Is the PS3 selling badly? Why do you think it is/isn't?

[Final-Fan]

Lost tears of Kain said:

Final-Fan said:

HappySqurriel said:

I would just like every person who is saying the PS3 isn't selling that badly to sit back and try a mental excercise ...

Imagine that the sales were different and the PS3 was the fastest selling game console in history and just passed the XBox 360 and (on average) outsold the XBox 360 and Wii combined in weekly sales. The Wii on the other hand is selling slower than the Gamecube and is one of the slowest selling sequel consoles of all time. How much third party support could Nintendo attract or maintain for games to be released in 2008/2009? What is the likelyhood that the Wii would be able to comeback and win the generation?

The fact of the matter is that you see the PS3 being in a different position largely because you believe that consumers will end up choosing the console with the most theoritical processing power or largest list of features. Generally speaking consumers do not care about these things and rarely take note of them except to justify their purchase after the fact. 2007 and 2008 will not see much in the way of Blu-Ray adoption and by 2009 the PS3 will be dramatically more expensive than a Blu-Ray player and people will stop seeing much value in the PS3 as a gaming machine (because its slow sales will have hurt its game library).

Sony could change the fate of the PS3 but it would require leadership and a willingness to save the console at all costs; if Sony was willing to lose Billions of dollars this year to reduce the price of the PS3 to a more normal level ($300/$400) and buy exclusive games for 2008/2009 they would stand a chance at catching up to the Wii in 2011/2012 ... I don't expect to see this happening.

Only the PS3 isn't selling slower than the GC (and I want to see numbers to prove me wrong Soriku) and it has a huge lineup - much of it third-party exclusive - that hits in about 6 months. Considering that the PS3 with very few exclusive games worth owning is (currently) selling better than the 360 even after the counter-price-cut, I think it is very reasonable to believe that it may well outsell the 360 by a LOT in 2008. Nowhere close to Wii sales, of course, but still, I believe it could very possibly pass the 360 WW sales total by 2010.

I am NOT a PS3 fanboy, by the way -- and I'm not accusing anyone of labeling me as such; I just want to forestall it. I just think that the doom and gloom predictions are heavily based on comparing it to the PS2 and not comparing it to what is necessary for it to become a successful console in its own right -- more successful, perhaps, than the 360. And I don't hate the 360, either -- I am very anxious to finish the story begun in Halo, and very excited about Mass Effect.

There is no way the PS3 can take first this generation. However, it can be a successful, profitable console, in a solid second place, and a good springboard for the PS4. If that happens, the PS3 will have been a success. It is not wildly unlikely that it will do exactly that, which makes it at this time not a failure.

again we are going with the arguement that these games will push the system, when we say this, then the wii and xbox will NOT get the same boost that these games are getting. Sure xbox has alot more good games then the ps3 at the moment, but it has a huge season to look forward too. So if it works for ps3, how can it not for 360 or wii?

To say that great games will only push one system is...... you get the point. I want evidence that these games will push the system, and only the ps3 system.

I do agree it will push the system more then the others will, but will it be enough to close such a huge gap?

So you concede that the PS3 will get a bigger boost than the 360.  I agree that the PS3 will not get the ONLY boost -- in fact, earlier I referred to a "Halo boost" -- and I certainly never denied that all the systems would get permanent sales boosts due to their flagship titles' release.  That would be silly. 

But I digress.  It is agreed that The PS3 will get a bigger boost than the 360.  I say it will get specifically a bigger permanent sales hike.  It is already selling better than the 360.  So I don't see how it is unreasonable to say that it will begin catching up to the 360 sales total in earnest in 2008.