Despite Massive Shortages of the 80 GB PS3, Sony Reigns Victorious Over the Competition for April NPD Sales
May 15th, 2008 Hans
Another outstanding month for Playstation fans as it has been revealed once again that the Playstation 3 is outselling the competition, despite massive shortages of the 80 GB PS3 in the United States. A few months ago, it was revealed that the 80 GB sales of the PS3 vastly exceeded the 40 GB version. Despite this, Sony made a tactical move that would potentially put them at a temporary lull for the next few months as they discontinue the 80 GB MotorStorm pack and would only be selling the 40 GB without PS2 backwards compatability.
Luckily for Sony fans, the wait will be worth it as the 80 GB will make a return on June 12th when the Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle releases. However, given the massive shortages of the 80 GB PS3 inbetween this timeframe, we have seen less sales than what is usually expected of the very strong Playstation 3 brand. Dare we say it, the PS3′s closest competitor (the Xbox 360) has actually managed to sell quite close to the PS3 over the past few months, though the PS3 has outsold the 360 in terms of year-to-date sales. At SDF, we expect the PS3 to remain relatively close to the 360 until June, where sales of the 80 GB PS3 will skyrocket from pent up demand. From there, the Playstation 3 will not look back. Here are the May NPD numbers:
Current Generation Sales:
PlayStation 3 187.1K
Xbox 360 188.0K
Please keep in mind when analyzing these figures that the Playstation 3 is supply constrained with no 80 GB PS3s on shelves. Further, the Xbox 360 has no supply constraint issues, but many of those Xbox 360s sold are actually owners of the Xbox 360, they are simply buying an Xbox 360 for a second (or third, or fourth, or fifth..etc) time due to RROD failures. Clearly, the PS3 has sold to more first time customers than the Xbox 360 has in April. It should also be noted that the Xbox 360 is significantly less expensive than the Playstation 3. The entry price for the Xbox 360 is only $279, while it’s $400 for the superior Playstation 3 console. The Playstation 3 is clearly on top in terms of next-generation console sales worldwide.
Last Generation Sales:
PlayStation 2 124.4K (127,000,000)
Wii 714.2K (24,500,000)
Moving on to last generation console sales, we clearly see that the Playstation 2 continues to dominate. It has sold an estimated 127 million in its lifetime, meanwhile the Wii has only managed to sell 24.5 million, baredly edging it over the other last generation consoles such as the GameCube and original Xbox. Wii still has a lot of catching up to do before Sony Defense Force can start becoming worried of it ever overtaking the Playstation 2 in terms of the last generation hardware race.
