Well to have a better understanding we should compare console sales in UK .If the "launch " demand has been more or less satisfied and the sales have already returned to a more stable pattern ,then this links could be useful .Well I dont find the link now but it basically said that the PS3 had outsold the Wii in 6000 units and the X360 in 15 000 units for that week .Then we have that the PS3 must have sold some 30000 against 24 000 Wii and 15 000 X360 .So a 20% more than the Wii and 50% more than the X360 .Now ,if sales fall a bit further as it would be normal then it should do somewhat along the Wii or slightly less but always better than the X360.In UK ,best X360 market .Other question is the stock one ,if SOny UK sent 210-220K units and it has sold 172K+30K it is clear they dont have much stock left so unless they have sent more we cant gauge very well the actual demand for the machine .

Diomedes - when you find the link than post it - iam very interested about the uk sales.

would be great when vgcharts make a "week section" for uk ... what do you think ? 

Here is the link http://www.psu.com/node/9452

I think you're making a common "american" mistake.

In the US, the PS2 was 300$ and the PS3 600$, so indeed, it's quite a difference.

Not in Europe. The PS2 launch price was between 475 and 500 euros  while the PS3 is 600.

So indeed, this is a high price, but not that much higher than previously and yet, PS2 had a strong and (more importantly) steady launch in Europe.

We'll see what's coming but I can tell you something many french retailers report : those high numbers comes from reservations. Peolpe came quietly took what they had ordered, but beside that, there are no many sells. that's what bothering them.

thank you diomedes - but there are no real numbers and its a playstation site ...

i like to see numbers from chart tracks (uk) or another neutral site

i don't know if it fits here, but i've just found sales numbers for germany. it is only for the first to days after launch, so probably someone else posted it already, but there is an interesting fact which i haven't read yet on vgchartz, so i think this could be interesting.

 ps3 hardware sales: 60k

ps3 software sales: 48k

so it seems as if at least 12k of the germans bought ps3 as a blu-ray player... or probably more, because there were surely some people who bought two games for their console.

here is the source (it's in german): http://gameswelt.de/konsolen/news/topnews_detail.php?item_id=64098

Yes ,interesting .That could also be ,that being the console so expensive ,some people could only afford the console and play the free demos or maybe one game of the Ps Store ,or they continued to play their games from the PS2 for some days until saving up some money for the PS3 game .

PS3 Week Two Sales Drop “Meaningless” UK stats merchant Chart-Track says it’s “meaningless” to draw conclusions about PlayStation 3’s performance based on an inevitable sales drop in the console’s second week on sale. Image Company director Dorian Bloch told Next-Gen, “A figure of an 82% drop has leaked out but that alone means nothing. Given how much pent up demand there was for PS3 and given the sophistication of pre-order systems now, it really doesn’t mean anything.” PS3 sold 165,000 units in its first two days on sale. Its second week sale came in at around 30,000. Unfortunately, Chart-Track said it would not release comparable figures for Xbox 360 or Wii sales, which would add some context to the figures. Figures for previous week two console launches are unreliable due to the usual shortages problem. Bloch added, “In almost all console launch scenarios, there has been no stock in a second week on sale. Sony, for a number of reasons, had extra stock available. So there really aren’t many comparable precedents for week two sales. Judging a console based on nine days on sale is just crazy. It doesn’t make any sense.” Chart-Track gathers sales of hardware and software for the UK and Irish markets. Sony declined to comment on the numbers. Next-gen.biz

Demand is people who are willling to buy units, not people that want to buy units but can't or won't.

(Supply > Demand) = Inventory available = Demand satisfied

(Demand > Supply) = Inventory unavailable = Demand unmet

koffieboon - great post and should make many people think about what they are trying to analyze. YOU CANT! So forget about it. This drop doesn't mean anything, we need at least a few more weeks with actual figures to start to look for trend lines and what it is following. I would be $100 that the sales will drop again next week. I can't remember it was this thread that Hus said it in, but it's funny to see someone say something like 'when lair arrives the decimation starts then' HAHA yeah right, Lair is going to push sales up so massively and keep them going? I laugh at that comment.