First of all i would like to thank vgchartz.com for their graph generator as it’s used extensively in this post, hats off to them.
Currently there is a constant flood of news articles claiming that Sony is failing with the PS3, NDP figures floating around getting people on edge, arguing the point to the bitter end that the Xbox 360 is doing better than the PS3, And you know what, PS3 fanboys?, It <strong>is</strong> doing better!, now to piss off the xbox fanboys, It’s only doing better because it’s had an extra year on the market, and as the original ‘next gen’ console which was uncontested for an entire year it had amazing initial sales and continues to have thriving sales due to the various SKU’s all being MUCH cheaper than it’s competition, the PS3, however despite being much cheaper, and sporting a much wider variety of games to play, and we’re not talking exclusives here, we’re talking the entire games collection in general..
Sony is still on track to outsell the Xbox 360 in the same market-presence time frame, Despite the following factors :
- PS3 has always been much more expensive than the Xbox 360
- A large majority of cross platform games run and look better on the Xbox 360
- Economical breakdown began in the second year of the console being in the market
- The games generally cost more than their 360 counterparts
- Much more exclusives available for the Xbox 360
So lets analyze the facts presented in hardware sales on vgchartz, based on sales performance from release, rather than ‘current’, so we have an accurate representation of how well each console is actually doing.
Before someone jumps in and says, ‘well that isn’t right now! and now is what counts!’, you’re mistaken, that’s like saying the Wii is doing badly because the PS2 is ahead in sales, it’s just wrong.
USA
The xbox 36o launched in the US uncontested on the market and experienced initial launch sales which were actually in excess of the PS2 launch sales, within the same release timeframe initial sales of the PS3 started slower but picked up to match the 360, which eventually dipped by spring leading to the 360 leading in first year initital sales.
If you shift the PS3 first year, to the 360 second year you’ll see that the 360 also gained more sales while the PS3 sales slumped, these roughly coincide with the Microsoft SKU price drops, but were mainly due to the poor initial year of PS3 game releases.
As it stands within the US the Xbox continues to have a substantial lead, even if we draw a line from launch to current sales and beyond to roughly estimate final sales figures in it’s third year, the PS3 would STILL be behind the 360′s current sales figures, which will obviously have increased by that time, too.
I do not honestly believe the PS3 will ‘win’ in terms of sales in the US while the xbox 360 is still on the market, though only time will tell if the final sales figures for both systems will tip in either’s favor when the consoles lifespan ends.
Europe
This is an intresting arena, really, while currently behind in overall sales figures, the PS3 has consecutively sold over twice as many units per year on the market as the xbox 360, it really doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the PS3 is actually doing a whole lot better on the european market than the Xbox 360, in terms of sales figures on a level with the Xbox 360, it’s pretty much set to outsell the competition by a large margin within it’s lifetime, i suspect that by the end of 2009, PS3 sales within europe will already exceed the Xbox’s, even with it’s year advantage.
Japan
This is a no brainer really, adoption of the Xbox 360 has always been very poor within Japan, while the Xbox 360 sales are slowly picking up there, the install base of the PS3 far exceeds that of the 360, If we compare this to the success of the Xbox 360 within the US one could be forgiven for chalking this up to prefering the console manufacured within it’s own country, which would mean for slightly less biased sales figures we should look to europe and the rest of the world, so lets do that.
Rest of the world
Xbox 360 is ahead here, but only compared to current sales figures, the PS3 in the same timeframe experience a relatively similar end of year sales as the xbox in it’s initial year, which climbed dramatically within the second, selling four times as many units as it did in it’s initial year, compared to the Xbox’s twice as many, if we project an average line here, we see that within the third year on the market, overall sales for the PS3 will exceed that of the Xbox 360, however if the PS3 follows the current trend of climbs in sales, which may happen globally should Sony introduce a price drop, or probably even without one, the Ps3 will be almost level if not slightly ahead of Xbox 360 sales, regardless of having a year less on the market.
Given this information, is it really right to claim the PS3 is doing badly? when the Xbox which most sites and news blogs claim is doing so much better, is in actual fact, behind in sales figures within the release time frame for everywhere on earth except for the US?
If you factor in the releases for the console over the next 12 months, the PS3′s sales are only set to keep at their current pace, or rise.
That said, it’s only obvious that within this economic climate, a country is more likely to embrace it’s own product than that of another countries, even still though as a gamer i can’t help but feel like Xbox users and PS3 users alike, have all been sucked in to a retarded war of which console is better.. This does nothing for gamers, there is nothign stopping anyone from owning more than one console and enjoying the games and exclusives on both machines.
Think back to the late 80s, do you think people argued over Jet set willy?, ‘My commodore 64 has better graphics!’ ‘Well my spectrum version has extra maps!’, NO, because back then people were too busy enjoying the games to think about how many Commdore’s or Specrums had been sold worldwide, or anything like that, all a gamer cared about was the games.
To all Xbox fanboys, all PS3 Fanboys, all Wii fanboys, grow up and enjoy games, the whole point of a game is to have fun, not to give you something to brag about to others.
Update! : i’ve received word from Nordlead at VGChartz.com that the above info contains a slight fault, as the ‘Rest of world’ section includes europe in figures not just areas outside of Japan, US and EU.
Well with Gamescom 2009 nearing it’s end and most if not all announcements having been made, it’s time to round up all the latest and greatest trailers that have been shown these past few days, starting with the Playstation camp.
