Sony gets desperate with negligible PS3 sales in Europe and Australia
Sony, those crazy Japanese are at it again as they have launched the PS3 in Europe and Australia. Normally the launch of a new system in any part of the world is a good thing, not in this case. To what can only be considered a less than lukewarm reception, the PS3 is now available in the rest of the world.
Things did not go according to plan, I guess Sony was expecting to bring the house down with sales and preorders and madness. That did not happen. It was so bad in London that Sony was able to give away a £2,000 Bracia flatscreen TV to the 125 people who turned up at the launch.
In Australia, many stores opened at Midnight to nothing, well not nothing, I guess you could hear crickets chirping. News and radio stations got desperate for stories and attempted to excite the crowd themselves. In one instance the news crew from a radio station began cheering themselves (whether or not it was canned sounds is another story).
The reception in other parts of the world was pretty much the same with almost no gamers showing up, in fact there was probably more media at the launch than there were true gamers. Microsoft was present at some of the PS3 launch locations but their purpose was to “crash” the party by handing out chairs to those waiting in line for the PS3. At least they were being helpful.
So, there’s a lack of interest in the PS3, that’s really not surprising considering its reception when it launched here in the US, I can walk into any store and find a PS3. But I am constantly told that there are no Wiis and if you want one, you have to wait in the store for the delivery truck to arrive or let the Wii slip through your fingers.
The Wii has been available for many months before the PS3 in both Europe and Australia, while I wouldn’t consider it a rival per se, it has done its damage to the PS3 launch, that much is for sure. If anything, the XBOX 360 is competing directly with the PS3 and the Wii is off in a corner all its own due to its less powerful processor and graphics card which is not necessarily a bad thing (it is for me) because the Wii concentrates on unique games and game play than it does the hardware behind the scenes.
Both the XBOX 360 and Wii sold very well during their launches in the US, both have sold in adequate quantities since then, the Wii is doing very well and so is the XBOX 360. The PS3 is on life support in the ICU hooked up to every monitor and life sustaining liquid possible, one power failure and it will all be over. This is a sign of things to come for the PS3, but owners of the PS3 can still save themselves by trading it in for a XBOX 360, how about the Elite 360 or a Wii.
Related Posts:
21 Responses to “Sony gets desperate with negligible PS3 sales in Europe and Australia”
Leave a Reply:
You must be logged in to post a comment. Don't have an account? Register today!
March 24th, 2007
Jonathan, your check is in the mail. By the way, you might want to do something about your haircut, and your face. Get some plastic surgery, just a suggestion.
March 24th, 2007
Noted. I don’t like any of the hair stylists around here and the plastic surgeons just like to overcharge for every little thing.
March 24th, 2007
Writing from my bought ps3 from Denmark…. Wondering where you got your info from? The Bravia TV’s were a part of the, of did you assume they tell people in advance..? Since when did cool surprises become negative? Lastly, have you seen the sales xbox360 in japan, no? As previous poster, your check is in the mailbox, hope it was worth it…. ’sigh’
March 24th, 2007
Hey thanks for the FUD John. It’s good to see Microsoft’s advertising budget is not going to waste.
March 24th, 2007
HAHAHA. More 12 year old junk. Awesome!!
Just a little note, there were a _number_ of large stores (KMart, Harvey Norman and Target) that were sold out in Adelaide – I was in line with about 20 people, and was lucky enough to get the second last one. Sure Adelaide isn’t huge, but a little bit different to your 12 year old fanboy rant isn’t it.
March 24th, 2007
BTW.. do you just hate the PS3? or such a MS boof that you just kiss your Bill poster every night before you go to bed?
March 24th, 2007
HDTV’s were given away at the virgin store not out of desperation, but as an awesome gift. People were lining up all over the world from what I saw, But I guess you are some kind of Xbox fanboy or something, trying to make it all negative. I saw people lining up days in advance and it seemed like all the stores around here sold out.
March 24th, 2007
I have been watching the PS3 European/Australia launch with great interest (and a sick sense of enjoyment) given how badly it has gone and how Sony continues to kill its branding (Ace Combat 6 the latest defector), but your article truly lacks any credibility. Your facts appear mostly wrong (100 TV’s were given away to the FIRST 100 shoppers as a surprise, not to EVERYONE -125 according to you – who showed up to purchase an overpriced console), or at least contradictory to what most reputable new sources are reporting, and the rest seem like pure conjecture.
“…with almost no gamers showing up…” Please. Now you’re just pulling stuff out your ass.
Check your facts and learn to write. This is embarrassing and reeks of fanboyism.
March 24th, 2007
It’s a well known fact the XBOX 360 isn’t doing well in Japan, then again neither is the PS3… But this wasn’t about Japan now was it.
Almost no gamers showing up, means just that, almost no, it doesn’t mean none. It’s not like lines were stretched out for blocks or there were lines of hundreds of people waiting for the PS3… and yes, I’m talking about the Wii launch in New York.
If any place had been like that with the PS3, was it, was it? Not really.
March 24th, 2007
“This is embarrassing and reeks of fanboyism.” And I wonder what you just said reeks of?
If the launch had gone at least as well as it did with the XBOX 360 or the Wii, I really wouldn’t have anything to complain about but it didn’t.
March 24th, 2007
You know the thing about ignorance is that the most ignorant people write blogs like this. Concider this: Sony had more PS3’s than there were Xbox 360 and Wii’s combined at both of their launches. It has been talked about for months that they were going to have tons of them. So knowing that do you honestly think people had to show up at 12am on a week day just to get a console they could easily get the next day after work or during the weekend? How about the fact it had record presales, and if you had pre ordered one you also didn’t have to show up that night. The only time droves of people show up for a launch is if they fear it selling out. Just because the console didn’t sell out in the first 15 minutes doesn’t mean it isn’t selling well. You see there is a lot more to a console launch than making the asumption that people don’t want it. For example you could look at Amazon Uk and noticed that the PS3 hasn’t left the number 1 spot (excluding it’s controler) since the launch of the console. You could also look around at the many stores who are claiming they are going to run out by the end of Monday. You could even look at VG Charts and notice that over half a million were recorded as sold with in the first day. (side note for how they did this, simple they had a list of pre sales). Please don’t feel to foolish because you are to narow minded to actualy think of the real reasons why the initial launch wasn’t as big a deal as some thought it would be as you are not alone. Fortunatly the more reputable news sources have a little wider scope of things.
March 25th, 2007
“…include WiFi and the HD-DVD drive with the unit. I mean, wouldn’t that make sense. That is probably the only thing Sony did right with the PS3.” That quite and this article really proves that you have an obvious and immediate bias toward the Microsoft side. This must be the reason I’ve never heard of this site before today. Thank /. for your little bit of exposure, but you’re an obviously biased writer. I sincerely hope the other writers on staff aren’t as biased as you are, but I’m not going to give the time to find out. Good luck getting far in the business and being overly biased toward one brand.
March 25th, 2007
Omg you really can’t hide it can you(that you’re a fanboy) , what you wrote is total BS I’m from belgium and i saw photo’s of the ps3 launch in some big stores here, and there were a lot of people showing up there and besides the ps3 is really not selling bad , it sold more in its launch period then the xbox360 not less here in Belgium, Netherland and Luxemburg we got 50000 ps3’s and 44000 of them were pre ordered, i think the first mill europe got will soon be sold.
March 25th, 2007
I see some of us around here have trouble using the scroll feature of your mouse, let this serve as proof that the entire staff is not biased, http://gamer.blorge.com/2007/03/21/why-the-playstation-3-kicks-serious-butt/
I have my views, he has his views, if Sony fixes some or all of their issues and some better games come out, then I will consider changing my opinion. But its going to take an epic title like what Halo did for the XBOX. Sony needs their equivalent of Halo.
March 25th, 2007
Sony has run out all of its nine lives. I don’t purchase sony anymore because of their DRM scheming. The PS3 is too much money for a console that has the same graphics as the 360. I own a 360 and it seems that all the games either just shooters or some sort of sport. Gears of War was very good and any other is just a copy of that formula. I should have waited out and got a Wii but I made my choice.
March 25th, 2007
Reasons Why Playstation 3 is not “kick but”:
1. 1080p is good with 1080p displays. Most in the market are 720p-1080i. Most gamers don’t shell out $2500+ along with the PS3 price to have a good time.
2. Bluray is as nice as HD DVD. Both formats are too new to be considered above one another. Most movies out right now in the theatre are blunders so neither format is really gaining. And with the LG Multiblu most HD enthusiasts will take the best of both worlds and not just one format.
3. Games… its all about games. The Cell is supposed to be amazing but unless someone comes up with a killer game then no one will invest the time and money needed to program a game that uses 7 out of the 8 synthesizer cores.
4. Competition from Microsofts Xbox 360 which touts out the same graphics as the PS3 and the popularity in both consumer and developers opinions: PS2.
March 25th, 2007
You are entirely correct in this article, although one should have a more formal tone when writing prose, the “chatty” informal text does not sit well with respected journalism.
PS don’t change your haircut, it is cool.
March 26th, 2007
Well, all the positive comments above, have been written by Sony employees, it`s just so obvious, all the fan-boys have shut up and gone home. This will be the biggest flop of all time, Sony is going down.
March 27th, 2007
I just read all of this article, it makes me sick to hear about how ppl think they know it all. The most intelligent of humans are the ones who are learning more. Even about you arguing about these video games. We all have a question. We all want the best money can buy. My humble ways get me what I want without confrontation. Some of us know the truth. Microsoft is not truth whatsoever. When actual fact from Sony, Not gossip from these blogs. But the facts they supply are indeed truth. Some of you however choose to speculate and come up with ideas. I am very impressed with the PlayStation 3. It deliver’s everything plus much more anticipated………….It makes me laugh, just all these comments. You microsoft people are way off. We Sony ppl dont care what you think, we learn truth not hate or lies.
April 16th, 2007
mr dario
i quote you “sony is going down”
do you seriously want this? do you know what a monopoly is? do you want microsoft to dominate like it does with windows et al? did you leave high school? have you jumped on the anti sony bandwagon because (like the author of the above article) want to be fashionable?
i like a 100 million people (and pehaps you) bought the ps2 – give the ps3 time. have a beer (if you are a legal age) and chill.
peace
April 26th, 2007
[...] Despite constant attacks and sniping by bloggers, journalists and especially the competition, the PlayStation 3 (PS3) has enjoyed a record-breaking European launch, selling 600,000 units during its first two days of availability. [...]