When will PS3 lose its momentum?!

[albionus]

The PS3 is beating the original, but the original was from a company new to the video game industry that was going up against the titans of the industry, Sega and Nintendo. The original was new had to prove itself first. The PS3 shouldn’t have anything to prove and should thus be compared the PS2 since it is from the established industry leader with the largest fan base and so forth. It’s not an exact comparison since the PS2 launched in March in Japan but in approximately the first 4 months the PS2 sold 4,114k units in JP+NA compared with 1,989k for the PS3. Not only that but the PS2’s sales didn’t fall off the way the PS3’s have for almost 9 months (then it appears only because of the US/PALand launches). During the same time frame, except for the first week of the year, the PS3 greatest selling week (47k) is less than the PS2’s worst week (49k). The US isn’t as good an indicator due to having sales data by month but the PS2 didn’t sell below 262k for its first year. The PS3 despite being in ample supply already sold half that for a month. You can say the PS3 isn’t the worst selling system in history (it clearly isn’t) but comparing the successor to the PS1 & 2 to the Xbox or the first year of the PS1 is a sad place for both it and Sony to be. The PSP only this year sold more than the GBA in the US and then not by much. Japan is different but they switched over to the DS quicker and in a bigger way than the US did. I don’t find it surprising for the 2 year old system to outsell a 6 year old system. Even the Xbox 360 will outsell the PS2 at some point, probably this year. We’ll have to wait and see about the Wii of course, but it is outselling the PS2 from what can be garnered on this site (Europe’s figures being yearly is annoying), but the above sales + first Christmas in PALand = 4,784k for PS2 and 4,911k for the Wii. The GameCube and N64 were already lying down and dying at this point, despite both also widely available. May not be a 100 million seller but it’s on its way. You have to tap the casual market to hit 100 million and only the Wii has a price point capable of doing that this generation. MS may eventually, but the main flaw of the PS3 is that it cannot without financially ruining Sony. Yes the vaunted Sony 1st party, the one that can’t match Nintendo despite selling 4 times as many systems. If Nintendo couldn’t push systems based on 1st party Sony sure isn’t.