PS3 Selling Three Times as Fast, says Sony CEO

[shams]

Just_Ben said:

Source GameDaily

According to Sony Chief Executive Sir Howard Stringer, sales of the PlayStation 3 have seen a nice up-tick since the company introduced a cheaper 40GB model. In Europe, over the past three weeks, the PS3 has been the number one selling console, with the PS2 being No. 2. He said the console is now selling three times as fast, and twice as fast in the U.S.

Stringer noted that "if the momentum continues," Sony will certainly hit its target of selling 10 million PS3s worldwide by the end of its fiscal year. "We are coming back up again," he said.

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Any thoughts? Is he qouting Media Create? Or is it marketing BS?

Its marketing BS. Firstly, the PS3 has *never* been the #1 selling console this year - except for launch week. And definitely not recently. Its in real danger of being the worst selling console at the moment (Wii & PS2 both outselling it, 360 almost on par).

Twice as fast in the US? I would hope so, on the week the new 40Gig launches (+ price cuts hit?). Its still being smashed in the US by everything else - and suffered the embarrassment of being outsold in Japan by the 360 last week (won't last though).

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Now for: "Sony will certainly hit its target of selling 10 million PS3s worldwide by the end of its fiscal year"

I'll make my statement now: Sony will suffer one of the most embarrassing pieces of media ever, when they miss their fiscal year projections by 3-4m by March '08. I don't know who is doing the number in Sony, but they are smoking some wacky weed.

Lets do a quick analysis. They hve sold maybe... 3.5m this fiscal year to date, and need to sell another 7.5m (approx). I'm sticking to the 11m figure BTW - not this 10m "out of the air" figure.

 - 8 weeks left this year. Xmas is the busiest time - lets say they need to sell 4m this year to have a chance.

4m / 8 = 500k / week (worldwide). Last week they sold 130k WW. Ooops.

Lets say for this coming week: 50k sales in Japan (price drop), and 100k in the US (40Gig release). Others around 50k. That still makes 200k.

Lets say, sales double for Black Friday week (thanksgiving), and sales stay doubled for all of Dec - and quadrupled for last week in Dec (Xmas).

That still makes: 200k x 3 + 400k (Nov) + 400k x 3 + 800k (Xmas) = 3.0m (approx)

So even with this "best case scenario", they STILL miss their target this year by at least 1m - probably closer to 1.5m

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Then lets take NEXT quarter.  MGS has been delayed, no GTA either. They get Prologue... and HOME? LBP?

Its traditionally the quietest period of the year. They are also up against some stiff competition - Brawl & other titles.

If they sold 4m in this Xmas qrt - they will be lucky to sell 2.0m - 2.5m - in the next qrt. Prologue will help... but not *that* much. They REALLY needed MGS. Maybe if they have some surprises coming.

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So I think they will miss it by 2m units at best - and 4m at worst. They could always pull some "shipped figures" out of the air (channel stuffing), saying that they shipped 2-3m MORE units than they sold. I guess in the end, missing it by only 2m will almost be a blessing to them - considering how bad it could be.

We'll see in the coming weeks how the sales in the US/Japan stack up, and how well they hold. Its also important to note how much competition the PS3 has now - its still the most expensive console, and with the (easily) weakest lineup. Up against the DS, PSP, PS2, 360, Wii.. and even GBA.