As everyone knows, the only way to judge launches is with respect to the prices.

So let's take a look. Some consoles had different editions with different prices. As prices limit the sales, the people with not too much money to spend will tend to the cheaper version, so the cheaper version is the limiting factor in sales and will be used for this comparison.

first week USA, price-sensitive (sorted by success):

WiiU: 421,850 * 299$ = 126,133,150

Wii: 463,466 * 249$ = 115,403,034

XBOX 360: 305,237 * 299$ = 91,265,863

3DS: 350,918 * 249$ = 87,378,582

PS3: 139,044 * 499$ = 69,382,956

PS Vita: 207,105 * 249$ = 51,569,145

first week europe, price-sensitive (sorted by success):

PS3: 516,123 * 599€ = 309,157,677

3DS: 333,530 * 249€ = 83,048,970

Wii: 321,565 * 249€ = 80,069,685

XBOX 360: 231,802 * 299€ = 69,308,798

WiiU: 179,952 * 299€ = 53,805,648

PS Vita: 189,928 * 249€ = 47,292,072

Thanks. As the Yen is much less worth then the other to currencies, I take only 1/100 (around the exchange-rate) before adding it to the sum of the three regions.

Sum:

PS3: 424,048,733

Wii: 286,120,719

WiiU: 259,618,918

XBOX 360: 177,567,861

3DS: 170,427,552 (without Japan)

PS Vita: 98,861,217 (without Japan)

I have no prices for Japan, so I omit this.

As we can see, the PS3-launch was not only better than the competition, but spectacular: it passes the numbers of the competition by a great margin.

nice article but: ps3 also was the MOST EXPENSIVE console in production (cell manufactiring and bluray support killed sony financialy)

Tagged game.

Wasn't it like 200 bucks that Sony lost on each of those consoles sold? Sooooo, shouldn't there be a negative number in the OP?

Also like the part where apparently all Wii U sold were basic packs, even though reports paint a whole different picture. We know for a fact that the majority of Wii U sold are Deluxe bundles, so the limiting factor part is out of the window.

I appreciate your effort Mnemoth but please leave the spin to the pro's. I can't use this thread in a year when a Nintendo guy makes it.

Just shows how much money Sony lost^^

Given how massive the ps2 was, I'm not surprised how massive the PS3's launch was. Imagine how many units it would've sold if it had the x360's price tag...

Yes, that's what I'm talking about. Think how Sony would dominate, if they had sell the PS3 at 99$! And how bad the Wii would perform at 599$.

To put it into perspective, the PS3 europe launch had a lot of pent up demand as it was more than 3 month after US/JPN launch and Sony obviously had enough time to deliever enough consoles by then, while most of the other systems were simply sold out in their launch weeks.

By the way you forgot the PS3 at launch had a $499 model in US, but that one got discontinued quickly, as nobody bought it.

Think how many PS3s would have been sold if they were part of the Happy Meal, and how many Wiis if they were only sold on the Moon.

Yes, we have to factor that in, to judge the launch-performance.