Sony FY 2009 Q2 Shipments. PS3 3.2m, 360 2.1m, Wii 3.5m

[Maximus]

At the conference call it was revealed that Sony shipped 3.2m PS3s and 3m PSPs. PS2 was 1.9m.

Losses came to ~$654m for the division which also includes Walkmans and Vaio PCs.

[alphapyro]

I'm so not amused.

[Icemage]

By the by, as I understand it, Sony's fiscal year runs April 1 to March 31, so Q2 for them is July-September.

3.2M is a pretty decent figure (obviously the Slim contributes a lot to this number as they had to stuff the retail channels with product to keep up with demand).

I would expect quite a lot more shipments for the holidays.

[Maximus]

6.7m for Q3 and ~2.5m for Q4 bringing it to ~ 13-14m for FYE 31/03/2010.

Over here they are saying Wii 19m, Xbox 360 8.5m and PS3 13.7m for the year 01/04/09 - 31/03/10.

YoY decline in 360 sales down to no price-cut and no Gears/Halo mainline game to push console. Wii down YoY due to lower hype and poorly perceived value. PS3 up due to good value proposition and 1st party strength.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Xbox 360 8.5m and PS3 13.7m for the year 01/04/09 - 31/03/10.

That's an interesting projection. I can see at least a 1M advantage for the PS3 in Japan (not only does the PS3 outsell the 360 week in and week out there even before the Slim, but FFXIII will blow the doors off of PS3 sales there come December and afterwards).

That still leaves a 4 millionish difference to be made up elsewhere though. I don't see more than a small fraction of that being caught up in North America unless the PS3 suddenly becomes the hot gift of the holiday season (possible but not something to count on). Is there really that much strength in the PS3 market in Europe and elsewhere to make up the rest of that difference?

[Maximus]

The advantage in Japan we figure is worth around 700k, PAL around 3.5m and the US around 1m. Remember this isn't for the calendar year, it's for the fiscal year which includes an extra quarter of Slim/$299 and a quarter where the 360 will be rock bottom (after Xmas).

People don't realise how much stronger the PS3 and generally PlayStation is around Europe and other PAL regions. PlayStation popularised gaming in most European countries, so they have a very strong brand which continues to show. PS3 and 360 were around equal for a year while PS3 was €399/£299 and 360 was €169/£129, less than half price. Now that the price cut has come PS3 outsells 360 by around 2.5x across the region with the GB & Ire figures included, and around 4x without (just continental).

Even MS have said it will be difficult for them to match last years performance and internally they expect to do around 1.5m less than last year which is 9m to us, we think it will be a bit less.

[Marine Mike]

I wonder with poor sales this will motivate Microsoft to release Natal without it being fully ready to help boast sales.

[Maximus]

Mike, what you just described would be an oxymoron. Natal, increasing sales...

I believe the same to be true of the Wand as well, until they are supported natively (i.e. out of the box, not as an add-on for existing users) no developer outside the first party will bother supporting it. Look at the Wii Zapper, so far only a single game uses it, or Wii Fit, not too many takers on that either, even WM+ hasn't set the development community alive.

I maintain that the Wand has an outside chance of success due to the strength of Sony's first party and their ability to support it with multiple games and IPs, but with MS's first party getting smaller and developers less willing to try anything risky Natal won't get many takers.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Mike, what you just described would be an oxymoron. Natal, increasing sales...

I believe the same to be true of the Wand as well, until they are supported natively (i.e. out of the box, not as an add-on for existing users) no developer outside the first party will bother supporting it. Look at the Wii Zapper, so far only a single game uses it, or Wii Fit, not too many takers on that either, even WM+ hasn't set the development community alive.

I maintain that the Wand has an outside chance of success due to the strength of Sony's first party and their ability to support it with multiple games and IPs, but with MS's first party getting smaller and developers less willing to try anything risky Natal won't get many takers.

If they're serious about the Wand, what Sony needs to do is start bundling the Wand + Eye with every PS3 sold. That's really the only way they're going to get any widespread penetration of the tech. I don't know what their accounting books look like, but even that doesn't sound very financially feasible at this time.

Ditto for the 360/Natal, only more so - and in Microsoft's case that would be financial suicide as the Natal hardware seems to be much more expensive than what Sony is doing with the Wand. Considering that it's likely that Natal will launch standalone for $100+++ (probably much higher given Microsoft's comments), I just don't see how Natal will manage to gain any traction amongst consumers, let alone developers.

[Jack Torrance]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

6.7m for Q3 and ~2.5m for Q4 bringing it to ~ 13-14m for FYE 31/03/2010.

Over here they are saying Wii 19m, Xbox 360 8.5m and PS3 13.7m for the year 01/04/09 - 31/03/10.

YoY decline in 360 sales down to no price-cut and no Gears/Halo mainline game to push console. Wii down YoY due to lower hype and poorly perceived value. PS3 up due to good value proposition and 1st party strength.

Rocking!

The current advertising push by Sony on the PS3 is really good too and is breaking through to the public at large and those brainwashed on the 360 and Wii. Please tell me Sony are going to keep up the pressure all through q4 (and that R* will soon announce the currently "exclusive" 360 GTA IV content ).

[PA_Kid]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Mike, what you just described would be an oxymoron. Natal, increasing sales...

I believe the same to be true of the Wand as well, until they are supported natively (i.e. out of the box, not as an add-on for existing users) no developer outside the first party will bother supporting it. Look at the Wii Zapper, so far only a single game uses it, or Wii Fit, not too many takers on that either, even WM+ hasn't set the development community alive.

I maintain that the Wand has an outside chance of success due to the strength of Sony's first party and their ability to support it with multiple games and IPs, but with MS's first party getting smaller and developers less willing to try anything risky Natal won't get many takers.

I think that's basically true of any tech like that - though if the rumors are true that some of the bigger developers are looking at how easy they can port their existing Wii games to the PS3 with the wand, that might change things.

If someone like Capcom, EA, or Disney Interactive decides to put out a PS3 version of their more popular motion-enabled Wii games with the controls adjusted for the wand and some upscaling, that would build a library fairly quickly and easily. More importantly, if they adjusted their go-forward Wii development so that they could release multiplatform motion enabled games between the two systems, it would reassure wand owners that the technology will be supported.

Normally it's true that additional periferals have failed unless they are built in (NES robot, power glove, eye toy, the list goes on), but I don't think we've ever been in a situation where one console had one of these new techs built in (and successful) and another console was adding on - maybe that will allow a better outcome.

(Still not expecting much from Natal though....)

[Elandyll]

Yeah. It's kinda sad, but the only way I could see an outside add on to succeed widely, would it to be bundled with a must have software (something the likes of Metal Gear Solid, Halo, God of War or Gran Turismo), and then again it would have to be relatively cheap ($100 tops for AAA game + add on).

The only other way it could succeed if more expensive, would be to be a bundle aimed at non gamers: Fitness / sports types.
Mark my words, but Natal (obviously not being geared to gamers give nthe lack of direct input type "trigger") will probably come with an "art schoo/ creation" type software but also sports and fitness games.
Even then, with a high initial price and the 360 not having been bought by sports/ social boardgame type in the first place, it is a risky project to the very least.

If Sony can get their wand at a price low enough, release it with Sports games but also a AAA shooter, action or racing game that supports it (and bundled with it), there -might- be a chance to appeal to the elusive gamer+ casual population.
Here's my advice to anyone Sony possibly reading this:
Make a deal with Lucasarts to release an exclusive version of a new "Jedi Knight" game with motion detection.
It is any "geek's" dream to handle a lightsaber, and the Sphere (tm) would be the ideal type of interface. The Star Wars franchise appeal can't hurt either. Put that with a nice suite of sports games (the usual golf/ bowling/ tennis/ maybe some darts, shooting and archery) and you might have a winner.

[FinalEvangelion]

Sony Group shared its second quarter (7/1 to 9/30) earnings report today. While sales and income were down, Impress Watch reports on some potentially good news from the company's games division.

At a briefing today, Sony Chief Financial Officer Nobuyuki Oneda said of PlayStation 3 costs, "At present, the difference between sales and materials cost has been reduced to between 10 and 20%. Within the year, it could be in the single digits. We'll be able to reach profitability at some point in the next term."

Thanks to the release of the new slimline model, sales of the PlayStation 3 hardware jumped to 3.2 million units, an increase of 800,000 units over the same period last year.

Sony's other hardware saw decreases. PSP fell by 200,000 units to 3 million. PlayStation 2 fell by 600,000 units to 1.9 million.

Sony's games business saw an overall 27% decline in sales to ¥197 billion. As reason for the drop, the company cited the yen's appreciation, the decline in PS2 hardware sales, and a decline in PS2 software sales as well.

Operating losses for the games division increased by ¥6 billion to ¥41 billion for the term.

So I guess that's about 30-60 per unit right now?

Any way, it looks like they will be able to close alot of the gap with it's competitor that launched a year earlier over the next several months. I wonder when MS will do the next price cut. I would guess in the middle of the calendar year next year? $50 maybe?