Just been looking at the charts, and noticed this - very, very interesting.

In short - the combined software sales % of ALL "Playstation" brand products (PS2/PSP/PS3), across ALL territories - is remarkable low now.

In fact - I can't remember them ever (?) being this low (at least not for a few years).

I guess this is due to several factors:

 - PSP software sales almost non-existant (as well documented)

 - PS2 software sales dropping off quite quickly (especially no legs being shown by most titles)

 - PS3 software sales underperforming, especially for new releases

...

I don't cover Europe - as we don't have solid numbers for software in the region. 360 is dominating US, and DS dominating Japan - with the Wii holding strong numbers in the middle. Here are numbers for the last few weeks:

--- US ---

Week ending Nov 17th: 29%

Week ending Nov 10th: 27%

Week ending Nov 3rd: 31%

Week ending Oct 27th: 30%

--- JAPAN ---

Week ending Nov 18th: 18%

Week ending Nov 11th: 32%

Week ending Nov 4rd: 17%

Week ending Oct 28th: 30%

...

Overall average: 26.7%

What I find remarkable is that this is for all THREE platforms - if you would have asked me 12 months ago, I would have expected the PS2 to have roughly this software ratio - with all three platforms closer to the 40%-45% level.

Maybe the industry has expanded greatly, and the actual volume of PS software has stayed fairly level? But for Sony to only represent 25% of the total industry software sales - across all platforms - is pretty remarkable. Might be one to keep an eye on into next year.

Discuss?

The PS2 software is now dominated in the second hand software market. Most of the older games are actually better than the new ones. Final Fantasy X for $10 or The Simpsons game for $40?

The PSP and PS3 are falling victim to Sony's marketing of them being used as multimedia devices rather than a gamming platform. Ex. Many PSP users are using it simply as a MP3, WMV player and many PS3 users are just using it to surf the web and watch movies on.

The 360 emphasizes online gamming and Live the most so games with Xbox Live features sell fantastic.

The Wii only plays games for the most part, no games ;no function

I'm absolutley not saying you're wrong but I do find it hard to believe. Here in Sweden the stores are full on PR blitzes for PS3 and PS2, especially the PS2 sections are always huge - both new and used games. If the stores don't sell all that much of it I would think it would get pushed back into a store corner, you know, the place where we find Gamecube, GBA and/or PSP titles.

It will be interesting to see if esspecially the PS2 numbers ppick up over christmas since there is a lot of good PS2 "family" stuff being released/advertised now. 

The PS3 and PSP shelf spaces here in the US typically have the smallest shelf spaces anywhere you go. The 360 and the PS2 are generally about the same size anywhere you go.

a pity it is first and foremost a gaming device. I mean I bought a console and only later realized that does only play games. 

Europe is a much stronger market for the PS brand overall. In my country the sales ratio is 1 Xbox360 - 2 Wii - 4 PS3 especially after the new Assassin's Creed and PES08 bundles.

The 2nd-hand software market is huge as well for the PS2. PS2 hardware is cheap, and no one buys new PS2 software - just 2nd hand software.

Clearly people still do buy PS2 software shams :D

PES'08 on PS2 is expected to sell between 200-300k in Japan this week.

WWE Smackdown vs Raw sold 250k on the PS2 in America last week.

It's amazing the system can still have releases that reach these huge numbers.

@Dallinor: With it's install base, every games release should have the similar numbers to those you just said.
In Europe PS2 software propably have a lot bigger share than what it has in NA or Japan.
But i have to admit, that the PS3:s shelf space seems to be running smaller, at least what i have been noticing. It propably will take some time for it to reach the Gamecube level.