PS3 Sales up 61% - American Chart for Week Ending 27th October 2007

[Dodece]

Selective memory is a wonderful thing to have I suppose, or is ignorance bliss. The reality is far from the picture painted in the other regions. Sony has only held that position with the PS3 for three weeks. During which time the 360s sales have dropped by nineteen percent while the PS3s sales have dropped by thirty two percent. Prior to that the 360 held a lead for seven weeks. So Microsoft has won seven of the last ten weeks. Which is an advantage of two months to one.

You need to wait for Sony to bleed off the spike before you can make a reasonable judgment. The 360 once again has seen consistent sales. Meanwhile the PS3 sales are unstable. You need to see where the beast levels off this time. We have a good idea where the 360 is going to stay. We have no idea where the PS3 will be in a month. You have fence sitters, and bargain hunters pumping up the sales for the moment, but history has shown those do not last long for the brand.

What is quite obvious from the sales tracking is neither of these consoles are very dominant over the other. With a slight advantage going to the 360, but that can be a margin of error. Anyway the point is the PS3 is not dominant in other regions. What it is happens to be competitive for the second place position.

Another thing is that North America is the most relevant market to Sony. Their home market it dominated by Nintendo on two fronts, and it is their worst market. Even if they are not the worst in that market. North America however comprises over forty percent of their market. So those three to one margins that Microsoft has really do matter. Further more PS3 software sales in North America are much stronger then the software sales in Japan.

Things could get better it depends on whether Sony spikes yet again. However the situation right now is not altogether good. Microsoft looks like it will beat Sony yet again this week, and if the sales drop significantly in the others regions next week it might just end up being a case of closest approach. What Sony needs is for their sales to stabilize for a long period. Further more in certain markets they need to develop some sales ratio with the Wii.

Anyway given what history has taught us the PS3s sales are erratic at best. Spending a few weeks on top of the world in some region, and then sliding right back into mediocrity. While the 360 sales adopt a horizontal approach, and the Wii adopts a very high horizontal approach. When you factor in spiking if the net gain is below the horizontal line of the others it is no better then selling at a lower but steady rate.

The PS3 has pulled this same routine to many times in the past to be getting overly optimistic. I will say this if the PS3 does it yet again sell high for a few weeks then plummets back under the 360 then it is time to start getting worried about the consoles future, because apparently the machine will see soft demand regardless of price. I cannot see Sony being able to eat any more losses, and more importantly the other two can start matching at a much smaller loss.