EEDAR: PS3 400,000, Wii: 375,000, Xbox 360: 370,000
Pachter: PS3: 410,000 (up 76% YOY), Wii: 390,000 (down 45% YOY), 360: 350,000 (up 1% YOY)
Joystiq
Three years and $300 worth of price cuts later, PS3 may finally hit the top of the hardware sales charts in America. EEDAR's analyst Jesse Divnich predicts 400,000 PS3s were sold in September, edging out both Wii and Xbox 360 sales (375k and 370k units respectively).
It's far from a landslide victory for Sony, but it may be the start of a turnaround for the long-beleaguered company. If the hardware maintains momentum, the next issue Sony will have to tackle is software. While EEDAR's hardware numbers peg PS3 at the top, its software charts only show one PS3 game in the top 10: Batman: Arkham Asylum. With the remainder of the chart dominated by 360 and Wii games, it's clear Sony still has a long way to go in the console wars.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/08/eedar-predicts-ps3-is-top-selling-console-in-september-for-fi/
PSX Extreme
Well, that's what a price drop can do for you.
It probably won't come as a big surprise to anyone, but it's still good news from Sony's angle: the official NPD numbers release in a week but in the meantime, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pacther has predicted that not only has the PlayStation 3 outsold the competition in the month of September, but the US market will also "return to double-digit growth following six straight months of negative figures." According to VG247, Pachter expects total sales of $750 million, which would be a 21% increase over last year's $618 million, and concerning the console war:
"We estimate sell-through of 390,000 Wii hardware units (down 45% from last year), 350,000 Xbox 360 (up 1% from last year), and 410,000 PS3 consoles (up 76% year-over-year) as the price cuts for all three consoles spurred demand."
EEDAR expects a slightly less drastic overall increase - $716 million, a 16% boost - but they also agree that the PS3 should be tops in September, and that would be the very first time since its US launch back in November of 2006 that the PS3 was the biggest console seller in a one-month period. EEDAR also notes the continued success of the music genre as both Guitar Hero 5 and Rock Band: The Beatles are surpassing sales expectations, but they say we might not have such a huge October as we did in 2008.
Well, last year's 2008 was arguably even more stocked than this year's, despite the emergence of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. As it's not a multiplatform game, it really can't push October past last year's all on its own. But hey, things are still looking up for the industry and once again, it proves that without the software (and agreeable hardware prices) progress tends to falter.
http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/5927.html