| TheSource said: Sony has historically been slow out of the gates with their video game hardware systems, but their slow and steady pace has served them well in the long term. |
One thing I hear a lot is that the PS2 started off slow just like the PS3. At this point in time in the PS2's release it had sold about equal to the PS3.
While this is true it kind of neglects two things:
1) The PS2 had not been through a holiday season
2) The PS2 was only out in Japan
The PS2 was hard to find in the U.S. and Japan until March from what I've heard from forums so it could not have sold any better than it did. Let's see how well the PS2 sold when it was available everywhere worldwide.
http://vgchartz.com/worldcons.php?date=36951&sort=0
http://vgchartz.com/worldcons.php?date=37316&sort=0
It sold 18 million. I don't call that a slow start. If you look from March 00 to March 01 it sold 10.61 million, this is despite the fact that 3/4s of the time it was only out in Japan and it was sold out in other countries at launch so the sales could not be any higher than they were. I say if the PS2 was released at exactly the same time as the PS3 and it was findable in stores at the same time the PS3 was then it would have sold 15-20 million in the first year. The PS3 has sold 3.5 million in its first 7 months.
