PS3 Slim sales more than TRIPLE previous PS3 price cut first week sales.

[NJ5]

greenmedic88 said:

NJ5 said:

greenmedic88 I think it's far too early to make any conclusions about the demand for a $299 PS3. For all we know, a large part of this week's demand may be due to PS3 owners switching their PS3 for a Slim.

Something similar happens when new colors are introduced. It's not very likely that someone decides to suddenly buy a console they didn't have just because it got a new color, rather we see the effect of hardcore fans selling (or giving away) their used consoles and buying the newest models.

Obviously a part of the high demand is due to the price cut itself, but as I said it's far too early to make any conclusions about that. Considering how low PS3 sales have been in the past few months, delayed demand explains a lot of the spike.

All of this brings me back to my initial reaction, which was that we'll know the lasting effect of the price cut by the end of this year, or early next year. Until then there are too many things confusing the picture.

 

The same suspicious/mysterious pattern happened in 2007 when the price dropped to $399, only to a lesser extent. What we saw not long after the initial peak in sales was a sustained increase in weekly sales at that price point as well as larger holiday season totals, which may well be attributed to the strong 2007 holiday line up of titles, but also sustained YoY increased sales continued through 2008 right until almost exactly when MS dropped the prices of their consoles across the entire line up. In 2009, MS has seen a similar sustained increase in YoY sales over 2008. Coincidence? Your call.

And there are no instances of new colors moving over 500k units from the previous week of under 100k. But yes, the sales building up to the slim release were heavily influenced by diminishing stock and orders more than any rumors about an imminent product redesign. The average consumer only knew about the slim when they saw the TV ads and the product on shelves with a new price.

Sustained 2010 sales for the PS3 should provide the best information as to where the demand for a $299 PS3 lies. If it's higher than 2007 and 2008 levels, interpret it as you will, but that would seem to indicate that there are more people buying $299 consoles than $399 consoles.

Sales could definitely be higher (also depending on how the economy evolves), my point was just that we still don't have any idea about how much higher. Could be 10% higher or 30% or even more, still too much uncertainty.