PS3 Sales in Perspective

[Blu-Ray Buckeye]

I always find this debate and the quoted data to be so awkward.

#1 Why does the newsmedia focus on U.S. sales instead of global? This is a massive multibillion-dollar industry at this point, so it makes more sense whether talking hardware or software to just talk about global figures. U.S. in the past has favored 360, Japan favors PS3 and Europe is more neutral... regradless the truth comes through globally.

#2 How can people draw conclusions on nominal software sales when teher is such a large discrepancy in the size of install bases and launch dtaes between PS3 & 360? This is nothing like the "attach rate" argument in the blu-ray/HD DVD format war... in that war the HD DVD side vastly skewed and cheated in how they calculated the base. Also HD DVD was the side who launched first so they had no valid reason to go after the attach rate argument except that they needed some way to distort the data. In this case, there is no distortion as the definition of consoles is clear (no argument about whether to count the PS3 or not).

If you analyze things globally, as you should, there is no headline about the PS3 "finally" taking the sales lead in consoles because the PS3 has been leading the 360 for months now.

Regarding s/w sales, you have to consider the size of the install base when determining if a game is selling well relative to the 360 version. It is completely illogical to expect sales to be even given the the 360 has a 17.2MM install base to PS3's 10.4MM units. So given that PS3 has a 38% share (only considering PS3/360 and not Wii) any game that sells above a 38% split is doing relatively well. Let's check the numbers on several current Top 50 games (sales since inception not just current week):

- Burnout Paradise: 48% share... doing very well
- Assassin's Creed: 40%... better than expected
- COD4: 33%... weak but the 360 base loves FPS as we all know
- Turok: 41%... ahead of console share
- Devil May Cry 4: 50%... great but this has a Sony fan base

-Current Week Total S/W Sales: 39%... just ahead of console share

Regardless how you look at it, these titles ae doing quite well on PS3 globally. The attach rate argument in the format war was stupid but not because that's the wrong way to look at things all the time, but mainly because their process was twisted and because in an arena where studios and manufacturers were desperate to find revenues & see a winner all that mattered were total sales. In this case, everyone knows that neither the 360 nor the PS3 are going anywhere. Everyone knows the PS3 will still be around and that it is gaining ground... there is no fear that it will follow the way of HD DVD.