Sony’s sour grapes
We sold more! Honest! Well, we could have if we'd made them
Sony have slammed Nintendo's GameBoy Advance sales reports claiming that they sold three times as many PlayStation 2 consoles in the same period and could have sold far more if they had anticipated the demand. We love this sort of thing, so we'll paste bits of it here and draw our own conclusions. The statement, apparently issued directly to MGON's PlayStation Center, begins. "While Nintendo must be commended for the sales of their machine, in reality the PlayStation 2 sold three times as fast when it was initially launched, and we could have sold as many as three times the amount we achieved had we anticipated the demand." Sony launched the PlayStation 2 in the United States with 500,000 units - and we're comparing the American launch, not the Japanese one now - and apparently that's precisely how many consoles Nintendo are claiming to have sold. The only difference being that the Japanese pocket monster hasn't run out of stock yet. "Also worth pointing out is that the PlayStation 2 cannot really be compared with the Game Boy Advance, due to the different price brackets of the systems. The PlayStation 2 is a complete multimedia package, and costs four times as much; it's pointless even making a direct comparison." Which, given the circumstances, is probably why Nintendo didn't make a direct comparison. They simply said the GameBoy Advance was the fastest selling console in American history. Given that they have now surpassed 500,000 sales and it took Sony took a while to get their stock situation sorted, that's probably correct. "It will however be interesting to see how the GameCube performs at launch, compared with the PlayStation 2. Then, and only then, could some sort of comparison be made." It will be interesting, but since you're being pedantic, Mr. Sony, so shall we. The GameCube is launching at the same time as the Xbox or thereabouts. As such it would be incredibly foolish to draw direct comparisons between its sales and those of the PlayStation 2. Now, that's if we focus on America. If you want to draw attention to the Japanese situation… do you really think Nintendo will let you hang onto that for longer than necessary? Call us fanboys, but we doubt it. Related Feature - Nintendo US flogs 500,000 GameBoy Advances
