Sony Posts its numbers

[TheChefO]

Hi Guys,
I just crunched numbers from every viable source I could find WRT Sony shipments.

It seems ps2 had a similar mystery market according to their shipments. Approximately 50 million hit the states and surprisingly, they were selling roughly the same in Europe as of 2006.

50 US
50 Europe
21 Japan

121 Total
145 Reported

24 million shipped to a mystery market that neither Nintendo or MS were able to tap into last gen. That's 17% of their reported sales going into this mystery market.


PS3 sold 16million in Europe as of August.

16 Europe
16 US
6 Japan

38m Total
45 Reported

Again, 7 million sold into the mystery market that neither Nintendo or MS are able to tap into.
Again 16% of their reported sales going into this mystery market.

Either Sony has an unbelievable supply chain that reaches into the depths unknown to produce sales Neither Nintendo nor MS can muster, or something is funny with their numbers.


Also:

Total software sold paints a similar picture to what most of us were thinking initially. The US is the biggest market and most vendors derive around half of their sales in the States.

Granted, it's VG Charts for the source on this, but they are close enough to show a trend.

Here's another trend...

Total Software Sales:
547.50 Wii
427.11 XB360
298.88 PS3

Now granted, a good chunk of the early adopters bought ps3 for it's bluray capability, but that price advantage is long gone at this point and wouldn't account for a 50% increase in software sales (on xb360 vs ps3) if both platforms have an equal install base.

On top of this, let's consider the RRoD mess. How many of those units were abandoned (or cheaply passed on to those that would typically have little interest and or money to invest in gaming therefore low software sales)?

On top of this, let's consider the disparity in "Backup games" for XB360 vs PS3... Yeah

None of it adds up to an equal install base with xb360 at this point.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

PS3 sold 16million in Europe as of August.

16 Europe
16 US
6 Japan

38m Total
45 Reported

Again, 7 million sold into the mystery market that neither Nintendo or MS are able to tap into.
Again 16% of their reported sales going into this mystery market.

I think Sony reported 41.5Million after september for PS3.

 

[dobwal]

Hi Guys,
I just crunched numbers from every viable source I could find WRT Sony shipments....

None of it adds up to an equal install base at this point.

Define US, Europe and Japan? Are you talking SCEA, SCEE and SCEI (or SCEJ?)? Or are just talking the US, European and Japanese markets?

 

[TheChefO]

I think Sony reported 41.5Million after september for PS3.

There were conflicting reports of 45million sold, or roughly equal to xb360's ww total.

If 41.5m, that's 3.5m unaccounted for, or 7%

If so, that's more believable. But again, seemingly Sony has had a mystery market for a while now as their ps2 numbers reflected the same.

17% of ps2 sales were reportedly not to the US or Europe or Japan.


Also still doesn't account for the ~50% disparity in software sales. Especially given the RRoD issue and the "Backups" on xb360 that were not issues on ps3.

 

[TheChefO]

Define US, Europe and Japan? Are you talking SCEA, SCEE and SCEI (or SCEJ?)? Or are just talking the US, European and Japanese markets?

Markets.

 

[NathansFortune]

I think Sony reported 41.5Million after september for PS3.

Not only that, but I'm pretty sure that SCEE have shipped around 19-20m to their territories, sell through probably sits about 1m lower than that.

I would estimate (a fair amount of guesswork, but some knowledge of the real figures) 18.5m for SCEE, 15.5m for SCEA and 5.8m for SCEI in sell through terms bringing it up to just under 40m with around 1.5m sitting in warehouses and on shelves at the end of September.

I'm sorry I can't give any details on the figures, but leaking sales figures would be a bad career move for me personally. I think the problem is that Sony as a company aren't really bothered by sales numbers, not as much as Microsoft so it gives the impression that they are selling less. It is not true, the simple truth is that Sony just don't care enough about feeling validated etc... to bother releasing PR with sales figures. They probably think sales figures are best left for investors and analysts than for the public, and I do have to agree with them on that point. My job as an financial analyst doesn't really affect how much I enjoy a game despite knowing that some games sell like crap.

 

[TheChefO]

...I would estimate (a fair amount of guesswork, but some knowledge of the real figures) 18.5m for SCEE, 15.5m for SCEA and 5.8m for SCEI...

Sony reported 16million in Europe up to August.

2.5 million since then?

Sept
Oct

Sounds like a lot of sales for non-Holiday selling time ...

 

[DuckThor Evil]

There were conflicting reports of 45million sold, or roughly equal to xb360's ww total.

If 41.5m, that's 3.5m unaccounted for, or 7%

If so, that's more believable. But again, seemingly Sony has had a mystery market for a while now as their ps2 numbers reflected the same.

I think that 38 million total in your link came from their Q1 report, which ended at the end of June. The worldwide shipment number at that time was reported to be 38.1 million. They reported 3.5m in Q2, bringing it to 41.6 million at the end of september. That's shipped to retail, so majority of those "unaccounted" consoles are sitting at retail all over the world.

edit: or more like a half is sitting at retail and another half is already sold to customers...

 

[TheChefO]

I think that 38 million total in your link came from their Q1 report, which ended at the end of June. The worldwide shipment number at that time was reported to be 38.1 million. They reported 3.5m in Q2, bringing it to 41.6 million at the end of september. That's shipped to retail, so majority of those "unaccounted" consoles are sitting at retail all over the world.

edit: or more like a half is sitting at retail and another half is already sold to customers...

Ah ok.

I still can't make sense of why there is such a disparity in software sales between xb360 and ps3. XB360 is selling 50% more software than PS3 with a userbase only a few percentage points behind.

And xb360 has the disadvantage of RRoD castoffs and "backups". It just doesn't make sense at this point in the cycle.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

I still can't make sense of why there is such a disparity in software sales between xb360 and ps3. XB360 is selling 50% more software than PS3 with a userbase only a few percentage points behind.

And xb360 has the disadvantage of RRoD castoffs and "backups". It just doesn't make sense at this point in the cycle.

X360 has had 12 months more time to sell software in Japan and in its strongest market NA, 16 months more in PS3's strongest market Europe, also the install base gap is now in it's smallest. For years it was between 5-8 million. That 5-8 million was pretty huge percentage earlier when the installed bases were smaller. The total software number doesn't look odd to me.

 

[zed]

If 41.5m, that's 3.5m unaccounted for, or 7%

3.5?
well they just announced they have sold 1 million in australia.
So 2.5million to find
well lets see hong kong,canada,mexico,south korea, singapore etc

 

[patsu]

2.5 million ? They are in my backyard.

 

[djskribbles]

2.5 million ? They are in my backyard.

pics or it didn't happen.

edit: 1.5m in Canada. LIAR, PATSU! You must only have 1m in your backyard.

 

[NathansFortune]

Sony reported 16million in Europe up to August.

2.5 million since then?

Sept
Oct

Sounds like a lot of sales for non-Holiday selling time ...

SCEE regions =/= Europe.

 

[goonergaz]

Also still doesn't account for the ~50% disparity in software sales. Especially given the RRoD issue and the "Backups" on xb360 that were not issues on ps3.

ooooooo....it's BOLD so it must be true!

Ever thought of considering the Wii software sales figures...a console that was released around the same time? Both have a similar s/w ratio...but Sony are LYING

put the tin-foil hat back on

 

[dobwal]

Markets.

Then whats so mysterious about the rest of the world outside the US, Europe and Japan ?

 

[dobwal]

SCEE regions =/= Europe.

From what i remember from a old interview with the head of SCEE is that Europe and UK constituted about 80% of sales of consoles and software, the other 20% spread amongst the 80-90 countries that fall under SCEE.

 

[NathansFortune]

From what i remember from a old interview with the head of SCEE is that Europe and UK constituted about 80% of sales of consoles and software, the other 20% spread amongst the 80-90 countries that fall under SCEE.

Something like that. I think it is around 15-20% as a whole, but maybe at the lower bound for PS3 as it is quite expensive. Even at 15% 16m for Europe is 18.6m for all SCEE.

It's something like this, UK constitutes ~ 20-22% of the EU market for PS3 and EU makes up around 85% of the SCEE market. So UK sales at around 3.5-4m give SCEE sales of 18-20m.

 

[one]

Anyway, this is all OT, just though people might find it interesting. The point is that strong Yen is not the worst thing that has happened. There are silver linings, and the public will see that in the next couple of years as Japanese CE start to dominate once more with lower cost structures and as the USD and EUR rebound.

As for the games industry, effects of strong Yen will be long-term. More investment by Japanese companies will go abroad.
http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/12/done-deal-dena-to-announce-ngmoco-acquisition-very-soon/

 

[patsu]

*nod* *nod*
That Square-Enix "east meet west" article would be relevant:
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=58991
[size=-2]It's a very difficult challenge.[/size]