PS3 price drop increased weekly sales 150-233%

[user friendly]

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- U.S. sales of the PlayStation 3 more than doubled in the weeks after the company slashed the video game console's price $100 and launched a low-end model, Sony Corp. CEO Howard Stringer told The Associated Press Wednesday.

Sony said it sold more than 100,000 consoles of all types in the week ending Nov. 11.

The price cut and new model make the PS3 more competitive against Nintendo Co.'s Wii and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 as the holiday season opens, Sony chairman and chief executive Howard Stringer said.

"It's the breakthrough we've been anticipating," Stringer said. "We've been holding our breath."

Sony said it had been selling between 30,000 and 40,000 consoles per week before the Oct. 18 price cut from $599 to $499 of the 80 GB model.

Sales rose to 75,000 in the week of Oct. 29, reflecting both the lower price of the high-end model and the introduction of a 40-gigabyte model for $399 on Nov. 2, the company said. And it was the following week that sales hit 100,000, according to Sony.

Lagging sales of the PlayStation 3, compared to sales of the Wii and XBox 360, prompted Sony to cut the price in the U.S. as it had in Japan and Europe.

"Obviously, we've taken so much heat over the year on PS3," Stringer said from his office in Tokyo. "Finally, the turning point has been passed."

Stringer said Sony is poised to benefit from the difficulty Nintendo has had producing Wii consoles fast enough to keep up with demand.

"It's a little fortuitous that the Wii is running out of hardware," Stringer said.

By October, Nintendo had shipped 9.3 million units worldwide of the Wii, which went on sale late last year. By the end of this fiscal year in March 2008, total global Wii shipments are expected to reach 22.3 million.

Sony had sold 5 million PS3s worldwide by October. The game console went on sale late last year in Japan and the U.S. and in March in Europe.

Microsoft had sold 11.6 million Xbox 360 machines in two years.

Sony executives said the rising sales also will boost the Blu-ray high definition DVD format. A Blu-ray drive comes with the PS3.

"It puts us vastly ahead of where the other format is going to be in terms of an installed base in people's homes by the end of this holiday season," Andrew House, Sony's chief marketing officer, said.

Toshiba Corp. has been selling players for its rival DVD format for high-definition as low as $200 and prices are expected to drop further.

Source


Let the games begin!!

Finally, hitting 100k a week even still at a relatively high price point is nothing but great news for Sony. This month NPD numbers will not show much of the price drop effect and probably will look rather low as people were waiting for the price drop (could be a surprise though). Next month numbers are the ones too look out for.



My guess for Oct. number are 180k, find out tomorrow.

[bajor27]

excellent new - lets just hope it holds up and that those 40 GB PS3 owners love the SM3 they received so much that they have to buy more blu.

Of course let's hope the 80 GB owners figure it out on their own too

[talbers23]

i support this system and recommend it to anyone i can. my only thoughts that are not the best for sony is how much i hear of people dropping games on cod4. if i get that i want to be sure i can play online as much as i want, not having to wait forever to do so. not to many games i want to play online though, so im ok, just right now im wondering on cod4.

[phillyfan1028]

Long Live The Ps3

[Jodi]

BOO-YAH!!!!!!

Jodi

[Porfie]

That is AWESOME!

[sj001]

Excellent... more trojan horses!

[warhawk21114]

lol this is good, plus with some holiday sales coming up, we should see more numbers and the ps3's heavy hitters are bringing their guns to bear, so it should be a good time for us, plus if people read the box the realize that the proper course for them is to go blu!

[turboedguy]

Hopefully Parents will look at the PS3 as an investment for the whole family as sony continues to push focus to the blu-ray included in the system. Christmas and a price cut is an easy excuse for an otherwise hesatent consumer. And hey, the wife might go for it too.

[davidPS3]

Well, I bought a 40 gig on release day so fell good I was part of the number! Glad to see such as positive response...

[w_tanoto]

i forgot to say happy birthday to ps3. 11 nov.
good to hear 300% increase. even more than Europe figure.

[Porfie]

This is Great news!

Price cut boosts PS3 sales 250-300%
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=30646

[aphex]

hell yes we rock. i hope it boosts in the US pretty hardcore soon.

[Porfie]

Originally Posted by aphex

hell yes we rock. i hope it boosts in the US pretty hardcore soon.

This is in the U.S.

[darkpoet25]

Nice I hope this makes the gap between Blu Ray and hd dvd even bigger this holiday season. Hopefully Warner and Universal are paying attention, even though hardware sales aren't exactly what they look at.

[aphex]

Originally Posted by Porfie

This is in the U.S.

oh ok cool. sounded like worldwide sales. Sweet deal!

[darinp2]

Seems like NPD on Thursday the 15th (tomorrow here) should include some of that. I think that might even go through November 3rd or 4th. Are we sure that these were sales to consumers, and not sales to stores? Maybe we'll know more when NPD comes out, as that should be to consumers.

--Darin

[mo_jt]

To echo the 1st post, cnn is now also carrying the story on their web site...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/1....ap/index.html

[user friendly]

Number weren't that great for the PS3 this month but like I said earlier, people knew it was going to drop in price and were waiting. Novembers numbers are the ones too look out for.

Wii killed last month....WOW!

October Numbers:


Hardware:

Wii 519K
Nintendo DS 458K
Xbox 360 366K
PSP 286K
PlayStation 2 184K
PlayStation 3 121K


Software:

~ 360 HALO 3 * MICROSOFT (CORP) SEP 2007 MATURE (M) 1 433.8K
~ 360 GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK W/ GUITACTIVISION (CORP) OCT 2007 TEEN (T) 2 383.2K
~ WII GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK W/ GUITACTIVISION (CORP) OCT 2007 TEEN (T) 3 286.3K
~ PS2 GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK W/ GUITACTIVISION (CORP) OCT 2007 TEEN (T) 4 271.1K
~ NDS LEGEND OF ZELDA: PHANTOM HOURGLASS NINTENDO OF AMERICA SEP 2007 EVERYONE (E) 5 262.8K
~ WII PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA FEB 2007 EVERYONE (E) 6 239.7K
~ 360 HALF LIFE 2: EPISODE 2 THE ORANGE BOX ELECTRONIC ARTS OCT 2007 MATURE (M) 7 238.4K
~ PS2 GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK ACTIVISION (CORP) OCT 2007 TEEN (T) 8 231.7K
~ PS2 FIFA SOCCER 08 ELECTRONIC ARTS OCT 2007 EVERYONE (E) 9 129.7K
~ NDS BRAIN AGE 2: MORE TRAINING IN MINUTES A NINTENDO OF AMERICA AUG 2007 EVERYONE (E) 10 116.9K


Other Software Number:

~ Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS3) 105,800
~ Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP) 98,100
~ Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3) 74,500
~ Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox 360) 38,300

Poor Ratchet

[tnt419]

After seeing those numbers for Ratchet and Clank I just had to order it. A game like that deserves higher numbers.