This week has undoubtly been a great week for Sony. They dominated the news firmly without leaving much breathing space, if any, to the competition, and managed, at least temporarily, to raise the popularity of their console quite a lot.
Of course we don't have much data yet, besides what's provided by the retailers, and even the data we have doesn't give us any hint on what the long-term results will be.
What we can do is to observe the present, and wonder what the future will hold.
One of the few early sources of data we have are the Amazon popularity charts, that list the popularity of each item compared to other items of the same category (updated hourly).
While we're just talking about one retailer, it's still one of the biggest in the world, with a very widespread customerbase. This means that, at the very least, such data has some limited statistical value.
While your mileage may vary on how to interpret them, I think it's interesting to give them a close look
I reported a few days back that the PS3 Slim was firmly in first place between the consoles themselves. It still is, with the Wii and the 360 Arcade dropping further to 9th and 31st places respectively.
But what about software? While console sales themselves are very important (for obvious reasons), software sales are equally important to gauge a console's popularity.
Let's give a close look to the list, and let's see how the multiplatform titles are going.
Something has definitely changed. Before the announcement of the PS3 Slim and the price drops for the PS3, it was very, very hard to see a multiplatform title selling more on Sony's console than on the 360. Now we can see the PS3 version of Batman: Arkham Asylum (the nearest upcoming big hit) leading the 360 one both for the regular and the collector's edition. The PS3 regular edition is actually the second most popular game after the unreachable Wii Sports Resort. Let's move to the latest already released big hit, Madden NFL: The result is the same. While we don't know by how much, the PS3 BD leads the 360 DVD.
That's most definitely good news for Sony, even if I feel that the real longer-term test will be on Modern Warfare 2, which will probably be the best selling multiplatform title this fall and comes from a franchise that's always been 360-dominated. On MW2 the PS3 version is still behind by quite a lot, even if it's climbing steadily, while the 360 version is dropping. We'll have to see if this trend continues long enough for the PS3 version to catch up in the next four months.
An interesting piece of data comes from older games like Metal Gear Solid 4, Uncharted and the PS3 version of Grand Theft Auto 4. They have reappeared near the top of the popularity list, meaning that new PS3 users are also buying "classic" games to build up their software library.
Finally, let's give a quick look to the accessories. The DualShock 3 is most definately popular, having overtaken even the WiiMote (but not the Wii Motion Plus), with the 360 controller lagging behind. The PS3 Remote is selling very well too, placing 11th. Meaning that PS3 customers still value the PS3 as a media station as well as a gaming console.
From the early data it's pretty evident that yes, the PS3 slim and the price cuts coming with it are driving software sales by quite a lot as well. The true question is if Sony will manage to keep the momentum or if the competition will intercept the ball. The next big stage is Tokyo Game show, during which Sony normally does quite well. An announcement of a close release date for Gran Turismo 5 and other strong exlusives would do well in their favor (a couple new titles wouldn't hurt as well). Also, applying some pressure (or support) on third party developers to get some potentially strong Japanese exclusives (or including exclusive content) like Yakuza 3, Gundam Senki and Tales of Vesperia, published in the west, would considerably strenghten the line-up, bringing back the Sony brand to it's ancestral place of premier provider of Japanese franchises.
The ball is in Sony's field. Will they attempt a long pass? Will they run with it? Or maybe they'll just drop it? We will see in the next few months.
Whatever the final result will be, the ones that will win are the gamers.
http://classygamer.blogspot.com/2009/08/is-ps3-slim-driving-software-sales-too.html
It will be interesting to see the NPD result for the software sales for August n especially September.
