Sony Posts its numbers

Just to add some fuel to this fire, Don Mattrick says that since the launch of the 360S, the XBox has been the #1 selling console in NA and Europe. I'm not sure which part of the reported quarter includes the months since 360S launch, but it makes it even more difficult for Sony to have _sold_ as many consoles as they have. One of the two numbers (XBox/PS3) is wrong, or Sony does extremely well (extreeeemly) in Asia, Australia and Africa.

 

Those were shipment figures. Assuming the worldwide sellthrough was the same for 360 and PS3 worldwide during last quarter, Sony still might have shipped more consoles - they introduced a new SKU (Move bundle), which retailers. OTOH, Microsoft could want retailers not to order that many consoles in order to make more room for Kinect bundles shipping in late October/November. All theories are plausible as we do not have sufficient data to determine otherwise.

However, I do not think Sony misreported, they have too much to lose doing so.

 

What if... there is no fire in the first place ?
[size=-2]...like business as usual, snapshots, on-going numbers, blah blah[/size]

 

I will always take figures from a financial report over figures from a PR guy. That goes for Sony as well. Their PR guys are as unreliable. Europe has so many definitions and either company (or Nintendo as it turns out) will manipulate their model of Europe to suit their cause. I know MS usually only include UK, Germany, France and Benelux in their model while Sony include almost all of them given their continental advantage (I even saw one report that said continental Europe to exclude the UK where 360 is stronger!). On the flip side, Sony will use shipped figures for NA/US sales for obvious reasons where MS will always go by NPD.

 

This is easy to say though if he is combining numbers The US 360 to PS3 sold-through gap could easily overcome a couple countries in the EU. Hell Wii, PS3, or 360 ALONE can do Japans YTD numbers in a single holiday MONTH in the US. I would definitely stick with the quarterlies but there is nothing that says that either is actually wrong they can both be accurate that PS3 shipped more and 360 is top seller for US and EU.

 

All the numbers are suspect by nature and thats because they have a PR function. One thing I noticed about PS3 numbers is that Sony has the uncanny ability to accurately predict total shipment figures for the next fiscal year. Its almost like they have a statistic/consumer behavior genius forecasting their PS3 shipments for every year only to use a magic 8 ball to forecast the PSP and PS2. They have have been dead on the last two year, missed the 1st year forecast by 500K and the second year by 1.7 million. The PSP and PS2 on the other hand have been off by anywhere from 1-4 million over the same time period with regularity. And just because its in a quarterly report doesn't mean much when Sony spent years parading a production number as a shipment number.

But given that there is no clear picture to check anyones numbers, you can't single out Sony's numbers, because again any of the big 3 can manipulate numbers and have huge motivation to do so. Its plausible Sony's number is true and its equally plausible its embellished but given that its unlikely Sony's going to get to EOL of the PS3 with 30-40 million dusty consoles sitting in their warehouse, its unlikely that quarterly numbers are outright lies.

 

To add some water to this non-fire, read the following:

http://spong.com/article/19131/SCEE-Clarifies-PS3-Install-Base-Maths

 

I'm quite positive we all know the difference between sell-through and sell-in...what was this link supposed to show? Is the PS3 currently sold in all of these countries?

I think some are conflating where Sony sells all of its products and which countries the PS3 is currently sold. I mean the PS2 launched in Brazil in 2009.

The 360 is currently only sold in 35 countries for example but obviously MSFT has distribution channels in many more for its operating systems and office business.

 

Actually, MS usually speak about their entire EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) region when talking numbers.

Regardless, this 360 vs PS3 war constantly going on here is quite ridiculous. The systems are within 10% of each other after 4 years, both enjoy healthy hw and sw sales, have the same 3rd party support. Neither will make the other irrelevant.

 

There is no war. That so many seem to believe there is says more about them, I would posit. Comparisons are inevitable in an EARNINGS thread however. Comparisons are ALWAYS made, be it "like stores", "same stores", or "vs the industry" there is nothing inherently unhealthy about it. Maybe this is new to the followers of only the gaming industry due to there being more information readily available or simply a new found interest by the games press thus causing more gamers to follow as well (which ties into the former).

 

There's definitely still a war going on, but it's all in good fun (for the most part). People have defended their preferred console since day 1, and even though they're so close, they continue to do so. I try to stay out of these threads now because some people are just too damn touchy on the subject.

 

Do they sell PS3 in Brazil too ?

 

Comparisons are usually vs past performance of the company in question. Regardless, the fact is that Sony shipped 600k more consoles in past quarter. Now that we have this comparison behind us, what does it mean for anyone here?

 

For those of us who own shares in the company or for those who swear they hate sales/earnings threads yet continue to partake in them?

 

The HD fad is over. 3DS will conquer the world. Free tulips for everyone.

...

Really, right now, the data isn't even interesting. We have numbers up to, but not including a very interesting inflection point: the introduction of newfangled control methods from two of the competitors. When we get data that includes the impact (or absence of impact) from that, in a couple quarters, we'll have something interesting to discuss. Maybe.

 

Yeah, at this point, who cares if the gap is closing or not? We're at a point where potential either platform could catapult forwards, or not. I guess some predicted PS3 catching XB360 and for personal pride they'd like to be proven right, but it's all immaterial in the ridiculous console 'war' when this 'battle' is a titchy skirmish compared to the battle lines drawn for the next couple of years.

 

Don't have shares/options/pay/whatsoever in any of the 3 companies (I am a customer !). Don't particularly track sales/earnings but I partake in the discussions because I am intrigued by what the posters see as err.... "lobe-sided" fire. ^_^

 

Not a problem. I'm trying to find which countries the PS3 is currently sold in for you I thought it was on IR but I didn't find it when I looked some days ago. All of these current consoles are currently "too expensive" to be sold in some countries hence the reason Brazil just had last gens console recently launched and I don't believe the XBOX was EVER officially sold there. Now at the end of the day official or not is irrelevant since the items still need to be produced in order to be sold (excluding second hand).

For me, sure I have had numerous PS3 complaints but if you don't think I complain about the 360 you are certainly not paying attention and the Wii well the board either hates or refuses to discuss the Wii. But I have owned shares in each of the three platform holders long before I had purchased any of this generations products. I never bought my SNE shares because of PS, I certainly didn't buy MSFT because of XBOX and to be honest I have NO clue when I first obtained NTDOY I think it was gifted to me many moons ago and I do mean many. Having said that I don't hold enough of either to where I get to make a phone call and get inside info or call any shots but I do have more than a handful.

 

Are you sure? Most people with retirement investments have stock in at least one of the companies whether they know it or not.

 

Perhaps, may be ? but if I don't have direct involvement and don't know about it, I wouldn't care right ? ^_^