Reeves: 1M PS3 Pal sales

[Vic]

I don't have a problem. I just think people are living in outer space if they think a few exclusives are going to push sales of a $600 console 'through the roof'.

Nothing will push Sony's sales through the roof until the price comes down, simple as that. Even MS is struggling to sell consoles at $400, their sales #'s are falling, and they have 5x's the amount of content. The market just is not there.

As for EU being less price sensitive, that's nothing but conjecture and we haven't seen a thing to prove that. In fact, weekly sales are now far lower than PS2 sales ever were, which is direct evidence to the contrary.

What about Warb's post?

According to Wkipedia, 115m PS2's have been shipped worldwide as of December 31st 2006. 24.76m in Japan, 46.53m in the US and 44.07m in Europe.

Now according to Reeves prior to the PS3 launch, the UK makes up around a third of the Playstation worldwide market. Therefore, pound-for-pound, people from the UK spend more money on games consoles than Americans do (its not as if no one bought Xbox or GC over here). Add in the fact that Europeans are used to paying more in relative terms, for their consumer products, and you can say this price-sensitivity issue is a lot more than idle conjecture. It also reflects the strength of the Playstation brand over here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_wars

 

[Vic]

Acording to several people that hate Sony, they hardly sold more than a few 1000, i guess those numbers doesn´t work anymore, so now the launch was fantastic?

Thats actually very funny. Many people were saying the launch was a disaster at the time. Now these figures have come in, the PS3 launch has suddenly gone to being amazing. As is often the case in these situations, the truth is nearer the middle.

 

[DJ12]

I Hope Sony realise how much quicker they would've reached 1 million PAL sales if they didn't give Europe the shaft last year.

I hope next time, PAL is the first territory they look after.

 

[Nesh]

I Hope Sony realise how much quicker they would've reached 1 million PAL sales if they didn't give Europe the shaft last year.

I hope next time, PAL is the first territory they look after.

I believe they had pretty good reasons for their strategy. Instead of dominating by difference in one territory while sacrificing the other two they preferred that they should better maintain some presence in US and Japan by sacrificing some sure sales in Europe. Atleast that way they do not surrender completely their market shares there. They kept some presence in these territories too

If I were Sony I dont think I would have considered a good idea to ignore completely the US and Japan, territories in which competitors might completely take me out if I come too late. If that was the case some people would have said that they would have been better off if they choose US and Japan first which is what they did.

 

[scooby_dooby]

What about Warb's post?

According to Wkipedia, 115m PS2's have been shipped worldwide as of December 31st 2006. 24.76m in Japan, 46.53m in the US and 44.07m in Europe.

Now according to Reeves prior to the PS3 launch, the UK makes up around a third of the Playstation worldwide market. Therefore, pound-for-pound, people from the UK spend more money on games consoles than Americans do (its not as if no one bought Xbox or GC over here). Add in the fact that Europeans are used to paying more in relative terms, for their consumer products, and you can this price-sensitivity issue is a lot more than idle conjecture. It also reflects the strength of the Playstation brand over here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_wars

That's all well and good, and I wouldn't argue that Americans are more price sensitive than Europeans.

But, being slightly less price sensitive is a far cry from buying a $600 console en masse. And, unless I'm mistaken, Europeans are still paying more than Americans for the console in relative terms anyways, $599 euros which is nearly $800 US? Over $830 for the UK?

Any difference in price sensitivity is already eaten up by that fact they're paying 25% more than the rest of the world.

There's no way in hell a game console will sell huge numbers at that pricepoint, I don't care if we're talking Europe, Japan or the moon.

 

[INKster]

I can attest that the PS3 is selling well down here in "Iberia" -god, i hate that name -, although a recent (and quasi-unilateral) price cut to 499 Euro of the 60GB version (the only one i can find) in some major retailers might have had something to do with it.

 

[Arwin]

Any difference in price sensitivity is already eaten up by that fact they're paying 25% more than the rest of the world.

Actually the dollar is just really very weak right now. So mentally converting the price into USD isn't going to matter a great deal to us ... if it did, the PS2 wouldn't have done very well during its first year in Europe, when the dollar versus 'Euro' (barely existed yet back then) was reverse and the PS2 cost the equivalent of 600 euros in Europe, but only $299 in the U.S.

There's no way in hell a game console will sell huge numbers at that pricepoint, I don't care if we're talking Europe, Japan or the moon.

Huge, well, probably not. Though I guess I would change my definition of Huge relative to a console's price, in which case the whole point becomes even more muddled and we have to try to agree on a definition of Huge in this context.

But no, I don't expect the PS3 to sell huge quantities at this price-point. On the other hand, I do expect it to sell a whole lot better once the right games come out.

I wouldn't want to be in Sony's shoes, in that respect. It's a difficult choice because you don't know beforehand wether the titles that will be released will be enough to sell the PS3 at full production capacity (plus reserves), or whether a price reduction is needed also. If I could afford to, I would probably go all out and aim for both at the same time. I think the games are definitely coming, so it now remains to determine how much the price needs to come down.

You know that the damages will be limited to your production capacity of 1.2 million a month, so you can estimate the maximum cost fairly accurately. And if it works out, then you can keep the console at that price a long time.

I'd say we definitely need a price below 500, but if I could afford to, I'd try to get it to 399 as soon as possible, so that people can be up and running at least one game and an extra controller in a sub $500 package.

 

[-tkf-]

There's no way in hell a game console will sell huge numbers at that pricepoint, I don't care if we're talking Europe, Japan or the moon.

Depending on who you ask and on what fence they are sitting on one million consoles at a "insane" price point with "no games" and no people owning "HiDef" is an achievement or a failure

I think it´s a bit of this and a bit of that, why drop the price on a console now when you don´t have the games anyway, why drop the price now when you can´t make it cheaper. Why not wait until the right moment and make sure you limiting your loses caused by production problems until you can strike hard. And until then just ride the wave and bet on a comeback and Blu-Ray to make your future.

 

[TheChefO]

why drop the price on a console now when you don´t have the games anyway, why drop the price now when you can´t make it cheaper. Why not wait until the right moment and make sure you limiting your loses caused by production problems until you can strike hard. And until then just ride the wave and bet on a comeback and Blu-Ray to make your future.

Because time is a factor in the console industry that cannot be ignored.

 

[holsty101]

Because time is a factor in the console industry that cannot be ignored.

Thanks for possibly the most melodramatic one line post I've ever read.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Thats actually very funny. Many people were saying the launch was a disaster at the time. Now these figures have come in, the PS3 launch has suddenly gone to being amazing. As is often the case in these situations, the truth is nearer the middle.

I wouldn't call 1 million units so far in Europe amazing, not even close. The comparisons to PS2 launch and post launch numbers are ridiculous, since PS2 was heavily supply constrained for a very very long time. It's just a PR spin by Sony and the reality will catch them very soon. 1 million units in as large market as Europe is nothing spectacular and with 800k sold in two weeks, it's easy to see that the demand for PS3 at 600€+ is all but diminished. I personally don't believe that good software will help much at that pricepoint. They need to slice 200 off the price and then it will start selling.

 

[Vic]

That's all well and good, and I wouldn't argue that Americans are more price sensitive than Europeans.

But, being slightly less price sensitive is a far cry from buying a $600 console en masse. And, unless I'm mistaken, Europeans are still paying more than Americans for the console in relative terms anyways, $599 euros which is nearly $800 US? Over $830 for the UK?

Any difference in price sensitivity is already eaten up by that fact they're paying 25% more than the rest of the world.

There's no way in hell a game console will sell huge numbers at that pricepoint, I don't care if we're talking Europe, Japan or the moon.

Slightly? Those figures point at something more than slight.

Europeans paid a lot more for the PS2 (£300 vs $300). Yet they still bought more. So your argument holds no weight.

 

[liolio]

Does somebody has tried to add up all the charts from chart track(UK)?

It could be interesting, as I don't trust Sony PR (nor the others one too).

Edit I've just look at chart track site and hardware sales are no longer public...

 

[Mintmaster]

Positive news (up for discussion of course) from Sony has to be killed as fast as possible. The PR piece centered on PS3 sales being better and faster than the PS2 which obviously doesn´t fit some people since it could be called good news...

Don't you remember that Sony said the same thing about the NA launch? Now it's stumbling along at what, 100k per month?

PS3 had a very large following before launch, much of which was of the "buy at any cost" type. They sold through the first 500k-800k very quickly in Europe, and then suddenly not many people want it, relatively speaking. XB360 isn't doing much better right now, but surely Sony was aiming higher than that.

The sales don't resemble those of PS2 in any way whatsoever. It's purely PR.

 

[-tkf-]

The sales don't resemble those of PS2 in any way whatsoever. It's purely PR.

When the sales lag behind the PS2 your free to mention it and point fingers at Sony, until then (if what they are saying is truth) they are right and you are wrong

 

[Cheezdoodles]

When the sales lag behind the PS2 your free to mention it and point fingers at Sony, until then (if what they are saying is truth) they are right and you are wrong

But his right, it doesn't resemble the european PS2 sales in any way.

PS2 was constantly supply constrained, selling out all the time, took a lot of time until you could just walk into a shop and buy one.

Weras with the PS3, the initial launch shipment to europe of 1 million consoles took 9 weeks to sell out.

 

[crazygambit]

But his right, it doesn't resemble the european PS2 sales in any way.

PS2 was constantly supply constrained, selling out all the time, took a lot of time until you could just walk into a shop and buy one.

Weras with the PS3, the initial launch shipment to europe of 1 million consoles took 9 weeks to sell out.

I'm sorry, but this is such a poor argument. Just because it was supply constrained means demand was unlimited? Hell no. We don't know how much it would have sold if they had launched a million PS2s at launch, maybe it wouldn't have been supply limited anymore. Look at it another way, if Sony was only making 5000 units a week in Japan, the PS3 would be supply limited, so we should immediately conclude that since it's supply limited and people can't just walk into the shop and buy one, somehow it's a great success?

The fact remains that the PS2 wasn't able to sell a similar number of units in the same timeframe as the PS3 for whatever reason. If it had come out with a sufficiently high stock at launch I'm pretty sure the same would have happened, where all the people that wanted it got it and sales dry up later. How high that initial stock should have been is another question entirely.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

I'm sorry, but this is such a poor argument.

Its not an argument for anything, if you actually read what i write.

I'm merely pointing out that the sales doesn't resemble the PS2 sales at all. Which mintmaster said, but a certain other induvidual claimed as wrong, based on flawed PR logic.

 

[Tahir2]

I seem to recall PS2 sales in the beginning were very poor and it was only a little later on that they sky-rocketed...

 

[scooby_dooby]

When the sales lag behind the PS2 your free to mention it and point fingers at Sony, until then (if what they are saying is truth) they are right and you are wrong

Or you could pull your head out of the sand and look at current weekly or monthly sales.

Nowhere near PS2 numbers.