NPD March 2010

Rik wrote:So PS3 has lost all three months against 360 this year, if the 360 Slim does come this year then the PS3 could be blown away. So far behind in the US it looks like last place is assured.

Not again Mr Rik!

USA is not worldwide. PS3 in Japan has been outselling Xbox 360 15:1 non stop.

And rest of Europe too.

Nice to see number of FF13 and GoW3 sales. PS3 version outsold Xbox 360 version 2:1 Did not expect that!

There are no official Pal figures, MS claim to still be in front in Europe. It must be pretty close, also the gap in the US is far larger than the gap in Japan.

New slim 360 and Natal could really put the PS3 to bed in the US and give 360 an advantage in Europe also.

Rik wrote:There are no official Pal figures, MS claim to
still be in front in Europe. It must be pretty close, also the gap in the US is far larger than the gap in Japan.

New slim 360 and Natal could really put the PS3 to bed in the US and give 360 an advantage in Europe also.

4 million PS3s more than Xbox 360 in Japan. Far larger?

Conversely I'm surprise to still see the PS3 struggling to get platform parity with big 3rd party titles. I thought the gap between XBOX360 and PS3 versions of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 would have been smaller.

You shouldn't be surprised. The gap between the two installed bases is getting bigger every month.

DeadFish wrote:

Rik wrote:There are no official Pal figures, MS claim to
still be in front in Europe. It must be pretty close, also the gap in the US is far larger than the gap in Japan.

New slim 360 and Natal could really put the PS3 to bed in the US and give 360 an advantage in Europe also.

4 million PS3s more than Xbox 360 in Japan. Far larger?

360 19,744,186 (53 months) (March 2010)

PS3 12,079,596 (41 months) (March 2010)

In Japan PS3 isn't at 5 million yet and the 360 is 1.2 million, the gap in the US is over 7 million. So yes far larger. Also the 360 is about to pass the Snes in the US making it one of the biggest sellers in US history.

Xbox - 12,450,000 (41 months) (March 2005)


PS3 12,079,596 (41 months) (March 2010)

PS3 is actually selling behind the original Xbox, let alone 360.

DeadFish wrote:USA is not worldwide. PS3 in Japan has been outselling Xbox 360 15:1 non stop.

Which means nothing unless you include actual figures.

People who look at Japan and Europe and think it means that the PS3 is going to catch up with the 360 this year aren't looking hard enough.

Only 25k Xbox 360s more than PS3 this month in USA.

Amazing. Bloody amazing. PS3 is doomed.

DeadFish wrote:Only 25k Xbox 360s more than PS3 this month in USA.

Amazing. Bloody amazing. PS3 is doomed.

Funny how you think thats what people said when all they are pointing out is that the PS3 is unlikely to overtake the 360 in the next year or so.

HSH28 wrote:

DeadFish wrote:USA is not worldwide. PS3 in Japan has been outselling Xbox 360 15:1 non stop.

Which means nothing unless you include actual figures.

People who look at Japan and Europe and think it means that the PS3 is going to catch up with the 360 this year aren't looking hard enough.

I think VChartz has been a major tool in deciding the 360 is well beind in Europe by some. MS say it isn't and I suspect Sony would crow if they were well ahead.

Whatever the case I think the slim and price cut will shake things up a bit this year. The run of gams 360 is about to have cannot hurt either.

The ps3 gets GT5 which will shake things up for them too.

In the end though. the Playsation is the brand that dominated last gen. Surely in the end they'll increase thei market share a lot? This is a massive drop thus far but their brand is so strong it can't stay like this so I see second place by the end of the gen.

HSH28 wrote:

DeadFish wrote:Only 25k Xbox 360s more than PS3 this month in USA.

Amazing. Bloody amazing. PS3 is doomed.

Funny how you think thats what people said when all they are pointing out is that the PS3 is unlikely to overtake the 360 in the next year or so.

Agreed. I thought people were just surprised that it didn't hugely outsell the 360 with two of it's biggest franchises landing. Who said it was doomed?

They all look very healthy. For us customers the situation could not be better.. unless we're a bit simple we wouldn't want one brand to dominate because competition is good for us.

On a different notes. Prce Cuts. Is the 360 losing momentum? will they need to cut the price before the slim, or maybe during the summer months when it's quiet? Or will they hold out now seeing the run of games incoming?

cooldawn wrote:Conversely I'm surprise to still see the PS3 struggling to get platform parity with big 3rd party titles. I thought the gap between XBOX360 and PS3 versions of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 would have been smaller.

I think that for the big FPS franchises, Xbox Live is the differentiating factor that causes more platform disparity in terms of sales.

Amazing performance for Pokemon, and GOWIII did really bloody well (no pun intended). Square may be slightly disappointed with FFXIII's performance even though well over a million is obviously more than solid. Did the reviews put some people off?

If Sony's "hardware constrained" stories are true, then it was unfortunate timing. Should have been a very big month for PS3 sales. As it is, it's a very healthy software showing and Sony will be hoping that this keeps up over the coming months.

MS, on the other hand, must be quietly confident now that it's going into April, May and June with a potentially compelling line-up of games, having seemingly weathered the Sony storm.

In other news, the Battlefield franchise is finally a major, major player on consoles. I think a lot of that has to do with the well-received Battlefield 1943 on XBLA and PSN last year.

Rik wrote:So PS3 has lost all three months against 360 this year, if the 360 Slim does come this year then the PS3 could be blown away. So far behind in the US it looks like last place is assured.

A 'slim' version at a reduced price would help BUT that is only on the basis Sony doesn't cut PS3.

HSH28 wrote:I can't see the PS3 catching up this year or even next. Talking world wide here.

You're wrong. FACT! see below

Rik wrote:There are no official Pal figures, MS claim to still be in front in Europe. It must be pretty close, also the gap in the US is far larger than the gap in Japan.

Sorry Rik but you are way, waaaaaaay off track here. You need re-calibrating.

Software numbers are the complete opposite to the US in Europe suggesting the PS3 is stronger on the continent...unless you suddenly think less software sales = more hardware sales. Traditionally Europe has been a strong territory for Sony. Microsoft may claim Europe is close but PlayStation is ahead. Only the UK could interrupt the sales balance but many more countries on the continent would be too much to overcome.

We see the XBOX360 beat the PS3 on a monthly basis in the US by the same amount the PS3 beats the XBOX360 in Japan in a week.

Rik wrote:In Japan PS3 isn't at 5 million yet and the 360 is 1.2 million, the gap in the US is over 7 million. So yes far larger.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/38477/JAPAN-PS3-sales-pass-5m

According to the latest numbers from weekly magazine Famitsu, total sales of Sony’s PS3 have now passed the 5m mark in Japan.

Self-explanatory.

HSH28 wrote:

DeadFish wrote:USA is not worldwide. PS3 in Japan has been outselling Xbox 360 15:1 non stop.

Which means nothing unless you include actual figures.

People who look at Japan and Europe and think it means that the PS3 is going to catch up with the 360 this year aren't looking hard enough.

So hang on...the people considering worldwide sales performance aren't looking hard enough? That's strange because reading some people here you'd think NPD is worldwide.

You want figures. Let's take Japan's sales for April week 1:
XBOX360 = 2,676
PS3 = 38,877

This performance is consistent in Japan. For a whole month, I'll use March, it's like this:
XBOX360 = 10,853
PS3 = 155,917 (PS3 also outsold Wii)

So far 2010 has seen the PS3 with about 350,000 surplus if you consider US and Japan. By the end of April it could be as much as 500,000 surplus. That number is only going to be bigger if you also include Europe.

So, you see, I think people gravitating to NPD aren't looking hard enough. In Japan a single months 25,000 difference is gone in one week.

In Japan this year I predicted.

Nearly 1.4 million PS3s sold in a year.
Nearly 140,000k Xbox 360s sold in a year.

Yes, PS3 catching up fast worldwide.

DeadFish wrote:In Japan this year I predicted.

Nearly 1.4 million PS3s sold in a year.
Nearly 140,000k Xbox 360s sold in a year.

Yes, PS3 catching up fast worldwide.

But the PS3 is about 6 million units down on the 360 at the moment.

If you assumed that the US and EU sales differences cancel each other out (I'm sure they don't exactly but seeing as we really have no idea what the EU sales are its as good an assumption to make as any), then it'd take almost 5 years for the PS3 to overtake the 360 at that rate.

At which point we will be in another generation and the PS3 will have come 3rd.

Ultimately what does it matter? All 3 are selling enough units to make their respective endeavours viable. I think terms like "put the PS3 to bed" are rather inflammatory and have little basis in reality, yes I'm looking at you Rik. If the PS3 comes in last this gen, what of it? It didn't harm MS last time around (or was it Nintendo that came last? If so, the sentiment still holds true), as far as profit goes I'd be pretty surprised in Sony aren't breaking even on new sales by now; the last figure I saw, some months ago, talked of 70% cost reductions at manufacturing level.

At this stage it's very hard to tell what NATAL and Move will do to sales. I am unconvinced by both peripherals and I'm not sure of the wisdom of releasing them this far into the relevant products life cycles. The installed base for both machines could, perversely, be something of a disadvantage; it would be far easier to make them usps, if they were bundled with consoles new to market. In my view NATAL has some glaring limitations, no matter how accurate and lag free the technology maybe and is Move differentiated enough from the Wii to make it attractive? A couple of factors that may benefit the PS3 in the midst's of MS's NATAL media storm are it's Bluray player and the advent of 3D in the home, as far as these issues are concerned, Sony seem to be ahead of the game somewhat.

Number Wars

C&VG wrote:What's this? A bit of humility creeping into the console war? Surely not.

Microsoft product director Aaron Greenberg - the man Sony fanboys love to hate - has congratulated Xbox's rival on PS3's US software sales in March, which were revealed in last night's NPD data.

Writing on Twitter, Greenberg congratulated Patrick Seybold, senior director of corporate communications for SCEA, on PS3's strong software sales in March.

He posted: '...another strong month, solid #2 on HW sales and growing again YOY. Kudos to @seybold for some strong SW sales.'

Eye, eye...I wonder what his game is.

Zellery wrote:Estimated Number Wars

Fixed

How did Heavy Rain do over in the ol' US of A?