First of all please don’t think of this as a diss on Sony or the PS3 in anyway. I just had a thought in my head that would not let go. So I will try and explain this idea as best I can.

I’m sure everyone knows that when the PS3 first came out it was a slow seller after the holidays. I would say mainly because of the high price, and low selections of software. Well things have gotten a lot better these days. But when the PS3 would not sell a lot of stores started to market the PS3 as the cheapest and best upgradable Blue-Ray player on the market. I mean Sony even did some campaign where you could get a couple free Blue-Rays with the purchase of a PS3. That might still be going on I’m not sure. Anyways to the point of this topic.

My thought is that the PS3 attach rates might be suffering because of this marketing. I mean there is just no way to accurately tell how many PS3 have never had a single PS3 game in them, or maybe just one. I know maybe one tech junkies that own a PS3 and never bought a game. How many can there be around the world? I know it’s hurting pretty badly when you see 360 selling 1.5 times more compared to PS3 that is only 8mil behind. The bad thing is the people that own these Blue-ray only PS3s would almost never visit this site or any game site to get an accurate polling data.

My other thought is that if Sony sold those consoles at a loss. Not going into how much they lost per console, which has been talked about enough. How many Blue-Rays would people have to buy before Sony would start making a profit back from the machine?

So that is my idea into why the attach rates might be a little lower than 360 and Wii. I found a wiki with info on attach rates which I will post also. I know there might be other reasons also but I have not seen this one brought up as much. I hope you got through my nice wall of text and enjoyed it.

http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Attach_rate#Attach_rate

The point of that strategy was not to get higher attach rate, it was to get the system in peoples homes, that worked pretty well, now they are concentrating on getting games out for it, which worked very well as well and its only getting better.

you wrote some facts, and that thing with Sony´s marketing.
I dont think the marketing strategy is bad, offering bonus Games/Movies is a good deal, but the PS3 is still at the same price, and its more attractive to people to see a PS3 for 299,- ,than for 399,- with 3 Full Priced Games.

"Just make it cheaper before Christmas Sony."

Editted to reflect the TIE rates and ATTACH ratios

The OP's source article also makes no sense when the article it links shows a poor PS3 tie rate -- but sources a Gamasutra analysis that shows the PS3 having pulled ahead of the Wii's tie rate in the US (6.5 vs. 6.2) as of March 2009.

(For the record, the Wii numbers include Wii Play but not Wii Sports. The explanation for the PS3 pulling ahead is strong Wii hardware sales and poor PS3 hardware sales).

As for attach ratios -- fewer consoles means probably menas less casual users (in general), so more game-buyers. The increase in the TIE rate supports this concept.

Mike from Morgantown

1) That wasn't a wall of text. It was three short paragraphs.

2) The 360 is not selling 1.5x what the PS3 sells, it's usually 100k for PS3 and 110k for 360.

3) So basically, you're saying that it's because the PS3 was marketed as a Blu-ray player. Yes, it was, but now there are cheaper and better Blu-ray players, so it's definitely a console. 95/100 people who buy it will use it as a console.

"U.S" and "Wikipedia" along with "PS3 software" a very bad mixture for a way to take a hit on something a person hates

or its bad because a lot of people own the xbox and the wii and by games for those....

its in 3rd place but its doing very good for a pricy console. and the games for it are awesome. it will pick upas it always does in the hoildays... i just wish the sony is dead threads would stop.. (not saying this is one)

Well it sure isnt my fault

The reason the PS3 has a lower attach rate is because of the price tag. After you buy it, you have less money to spend on games. The 360 isn't cheap either, but it benefits from a very strong internet community and still being affordable. This is part of the reason the Wii has a higher attach rate than the PS3 despite more casual gamers. And it's also part of the reason why the Gamecube had such a high attach rate.

Even if it's not the core reason, the logic is undeniable. The more expensive the system, the less money you have for games.

LOL thats good to know.

Infact im sure most PS3 owners on this site are WAY above average.