
most recently on 30/07/09 @ 11:45
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Invisible_Cow
30/07/09 @ 10:52
+4
Surely a clear indicator of where they went right on the PS2 and wrong on the PS3??
The PS2 has a great back-catalogue, and for games like Guitar Hero, Singstar etc. there's simply no need for the PS3's hardware grunt, so I can see why this is happening. I would definitely buy a PS2 now they're so cheap.. if I didn't already have one. |
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GamesConnoisseur
30/07/09 @ 11:13
+3
Agreed there would likely not be a machine as successful as PS2, but it is worrying still for Sony in the short term, after they had invested huge amount of money into PS3 and they would have wanted to see graph chart that climbs up in successive periods instead of flatlining or dropping (slightly).
However Sony had always said they are playing a long game with PS3 and profitable sales with PS2 instead of unprofitable one with PS3 is a good business for them afterall. Just that the longer they let it the less they may end up with a market share as PS3 while lovely is not going to be the best there is in a few years time is it? Still people knows that with PS2 but buying it in rush cos of back catalogue and cheap games! Cheap console, cheap and great games equal a great saled! |
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+29
I'm going to apologise in advance for the swearing and capital letters.
So people are still buying PS2 games are they Sony? THEN MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE REMOVED THE BACKWARDS COMPATIBLITY ON PS3 YOU ABSOLUTE FUCKTARDS! Pay me half your salaries, sack yourselves and I'll make your company a success. Sorry, not your company - my company now! Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 30/07/09 @ 12:36
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+2
@donnie080208 - The PS3 was released in the US and Japan in November 2006 and Europe March 2007 so it's been out just over 2 and a quarter years in the UK and four months short of three years in the US. That's not even close to four years so get your facts right! ;)
The PS2 wasn't an instant success when it launched either as I recall. It cost £299 which was deemed expensive and it wasn't until Sony dropped the price below £200 here in the UK that sales really took off. The PS3 doesn't look like it will be anywhere near as successful as the PS2 but when you consider that it's twice the cost of the base Xbox 360, was released a year later and is just 6 million units behind Microsoft's machine in terms of sales, it's really not doing that badly at all. Not as well as Sony might have hoped, yes (although Sony have never pretended the PS3 would be cheap), but there's plenty of time yet if the almost decade long lifespans of the PS and PS2 are anything to go by. |
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+10
@ El-Dev
It took ONE wikipedia search to identify British-American (i.e Not Japanese) Howard Stringer as the present CEO of Sony. One search is all it took to expose your post as a silly piece of unfounded and tangential nonsense. Anyway, I love PS2: it's the original beast.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 30/07/09 @ 12:48
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+6
"was released a year later and is just 6 million units behind Microsoft's machine in terms of sales"
12 million to be accurate. The harsh reality for Sony is that the PS3 has not caught up with 360 (slightly falling behind even) and has been out-raced by the Wii. It looks like they will go for a GC type strategy... sell less consoles, make some good money on software and be happy with a solid last place and prepare a comeback with PS4. In the end they won the Bluray war... maybe that will be worth it some day?
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 30/07/09 @ 13:20
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solidSnake04
30/07/09 @ 12:05
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I know the original PS3 was fully BC. But doesn't PS3 support BC via software emulation these days ? I got more PS2 games than PS3 games and I always enjoy my Pro Evo 1, Shadow of the Colossus, Farenheit and ICO on PS3.
Nobody wants to throw away their PS2 games, so surely improved BC and lower price would make lots of people happy. PS: Not sure but allegedly the PS3 fully supports the best/most popular PS2 games, but those aren't my words. |
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+2
Why is everyone assuming a price cut? Sony are making a loss with the PS3 so dropping the price really won't do their finances a lot of good. Maybe when the Japanese and asian econimies become weaker next to the european/continental american ones maybe Sony will be able to afford a price drop. As it is Sony simply can not afford to make a price cut and don't have the reserves to take the hit in the short term so a price cut is not going to happen.
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SpaceMidget75
30/07/09 @ 12:33
+7
Can we finally see an end to all those fanboys banging on about how the PS3 is selling as well as the PS2 was in the same time frame?
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-6
I'm amazed that people still are in denial that a new low cost PS3 SKU is about to get launched.
There's a huge amount of anecdotal evidence and rumour (which given Sony's leakyness of late is not to be discounted out of hand) to support this, not to mention that from a business standpoint its the smartest move Sony can make. The leaks from Foxconn and Pegatron show that Sony has placed a lot of hardware orders, and reports from retailers and wholesalers show that Sony is definitely attempting to clear the channel of existing stocks. And above all else Sony's hardware sales estimates (PS3) for the coming financial quarter are way higher than you'd expect if they weren't planning on doing something drastic. My money is on a September 2 launch. $299 US, $299 Euro, £229 GBP for a 120gb Slim model that uses all 45nm components. This'll be announced at Gamescom on the 19th, to give retailers 2 weeks to start dumping their remaining inventory.
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 30/07/09 @ 14:15
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AphoticCosmos
30/07/09 @ 13:32
-4
Unsurprising. There is a recession on, thus the cheaper bit of kit will sell.
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-10
Schnide and Bad 09
Because they had to reduce the cost of the PS3 and the majority of PS3 owners arent arsed about PS2 games so why should we pay for summat we don;t care about. If we want PS2 games, Id rather pay a hundred quid for a PS2 separately than pay an extra hundred quid for PS3 backwards compatibility to which to most is something which is useless? Isnt that common knowledge. Now who are the "fucktards" whatever the hell one of those is? haha
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 30/07/09 @ 15:19
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ShinMegami08
30/07/09 @ 14:34
+2
Hello Sony,
I am since the PS1 a big fan of your company. Loved the PS2, still loving the PSP and am totally addicted to the PS3. But your financial losses in the last couple of years have made me nervous. Don't wanna lose any Flower, Ratchet, Infamous, etc, so here are my hints for doing better in the next quartal: 1. Bring 2 (only two!) SKUs on the market: A cheap slim edition on the one side (without WLAN, HDMI, etc.) for the kids and a Deluxe version (with BC, and all the Hitech) for the geeks. 2. More ads. Show the exclusive games. Show your console! Make it a lifestyle. Push it! 3. Better cooperation with developers. Don't let it even come to something like the Activision-Fiasco or the Valve-Disaster. Contact the devs which are making a bad rep for you and support them. Discount your dev-kits! 4. Bring out God of War 3, Gran Turismo 5 and all the big shots this year. Take control of christmas. Else thanks for all the fun and your incredible good nose for excellent developers. Sincerely yours Shin Megami |
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+3
Er...hang on I just re-read this.
"If we want PS2 games, Id rather pay a hundred quid for a PS2 separately than pay an extra hundred quid for PS3 backwards compatibility to which to most is something which is useless?" So..if I understand your "logic", you would prefer to save money on a PS3 and then spend that very money saved on a seperate PS2? OK..... |
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Ashen-Shugar
30/07/09 @ 15:06
+9
"If the PS2 BC is in software then surely it doesn't actually add any production cost to the console?"
There is no 100% software emulation in any PS3. There is currently no software emulator for the GS chip, it has to be embedded and combined with the Emotion Engine emulator. The RSX doesnt have the fill-rate for direct GS emulation so they need to develop a Cell based solution which would be quite a complex affair. In my opinion, Sony would have had approximately a zillion times more success with the PS3 if they had spent the Home development budget on top-notch software PS2 emulation. |
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-6
@Dizzy - "12 million to be accurate."
Unless my maths are wrong then the 30 million Xbox 360s sold as at 30 June 2009 according to Wikipedia (and stated by Microsoft a few weeks back) is 6 million more than the 24 million PS3s sold as at the same date and according to the same source. Where do you get your 12 million figure from... did you deduct 6 million from the Xbox 360 figure to account for faulty units or something? ;) |
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-1
"The RSX doesnt have the fill-rate for direct GS emulation so they need to develop a Cell based solution which would be quite a complex affair."
Stop propogating this ridiculous piece of disinformation. Its simply NOT TRUE. The GS has a super-wide data (2560 bit) bus, in order to compensate for multiple input streams via DMA, but that is not fill-rate. One is an input (bus) function, the other is an output (rasterization) function. The recent patent Sony filed specifically and explicitly deals with this when it talks about their new technology's ability to handle stalling (data getting bottlenecked at the bus) within an asynchronous multiprocesser array (EE+Vu0+Vu1 > GS).
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 30/07/09 @ 16:43
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