Sony pleads with developers not to abandon PS3 for Wii and Xbox
We all know by now that the PS3 had yet another terrible month in September, selling under 120,000 consoles in the US. But what I didn’t know was that Sony have apparently spent the last week pleading with third party developers not to abandon their console.
As part of his look at the latest NPD sales figures Dean Takahashi at The Mercury news explained:
One piece of news that came out this week was that Sony pleaded with third-party developers not to abandon its struggling platform. That change in attitude is a marked difference compared to the arrogance of past years. The argument is that the PS3 will show its strength as developers learn how to make games for it. But developers know they can staff four or five Wii teams with the same number of people it takes to make one PS3 game. We may have a glut of Wii games soon, but that’s not as bad as not having enough games on the PS3.
So is this signalling a new more humble approach from Sony? They have been accused of many things during this console generation, with arrogance amongst them. Maybe they are finally realising that if they don’t start wooing those all important games developers they’ll be left with an all encompassing powerful games consoles with no games available to play on it.
We recently learnt that Capcom had decided to ditch development of Monster Hunter 3 on the PS3 and move it over to the Wii instead because it was too expensive, and it seems Sony are running scared of more developers jumping ship.
The full hardware sales figures for the month were as follows:
Xbox 360: 527,800
Wii: 501,000
Nintendo DS: 495,800
PlayStation Portable: 284,500
PlayStation 2: 215,000
PlayStation 3: 119,400
Game Boy Advance: 75,000
That surely can’t be comfortable reading for Sony or it’s legion of loyal fans. Yes there are some great games due out over the next year for the machine, but will it be too little too late?
The recent announcement of a new 40gb model and lower price for the 80gb model should see a slight sales surge in October and November, but will it be enough to catch up with the Xbox 360 and Wii?
There’s no doubt that the release of Halo 3 massively contributed to the sales of the Xbox 360, and unfortunately for Microsoft that doesn’t happen every month, or even every year. But the Xbox 360 is still sitting pretty for now at least with you having to combine the sales of the PSP, PS2 and PS3 to beat the sales of Microsoft’s big hope. Sony clearly aren’t happy.
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28 Responses to “Sony pleads with developers not to abandon PS3 for Wii and Xbox”
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October 21st, 2007
I am struggling to find the words Xbox 360 or Wii in the title of this website. Someone has paid you for such blatant twisting of facts. A “slight increase” in sales?! There is reason that PS3 price drop stories end up on my Google first page all the time (from places like Engadget not PS3Fanboy). That reason is people are WAITING for the price to drop. Please stop spreading the FUD it will only make you look like a fool when Sony finally pulls their ship around.
October 21st, 2007
I see know bias in this article and this guy is just stating the info he’s read, then coming to his own conclusion of questions. So good article.
October 21st, 2007
I see now bias in this article and this guy is just stating the info he’s read, then coming to his own conclusion of questions. So good article.
October 21st, 2007
Last price drop sony did they only managed a paltry what, 70k incease for the month, and still didn’t surpass the 360 in sales. And amazon is reporting a 1000% spike in sales, when in July there was a 2000% spike in sales. So we’ll see, I’m definately not holding my breath.
October 21st, 2007
Oh, and europe had the $399 go on sale and the big sales spike was 89% reduced priced soon-to-be-discontinued fire sale 60gig and only 11% actually bought the new 40 gig model.
October 21st, 2007
I just read a very interesting article.
http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/2025.html
This pretty much states that the PS3 is exactly where the Xbox 360 was this time last year in regards to sales. People tend to forget these things. And to say that the PS3 is doomed or close to calling it quits should think this. The Wii has sold more consoles then the 360 and the 360 has been out a year longer. If anything, people should be saying that both the 360 and the PS3 are in trouble because of the amount of consoles that the Wii has been selling. It took the Wii 11 months to sell more consoles then the 360 sold in 23 months. Why don’t you write about that next time Dave Parrack?
October 21st, 2007
I am sent the latest PS3 news, including that from Technobloge. I have felt previously that this site really just hopped in the rapids half way down with everyone else many months ago with the ‘Era of the END OF PS3!!!!’ (cue orchestral music “Duh Duh Duh Duh!!!!”). Well, you are just reporting the news I suppose so that’s fine with me, I have given a mass work-out of all 3 consoles and I’m glad I bought the PS3, it was all I was ever going to buy regardless. For example, I don’t get myself locked up just because Paris Hilton did it! (I do it because it’s my democratic right). Enjoy your consoles already people, jeez!
October 21st, 2007
Ah, sorry GAMER.BLORGE my bad. Here’s the graph by the way:
http://www.psxextreme.com/images/common/News/ps3360chart_01.jpg.html
“and the people keepa bitchin, while I keepa gamin”
October 21st, 2007
PS3 loyalists… haha… the new PS3 has no backwards compatability for starters, and second the software attach rate is under 1… UNDER 1!!! shows people are buying the machine as a bluray player than a game machine, although there are no good games for the ps3… their line up is horrible… so you are telling to wait???? to play games??? god what a tool you must be…
October 21st, 2007
PS3 Loyalist?! I have a Wii, a 360 AND a PS3 dumbass. I have 4 360 games, 2 Wii games and 3 PS3 games. You can hardly call me a “loyalist”. I’m just getting sick of the PS3 bashing everywhere. No one is expected the PS3 to be “teh dominator lolz” but it will either meet or pass the 360 you can count on that.
October 21st, 2007
Oh and @Larry, how is clearing a large inventory of 60 gig ps3’s a bad thing? Just because they haven’t sold many 40 gb YET?
October 21st, 2007
Obviously the Xbox’s sales would jump during a Halo launch….that’s pretty difficult to call, isn’t it David? Anyway, with the 40g price cut, and the 60g selling like mad, AND the 80g still available, Sony’s not looking to bad at all for the Holiday season and Q1 of 2008. There’s an impressive line of exclusive titles that the Sony base have been waiting for, and some fairly innovative new tech w/ the PSEye. I’m not really looking forward to Eye of Judgement, but Aqua Vita looks interesting and The Trials of Topoq sounds like a blast. Anyway, brilliant reporting….as always, you’re a tool.
October 21st, 2007
The source article, is total BS. It’s written by author of 2 XBox books!!
He must be laughing his head off, that guliable sites likes yours pick it up, and pass it on as the truth!
October 21st, 2007
inty2525: That attach rate figure of less than 1 is a figure that a lot of retarded fanboys keep throwing around with out thinking about it properly. That attach rate was for the first 3 months of the EU launch and only included Sonys in house titles not third party ones. You are an idiot.
The PS3 has sold as many units as the 360 had at the same point after launch and that’s with no AAA titles and its only been out in the EU for 7 months. You should also remember that the 360 had no competition either so the PS3s sales are actually a lot more impressive.
October 21st, 2007
Son’y not going to suddenly dominate because of a price drop, but hpefullt it will help. And someone needs to fire their head of marketing. His PS3 commercials are wierd, and not in the god way that makes people want to buy them either. Have you seen the baby one? Jeeze that’s creepy! Zman say it not wise to creep out customers with satanic looking commercials
October 21st, 2007
Just to clarify what I said earlier.
A while ago Sony released a statement saying they had sold around 1.2m PS3s and 1m games in the EU. A lot of mentally retarded 360 owners figured out that that means the attach rate of the PS3 is less than 1.
What they failed to realise is that Sony clearly stated that the 1m figure was only including games made by them not third party ones. That is a perfect demonstration of the ignorance of the 360 fanboy. Not once did they stop to question the attach rate of less than 1 figure. I mean think about that for a second. How moronic would you have to be to think that was possible? lol
October 21st, 2007
I really hope Sony found a way to more cheaply manufacture their BluRay disc reader. From what I understand Sony is selling each PS3 at a loss in hopes of profiting from game licensing. This business model has not been working for Sony netting it ever expanding losses. I hope Sony gets out of this crunch soon ( I would have hoped they would have been out of it by now). This PS 3 flop has started to eat away at Sony’s other business units.
October 22nd, 2007
Most of the consoles haven’t been selling because of their game libraries. The exception probably being the Xbox 360 right now.
The Wii sells based on an attractive price, buzz and nostalgia. I think Nintendo is artifically keeping demand up by limiting production.
Sony priced themselves out in the beginning but they might recapture some ground this holiday season with the Wii shortages and the Xbox’s reputation for hardware issues. Their best bet is do a good job of bundling. If they included two controllers and game then it would help them immensely in sales. I feel the benefits greatly outweight the costs. We all know how ridiculously marked-up perhipheals are for consoles. They could create good value bundles by simply adding two controllers.
I haven’t been following things as closely as in the past but there stills be an all-time low at in-house game development and third-party developers are simply rehashing old franchises into the ground.
October 22nd, 2007
You see, what is happening now, is that Sony is learning what Nintendo had to learn when it fell from grace for a whole decade… humility.
That’s why Nintendo was able to come back to the top. And remain there for almost a year without losing it’s head.
The best thing for Sony is to forget about trying to be king of the hill (and ignoring it’s competition like it did for a decade) and simply concentrate in becoming a company that we can trust and love again.
October 22nd, 2007
[...] Sony begs developers not to leave PS3 for Wii and Xbox 360. After once again being outdone by both the Wii and Xbox 360 in September with only just over 100,000 consoles sold in the US, it seems that the 3rd party developers are starting to drop support for PS3 and making roost on the Wii and Xbox 360 instead. Below is a quote, perhaps you’d like to read it? "One piece of news that came out this week was that Sony pleaded with third-party developers not to abandon its struggling platform. That change in attitude is a marked difference compared to the arrogance of past years. The argument is that the PS3 will show its strength as developers learn how to make games for it. But developers know they can staff four or five Wii teams with the same number of people it takes to make one PS3 game. We may have a glut of Wii games soon, but that’s not as bad as not having enough games on the PS3." This news comes just after developer Capcom dropped development of Monster Hunter 3 on the PS3 and ported it over to the Wii because it cost to much, and with announcement it seems that Sony are getting anxious. Below are the system sales charts for September. Xbox 360: 527,800 Wii: 501,000 Nintendo DS: 495,800 PlayStation Portable: 284,500 PlayStation 2: 215,000 PlayStation 3: 119,400 Game Boy Advance: 75,000 Sony won’t be happy with those results, not only were all 3 of their systems out shined by the Xbox 360, Wii and DS but the PS3 sold the least amount of units out of their 3 machines. A change in strategy might be due for Sony, but the question is…. what can they do? We know the reason the PS3 is expensive is because of the Blu Ray and they can’t knowingly remove that from their systems. Recently a new cheaper PS3 model was introduced with a smaller hard drive, wired controllers and no backward compatibility. But would that be good enough for the system to catch up to the Wii? Time will tell…. but in all honesty it ain’t looking good for the once generation leader. Source [...]
October 22nd, 2007
[...] Read Full Article Gamer.Blorge.com [...]
October 22nd, 2007
[...] Sony begs developers not to leave PS3 for Wii and Xbox 360. After once again being outdone by both the Wii and Xbox 360 in September with only just over 100,000 consoles sold in the US, it seems that the 3rd party developers are starting to drop support for PS3 and making roost on the Wii and Xbox 360 instead. Below is a quote, perhaps you’d like to read it? "One piece of news that came out this week was that Sony pleaded with third-party developers not to abandon its struggling platform. That change in attitude is a marked difference compared to the arrogance of past years. The argument is that the PS3 will show its strength as developers learn how to make games for it. But developers know they can staff four or five Wii teams with the same number of people it takes to make one PS3 game. We may have a glut of Wii games soon, but that’s not as bad as not having enough games on the PS3." This news comes just after developer Capcom dropped development of Monster Hunter 3 on the PS3 and ported it over to the Wii because it cost too much, and with this announcement it seems that Sony are getting anxious. Below are the system sales charts for September. Xbox 360: 527,800 Wii: 501,000 Nintendo DS: 495,800 PlayStation Portable: 284,500 PlayStation 2: 215,000 PlayStation 3: 119,400 Game Boy Advance: 75,000 Sony won’t be happy with those results. A change in strategy might be due for Sony, but the question is…. what can they do? We know the reason the PS3 is expensive is because of the Blu Ray and they can’t knowingly remove that from their systems. Recently a new cheaper PS3 model was introduced with a smaller hard drive, wired controllers and no backward compatibility. But would that be good enough for the system to catch up to the Wii? Time will tell…. but in all honesty it ain’t looking good for the once generation leader. No flaming m’kay. Source [...]
October 22nd, 2007
Yeah who is Dean Takahashi from The Mercury news? Can anyone tell me? Obviously a NOBODY. You might as well have said Jimbo Jambo from the Pluto Press. Thats sounds better.
October 25th, 2007
Regardless of figures stats and “facts” about sales. In the end it matters on who buys what and why. Personally I don’t have a Wii or a PS3. Personally I feel the PS3 is too expensive in any form. I almost regret getting the 360.
I had a PSP (which just up and died after 2 years) and currently enjoy the DS. I have to agree that Sony does seem to ignore many facets of the gaming community, pushing for more hardcore graphics than actually focusing on great gameplay / storyline. Who knows maybe that’s what the next generation of gamers will be, a bunch of numb-brained A.D.D. kids with an over-powering affinity for pretty graphics. And I agree 360 is pushing in this direction as well.
The reason why Wii has become a very sought after console is Nintendo’s new approach to gaming. I don;t own a Wii, but if I bother buying another console I’ll want something that explores these un-charted areas of gaming. Pushing only the envelope of graphics is not enough.
We need games to define a new niche instead of re-defining graphics over and over as a short lived distraction over an engrossing story and game play mechanics.
November 11th, 2007
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptOne piece of news that came out this week was that Sony pleaded with third-party developers not to abandon its struggling platform. That change in attitude is a marked difference compared to the arrogance of past years. … [...]
February 10th, 2008
Regardless of what all PS3 fanboys say. No one expected Sony to be in last place. NO ONE! Yes the future looks a little brighter but Wii and 360 have huge bases already and have momentum that cannot be dissolved.
If and when Sony does catch up it may be in the 20 ’s or 30 million range. By then, their domination won’t matter.
BTW, I love my 360, all the games, and the superior graphics.
September 6th, 2008
[...] of the Burning SeaOnline Forum for Wealth Development – Warrior Forum at eWealth DevelopmentSony pleads with developers not to abandon PS3 for Wii and Xbox – GAMER.BLORGE Tags search engine submission web design website design search engine graphic design This [...]
January 5th, 2009
[...] the case of this report in October 2007, when Sony spent the week, literally, begging third party developers not to abandon [...]