PS3 Sales Setting the Stage for a Solid Holiday Season; Total PlayStation Sales Up 20 Percent Year-Over-Year
PlayStation 3 Hardware Unit Sales Top 232,408
PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) again experienced consistent momentum in September 2008, with 232,408 hardware units sold according to The NPD Group, an increase of over 94% year-over-year and an increase of more than 25% over the previous month. Additionally, software sales for PS3 experienced year-over-year growth of 130% with 1.72 million units sold.
Software sales are expected to continue their upward projection in October as SCEA kicks off the holiday season with the highly anticipated launches of LittleBigPlanet, SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, and NBA ’09: The Inside.
PlayStation®Network remained a popular destination with newly added games and entertainment content such as WipEout HD, Linger in Shadows and PAIN: Amusement Park. There are currently more than 12 million registered accounts worldwide and over 240 million pieces of content have been downloaded worldwide.
PSP also experienced strong sales, with 238,056 hardware units sold.
Fueled by enthusiasm for the limited-edition LEGO Batman: The Videogame PlayStation®2(PS2) Pack, PS2 generated solid sales in September, with 173,527 hardware units sold, 20% growth from last month. An impressive 42.9 million PS2s have been sold in the U.S. as of September 2008.
Power of the PlayStation Portfolio
The PlayStation brand experienced strong sales across all three platforms, earning $379 million in September.
Year-to-date (Jan-Sept), the PlayStation brand has generated $4.03 billion in revenue, representing an increase of 20% year-over-year.
PlayStation total hardware revenue was $160.5 million in September, representing a year-to-year growth of 11%.
PlayStation total software revenue in September was $180 million, representing a year-to-year growth of 17%.
CEO Perspective
“We remain confident that our footing is solid as we enter the holiday season this year. Our new 80GB PS3 model has made its way to retail shelves and into consumers’ living rooms as the best value for both their gaming and entertainment needs. If the impressive pre-sale numbers and ratings for LittleBigPlanet, SOCOM: Confrontation, and Resistance 2 are any indication, we anticipate hardware and software sales to continue to lift in October as we officially kick off the broadest and deepest software line-up this holiday, including LittleBigPlanet, SOCOM: Confrontation, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift and NBA ’09: The Inside.
- Jack Tretton, president and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment America
347,000 Xbox 360 consoles sold in September following our U.S. price cut on Sept. 5 contributing to a U.S. install base of 11.3 million (September NPD data). Xbox 360 is now the most affordable next generation console on the market—$50 less than the Wii and half the price of the PlayStation 3.
Backed by September sales data, which showed $326 million in total consumer spend in the U.S. and a record software attach rate of 8.1 (September NPD data), we know Xbox 360 owners will continue to flex their buying power in the coming weeks when blockbusters like “Gears of War 2,” “Lips,” “Fable II,” “You’re in the Movies” and “Scene It? Box Office Smash” hit shelves.
Xbox 360 is the preferred stage for this holiday’s hottest music games
New music tracks for popular games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero extend every music experience so every party feels like a new party. Xbox LIVE has delivered more than 80% of the downloadable songs for music games, currently averaging 3.8 million music downloads per month. In total, Xbox 360 users have enjoyed more than 45 million music downloads. (Microsoft internal data)
In addition to leading the online music game market, Xbox 360 sells more copies of the world’s favorite music franchises. To date this generation, in the U.S., nearly 2 million copies of the Rock Band franchise have sold on the Xbox 360, almost 1 million more than the competition combined. Life-to-date sales of the Guitar Hero franchise on Xbox 360 top 4 million, securing more than 50% of franchise sales this generation (September NPD data).
“Rock Band 2” debuts exclusively on Xbox 360
· Since its U.S. launch on Sept. 14, “Rock Band 2” on the Xbox 360 sold 363,000 copies in September, making it September’s #3 selling game.
· This holiday, Xbox 360 will continue to sell more third-party games like “Rock Band 2” than the competition. In September alone, Xbox 360 generated $167 million in third party game sales.
Calling all shower singers, wanna-be rappers and pop princesses – “Lips” hits the stage in November
· “Lips” will have music fans singing their favorite tunes this holiday season as this totally new singing IP lands around the globe. “Lips” lets people sing the music they want with breakthrough wireless motion-sensitive microphones, backed by master tracks and original music videos. “Lips” hits in mid-November, exclusively for Xbox 360 from Microsoft and iNiS.
“Guitar Hero® World Tour” drops on Oct. 26 with a cooperative band experience, newly redesigned controllers and in-game Music Studio music creator
· “Guitar Hero World Tour” launches on Oct. 26. Xbox 360 gamers worldwide have early access to an R.E.M. track pack featuring three songs from the band’s new album, and Metallica’s highly anticipated full-length album, “Death Magnetic,” was offered to music fans around the world as downloadable content on Xbox LIVE in its entirety on the same day the record was released.
At the Tokyo Game Show last week we announced that the New Xbox Experience will launch worldwide on Nov. 19. For the first time in the history of the internet, 14 million consumers across 24 countries will all tune in at the same time to watch their Xbox 360 completely reinvent itself, for free, with the New Xbox Experience.
From the best music games and blockbuster titles, to LIVE Parties, photo sharing and access to a movie and TV show library 30,000 deep through the New Xbox Experience, Xbox 360 has something for everyone this holiday.
DC R1D3R, 09/10/2008 - The latest Media Create hardware sales data from Japan has been released and shows that not only is Microsoft’s Xbox 360 continuing to outsell rival Sony’s PS3, but it’s actually starting to have a negative affect on Sony’s highly treasured sysytem. This week Xbox 360 managed to sell 8,271 units, whilst Sony’s PS3 managed just 7,232 units……Sony’s lowest recorded sales ever, since the launch of the PlayStation 3. Many industry insiders predicted an upturn in fortune for the PS3 this week, considering the fact that TGS 08 conference would relinquish some interest in the system, but so far, it hasn’t panned out that way. Hit jump for the rest of this weeks sales data.
DS Lite 42,385
PSP 26,045
Wii 25,330
PS2 8,618
Xbox 360 8,271
PS3 7,232
You know hotcakes? The 360’s selling like ‘em. The company have announced during their TGS address this morning that, since a range of price-cuts were introduced for the console across the US, Europe and Japan over the past few months, sales have - shockingly - increased. According to Microsoft’s John Schappert, US 360 sales have “doubled”, European sales are up by “62%”, and they’re up “five-fold” in Japan. Whichever way you look at it, that’s an increase.
As previously discussed we aren’t making any price moves this holiday season,” Patrick Seybold, director of corporate communications at Sony Computer Entertainment America told Edge.
“In my opinion,” he added, “we have the best line up of any PlayStation generation going into this holiday and consumers will be very receptive to it.”
Many of you have already been granted access to the upcoming Resistance 2 beta; you either pre-ordered the game at GameStop and received your key code that way, or you registered at the official site for beta testing. However, we’re still not exactly sure when the the action will begin.
Initially, we had heard Sony prepared to begin testing on October 6, but that day has come and gone, so we’re still in a waiting pattern. Thankfully, that beta may only be a few days off: firstly, we’ve received several inside tidbits of information that points towards a Friday, October 10 launch. We won’t reveal the sources for that, but let’s just say they’re at least semi-reliable. Secondly, an administrator over at the Resistance 2 forum posted the following message in reply to all the rumors zipping around the Internet:
“Over the last few days, I’ve seen several threads that *think* they know the start of the public beta. Well, they are wrong.
We haven’t announced any firm dates for the beta yet. But trust me, it’s close (like, real close). Please be patient and just ignore the threads falsely reporting the start date. As soon as we can tell you, we will–promise!”
Well, this Friday would certainly qualify as “real close,” so here’s hoping our information is correct. We’ve been waiting patiently to get our hands on one of the most anticipated games of the year, and indeed, one of the most anticipated next-gen titles to date. Resistance 2 is scheduled to release on November 4, and it’s guaranteed to be an absolutely gigantic holiday game; the PS3 should get yet another awesome exclusive for 2008!
