PS3 sales up compared to last year

By Ellie Gibson Published 30 October, 2009

But PSP and PS2 on the slide.

Sony has published its second quarter financial results, revealing that 3.2 million PS3 units were sold in the last three months.

That's an increase from the same period last year, during which 2.4 million machines were shifted. But losses grew in the Network Products & Services Division, which is in charge of PlayStation. They rose from ¥40.6 billion to ¥58.8 billion. Sales fell 24.2 per cent to hit ¥352.6 billion. PSP sales dropped from 3.2 million to 3 million and PS2 sales stood at 1.9 million, down from 2.5 million last year.

"In the game business, the deterioration in profitability was mainly due to a decrease in PS2 hardware and software unit sales, and the impact of the appreciation of the yen," said Sony in a statement.

At least they sold more games - 23.9 million for the PS3, up from 21.2 million, and 12.9 million for the PSP - over a million more than during the same period in 2008. PS2 sales fell though, dropping from 23.2 million to 11.1 million.

The entire Sony business made a loss of ¥32.6 billion. Last year they made a profit of ¥11.05 billion.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (45) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • patchbox360 #1 2 years ago

    yeah but uncharted 2 rocks

  • waggy79 #2 2 years ago

    It certainly does. Well done Naughty Dog.

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #3 2 years ago

    Go uncharted!

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #4 2 years ago

    On a more serious note it does look like PS3 is going to be well up on last year once weve gone through the Xmas period, unfortunatley it looks like Wii and 360 will be well down on last year after the xmas period.

    Hopefully next year everyone will get year on year growth as we come out of the recession.
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/09 @ 14:38

  • Skire #5 2 years ago

    Look at all the 360 fanboys modding everyone down :D This is truly a new low.

    Sony is doing great this year! Sales have been going through the roof since the introduction of the PS3 Slim. And with Gran Turismo 5 coming up sales will continue to grow. It's a matter of time before the 360 will take the last place in the console war.

  • Xerx3s #6 2 years ago

    Wow, some people really don't like other people loving a game.

  • kipper #7 2 years ago

    "In the game business, the deterioration in profitability was mainly due to a decrease in PS2 hardware and software unit sales, and the impact of the appreciation of the yen," said Sony in a statement.

    Perhaps Sony should think about marketing the PS2 more aggressively, to increase profitability.
    Yes, I am being serious, and I'm not trying to annoy anybody.

  • ronuds #8 2 years ago

    I gave them all a +, but Skire gets a negative for the 360 comment. :D

  • GamerG #9 2 years ago

    Am surprised that the PS3 is only outselling PS3 games 2:1, maybe the PSP is not so bad on the software side afterall.
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/09 @ 15:05

  • interceptor #10 2 years ago

    @Xerx3s Its not about people loving a game but I mark people down on this forum for posting a comment which has nothing to do with the article its posted on, and to be fair just posting "yeah but uncharted 2 rocks" is pretty irrelevent to sony's financial situation.

    I wonder how the price cut is going to affect Sony's bottom line. They may be selling a lot more PS3s this Christmas than last, but it would be interesting to see if they are still making a loss on each PS3 sold or if they've saved enough in manufacturing to at least break even.

    If they're banking on PSPGo for a financial boost, they're going to be disappointed I think

  • IneptPercy #11 2 years ago

    As mentioned it would be interesting to know how much the PS3 is costing Sony now, blu-ray drives have come in cost massively as an example so they might be starting to make money or break even.

    As for which console will take second place... At this point I really don't think its relervant. Whichever way it goes I can't see either one running away with it and making a massively lead on the other. Either way even the Sony fanboys should say thank you to microsoft as they have been the driving force in bringing prices down, if the PS3 had the same dominance the PS2 had do you thibnk you would be able to buy one for £250?

  • penhalion #12 2 years ago

    The frightening thing here seems to be how heavily Sony were relying on profits from it's PS2 console sales. Clearly the PS2 sales are only going to go one way and that's down. The introdocution of the PSPGo must also have made a good contribution to the recorded losses. Just what the heck is their long term financial plan? At this stage it seems it's anyones guess.

  • Doctor_What #13 2 years ago

    Their plan is that everyone has to download all the games, so all the money from PSPgo software goes through Sony's bank account and none goes to retailers. It'll be interesting to see how it works, because it's a snapshot of the future.

  • AliRay #14 2 years ago

    It won't work. They're too greedy, and they've priced everything much too highly. I recently purchased a PSP-2000 because the UMD games are cheap! The downloadable games are not : (

  • IneptPercy #15 2 years ago

    This is the problem with digital distribution right now, as far as PC games go I spend around £25 for a new release, an to me a digital download is actually a problem for me, I don't have mega slow speeds, but knowing I may have to download it again in the future pains me. Meanwhile I can buy online and get a disc delivery for the same or less money which doesn't tie up my bandwidth and I have no worries about re-installation.

    So to me DD services need to be cheaper buy £5-£10 for them to be worthwhile other wise I am sticking with discs either the same price new or cheaper used.

  • GamerG #16 2 years ago

    excuse my ignorance but what has uncharted got to do with this article?

  • Duke100 #17 2 years ago

    Can anyone explain what all those articles were about three or four months ago, stating that PS3 games were actually the most profitable for companies like EA? They seem to consistently sell less games and are certainly not making profit for themself so I don't see how it would work.

  • Gurgeh #18 2 years ago

    Cutting the price of the PS3 boosted its sales and likewise cut into Sony's profits. The boost in sales did not offset the cost to Sony, but it will help games sales over Christmas (and Sony hope Blu-Ray films too). In the long run its difficult to see the PS3 ever being as profitable as the PS2 has been.

    AFAIK the big loser for the company at the moment are its mobile phones, while the LCD division is also losing ground.

  • Machiavellian #19 2 years ago

    Well it seems some sites have already made some estimates on how much the PS3 has cost Sony so far. They are estimating that its 4.7billion US bucks. The PS3 is a very costly investment so far for Sony and you can see why they keep towing the 10year lifecycle.

    Either way, Sony has changed the direction of their ship and the new slim PS3 with price cut has been an excellent move but definitely quicker than Sony probably would have wanted.

    Sony exec said that Sony could be profitable next year so I am thinking the Slim and price cut is still sold a a slight loss.
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/09 @ 18:23

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #20 2 years ago

    @donnie

    360 didnt even manage to out sell ps3 last year even with its killer Xmas, your dreaming if you think there gonna come out even this year. I think the difference will be in the millions. Id predict somewhere between 1-3m.
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/09 @ 16:47

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #21 2 years ago

    @donnie again,

    GT5 Prologue has shifted over 4million units, almost equal to what forza 2 did, and GTP5 was just an extended demo. GT4 sold more than twice as many as GT4P. So its not unfeesible that we will see something similar.

  • IneptPercy #22 2 years ago

    On a personal point the PS3 price is still a problem to me as I don't think it represents good value for what I would want it for. By all means I have the money but I just can't justify it.

    To me there is a line of what is a good price which reduces over time and the PS3 has dropped from overpriced to not as overpriced, but still more than what I would want to pay for a console at this point in its life. Its now at the point where I am wondering if I will ever buy one, as it would be just for the exclusives but with that I don't have enough time to play everything I want on my PC, Wii and 360.

    Like I said this is just my opinion but there is probably others with a similar idea.

  • Cappy #23 2 years ago

    "Can anyone explain what all those articles were about three or four months ago, stating that PS3 games were actually the most profitable for companies like EA? They seem to consistently sell less games and are certainly not making profit for themself so I don't see how it would work."

    Perhaps they're just counting the costs of porting the games from the 360? It's generally done by very small teams on tight turnarounds, for not very much money. Especially compared to the outlay on the 360 versions. In that context even a barely adequate port that sells just a few hundred thousand copies Worldwide would be very profitable.

  • TRUTH #24 2 years ago

    Sony has not just lost ground here on consoles, but also tv's, mp3's, cameras, generally most areas in electronics - also Sony does have quiet a bad reputation of customer care. Sony is no longer the must have in electronics.
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/09 @ 17:37

  • thepiedpiper #25 2 years ago

    i wouldn't mind getting a PS3 but not until does one more price drop.

    is that me being tight fisted? or shrewd?

  • IneptPercy #26 2 years ago

    Donnie I did say to me it doesn't represent good value.

    I own a very nice PC which is connected to the same TV/Sound System so just to compare to you points:

    You get a reliable system - PC is fine
    wireless - Pc doesn't have but could be added if needed
    BR/dvd upscaler - PC does the same
    fairly decent selection of exclusives - Could be argued for any system.
    bbc iplayer - works fine
    browser - choice of browsers available.

    Just to add a few things it then has on top of the PS3:
    HD-DVD playback
    Video Editing
    Picture Editing
    1TB storage which can be cheaply upgraded
    Full card readers (not all PS3's have them)
    1080p gaming all the time, not just graphically toned down games.

    So my statement of I could afford a PS3, but it has little use TO ME.. is still perfectly valid, feel free to disagree, but I am not wrong as it is MY OPINION.

    The comment rating do make me laugh, an unrelated comment about uncharted is on +11 while my opinion on the actual news acticle gets a -4 for making a point about one possible reason why the PS3 isn't selling, people must know its not meant to be mark people down just because you don't agree with them, don't they?

    As for booze/fags/whores, It would take several years of my fund for those to buy a PS3
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/09 @ 18:31

  • Fudce #27 2 years ago

    @IneptPercy:

    I'm a Sony man myself, I would go as far to support them as the crazy fanboys would, but given the choice between a Playstation or an Xbox I'd go for the Playstation. However when asked if someone should buy a PS3, I'll always ask them what they want it for. If they can't convince me that they need one, then they clearly don't.

    People shouldn't buy what they don't need, so if you feel you don't need one, then you clearly shouldn't buy one. Myself personally I have lots of fun with my console and have done since I got it. Other people's experiences will be different.

    To respond to a few of your negative points though:

    HD-DVD playback (Who wants it? It's a dead format, it's like complaining that it doesn't play Betamax)
    1TB storage which can be cheaply upgraded (Upgrading PS3 hard drive is just as cheap as upgrading a laptops)
    Full card readers (not all PS3's have them) (You can get USB card readers for £10 these days)
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/09 @ 18:52

  • Skire #28 2 years ago

    "As for booze/fags/whores, It would take several years of my fund for those to buy a PS3"

    That's probably because you never go out.

  • IneptPercy #29 2 years ago


    HD-DVD playback (Who wants it? It's a dead format, it's like complaining that it doesn't play Betamax)

    I care as I have over 100 HD-DVDs I got for £2-£3 when it died.

    1TB storage which can be cheaply upgraded (Upgrading PS3 hard drive is just as cheap as upgrading a laptops)

    And desktops are cheaper than upgrading laptops, I didn't mention the advantages of a raid array either.

    Full card readers (not all PS3's have them) (You can get USB card readers for £10 these days)

    But it doesn't come in the box.

    I am not anti Sony, I just pointed out why I don't perceive it as great value. If somebody asked me there is a chance I would recommend the PS3, if you will use everything it does it offers great value but not many people will use it all, some like me have better elsewhere other don't even have a HDTV.

    Value isn't universal is my point.

  • Les #30 2 years ago

    "Either way even the Sony fanboys should say thank you to microsoft as they have been the driving force in bringing prices down, if the PS3 had the same dominance the PS2 had do you thibnk you would be able to buy one for £250?"

    That effect is hugely overrated. The old console business model (that of xbox, ps2, ps3 and 360) is loss leader hardware and profits from game sales. The manufacturer wants to put its hardware in as many homes as possible and has an incentive to price the hardware within reach of the masses. Economies of scale are an important factor in this. Losing sales to a competitor actually keeps manufacturing costs at a higher level and as often there's little benefit in waging an all out price war, competition can actually make prices drop slower.

    "The frightening thing here seems to be how heavily Sony were relying on profits from it's PS2 console sales."

    Nothing frightening about that. That was the business model underlying PS2 (as discussed above). Biggest (relative) profits are made at the end of the life cycle. What's frightening is that PS3 follows the same model while the times have changed...

    "Like I said this is just my opinion but there is probably others with a similar idea."

    80% of the world population lives of less than $10 a day. That leaves around 1.2 billion people that are reasonably well off. Let's say around 50% of that population could afford a PS3, that leaves you with 600 million people. Of those 600 million, around 26 million own a PS3 so that leaves you with around 574 million others with a similar idea...

  • Les #31 2 years ago

    "but I am not wrong as it is MY OPINION."

    It's an often repeated fallacy. Opinions can definitely be wrong.

  • Goodfella #32 2 years ago

    It's my opinion that the world in flat, I can't be wrong.

    LOL.

  • TRUTH #33 2 years ago

    Blu-ray is already considered a stop gap, it hasn't really caught on. HD 1080p by next gen consoles will already have moved on in resolution and with more & more growing interest in Cloud for gaming/movies and downloads it's been a fairly slow start for blu-ray - dvds stoll out sell them by millions! ...Sony cell chip didn't make to impact outside the PS3.

    I thinh Sony has now got compete with alot more then just consoles, and maybe has to many various electronic platforms to focus on - this causing the billions of pounds profit lost by Sony. Also that vast electronics competitive market from Apple, MS, LG, Panasonic, Toshabi, Pioneer effect sales slumps for Sony from tv's to mp3's to gaming.
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/09 @ 20:34

  • IneptPercy #34 2 years ago

    "It's my opinion that the world in flat, I can't be wrong.

    LOL. "

    You will find that an opinion on something subjective is neither right or wrong. A fact is a fact.

    See the difference, I can make a simplified example.

    Blue is better than red = subjective
    Red is Red = fact

    So if I am wrong and the PS3 is amazing value TO EVERYBODY as a fact, then why doesn't everybody own one?

    As mentioned if somebody said to me the want to play games and watch blu-ray on the cheap I would say buy a PS3. If they want to play games on the cheap buy a 360. If the want the best and don't care about cost buy a PC.

    Still getting marked down for trying to point out to people that not everybody is the same... Somethings will never be agreed, that's what keeps life interesting.

  • coomber #35 2 years ago

    @ kipper

    Totally agree with you. Buying a PS2 now makes even more sense than it ever has. You could pick up a catalogue of great games for a few quid each.

    I'm still looking forward to playing Yakuza 1 and 2, plus GOW 1 and 2.

  • TRUTH #36 2 years ago

    Prove me wrong - has blu-ray been a great success - in Japan, Europe, and even the States - it has not taken the dvd market. Though it has been gaining ground , but, dvd's are the major sellers by a huge majority.

    Sony has lost major ground in electronics simply because of major competeion and people are not just interested in Sony as much any more - Apple, Panasonic, Phillips, Pioneer, LG etc etc are now openly available to consumers more then 10 yrs ago. The cell chip was also meant to be supplied to other companies as partnership agreement to build Cell-based computer systems for embedded applications such as medical imaging, industrial inspection, aerospace and defense, seismic processing, and telecommunications; but did not take off as Sony hoped; this putting a spanner in the cell profits.

    With the top brass at THX already mentioning that Blu-ray is short lived, and with dvd's still selling in huge amounts compared to BR discs, and not forgetting things like HD flash memory, HD downloads (Seen the speeds in South Korea, Japan), gaming companies interest towards Cloud system, the new 5D DVD -promising 1.6 terabyte storage capacity etc etc...you can start feel that blu-ray will be a short lived format - like it or not gaming next gen for sure will be more aimed towards download (it's happening right now), movies probably too!...With many large companies keeping an eye on Cloud (esp in gaming) - do you really think blu-ray will last another 5yrs ?
    Edited by 2 at 31/10/09 @ 00:44

  • SAH1977 #37 2 years ago

    Blockbuster movies like Transformers 2, Wolverine etc. are now selling upto 25% of their copies on Blu-ray in the US. Studios are preparing to release movies with an advanced release window and extra features on the format, there's little doubt Blu-ray sales will overtake DVD within 2 years.

    If you are going to comment on the format at least do some basic research.
    Edited by 1 at 31/10/09 @ 01:38

  • Goodfella #38 2 years ago

    I guess IneptPercy really didn't see the sarcasm in my post.

  • Les #39 2 years ago

    Blu-Ray isn't doing too bad. It follows DVD uptake quite accurately. Considering that back in the day of DVD's start there was no such thing as (illegally) downloading 'free' movies as we're seeing today, it performs quite well I'd say. And it's driven down DVD prices quite nicely, as a side benefit. :)

    /edit: syntax
    Edited by 1 at 31/10/09 @ 12:20

  • SAH1977 #40 2 years ago

    Blu-ray had a soft launch in 2006, it's real launch was 2007, while the format war only ended in 2008.

    It's simply a matter of time before Blu-ray overtakes DVD, only the other week Disney released Snow White on a special edition Blu-ray, with an included DVD, seven weeks before a seperate DVD release.

  • IneptPercy #41 2 years ago

    "I guess IneptPercy really didn't see the sarcasm in my post."

    I guess not, sarcasm in text isn't as easy to pick up as it is when spoken.

  • GreyBeard #42 2 years ago

    Sony appear to be finally steadying the ship, as evidenced by their stock rising slightly following the publication of these figures.

    What's shocking is that despite them making a substantial loss over the quarter, they are selling a lot of hardware. 8 million units across the 3 PS brand platforms in Q2 is a solid figure given that its one of the "softer" selling periods for gaming hardware, especially in the current economic climate.

    There should be no doubt in anyone's mind about the strength of the Playstation brand, its still a good business for Sony to be in.

  • Rens11 #43 2 years ago

    @ Ineptpercy

    but without a PS3 you can't play great exclusives such as Uncharted 1 & 2, MGS4. LBP and upcoming games such as GOW 3, GT5 and Heavy Rain! all consoles including PC's have their benefits but I wouldn't wanna miss out on such great games for the sake of a few hundred quid

  • IneptPercy #44 2 years ago

    Quite to opposite in my case, its not worth the few hundred quid to play the few great exclusives, thats more down to having less time for gaming than I use to and am behind on games I want o play my current systems. eg I have only just got gears of war 2.

  • TRUTH #45 2 years ago

    The problem is BR is not grabbing peoples interest as dvd are still 75+ % on many peoples minds esp in Japan where BR should have now taken over (4+years); but has not!!!...With technology already moving on with Cloud, 5D 1.5 teraflops disk, HD downloads - bluray is by many considered a stop gap. It has not caught on as fast to maintain a strong foothold, with many already looking into the not so far future for storage and downloads - esp with THX, Pioneer, MS, Apple, Dreamworks etc etc (T3, Which Hi-Fi, Stuff also mentioning this) already gossiping about it the next medium - and soon.
    Edited by 1 at 01/11/09 @ 00:41