ethomaz said:
The comparasion is not fair... a dead console with the PS3... a price cut for PS3 will hold for a long time yet. |
But the Wii wasn't dead in 2011 when the price cut happened. It may not have had as much support as the PS3 does now, granted, but they were selling very similarly.
Indeed, here's the same week in 2011 (First February week):
| Platform | Weekly (change) | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| PS3 | 230,600 | (-2%) | 47,765,820 |
| X360 | 203,244 | (-4%) | 51,046,780 |
| DS | 193,931 | (-3%) | 142,747,600 |
| Wii | 181,231 | (-4%) | 83,312,278 |
| PSP | 114,480 | (-11%) | 66,293,252 |
| Total | 923,486 | (-4%) |
And the week before the May 15th price cut:
| Platform | Weekly (change) | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| X360 | 142,766 | (+1%) | 53,327,756 |
| PSP | 133,724 | (-27%) | 68,417,910 |
| DS | 131,956 | (-15%) | 145,263,133 |
| PS3 | 127,110 | (-14%) | 50,451,961 |
| 3DS | 85,442 | (-18%) | 2,543,204 |
| Wii | 85,391 | (-20%) | 85,262,334 |
| Total | 706,389 | (-16%) |
And now less than 2 months after the Price Cut (August 13th), it did go lower than this (Xenoblade EU launch I think):
| Platform | Weekly (change) | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3DS | 363,601 | (+796%) | 3,895,620 |
| PS3 | 144,041 | (-8%) | 52,449,380 |
| PSP | 137,930 | (+3%) | 70,054,557 |
| Wii | 129,140 | (+3%) | 87,288,092 |
| X360 | 128,144 | (-3%) | 55,158,830 |
| DS | 123,990 | (-9%) | 147,177,815 |
| Total | 1,026,846 | (+42%) |
Note the sales of the Wii, even only 2 months after the $50 price cut, were a good 40% or so lower than current sales now. Who knows where they'd be without that price cut. Much lower no doubt, but it still paints a worrisome picture. Sure, the Wii may not have had the SW support, but it still had big titles like Skyward Sword and Just Dance coming for it.
I'm not saying a price cut won't help; nor that it may well have longer effects than the Wii one. However, it must be said that it's unlikely to solve all of the PS3's problems. The 360? Well, that's in an even worse situation.
