Ben-DutkaIt's probably safe to say there's about a 5-million-unit gap in worldwide sales between the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. They've just announced that 360 sales have hit 40 million and at last count several months ago, the PS3 was at about 34 million, so 5 million seems to be just right.
Obviously, the PS3 has made up a ton of ground, especially considering the fact it came out a year after the 360 and in 2007, it actually fell even further behind due to the high price of the console, a lack of software, and the fact that Blu-Ray hadn't caught on just yet. Now that things have changed significantly, the PS3 has been continually narrowing the gap and at this point, it seems inevitable that it will eventually draw even with the 360 in terms of worldwide sales. The question is, when ? Well, next to price drops, hot exclusives tend to move hardware better than anything else; it's easy to spot the PS3 sales spikes when games like Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots , Uncharted 2: Among Thieves , and God of War III arrived. Therefore, maybe we could argue that Gran Turismo 5 will be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
After all, the game is absolutely massive in Japan where the 360 is basically non-existent, anyway, and it's an easy 2-3 million seller. It should sell even more, actually. However, between now and then, there don't appear to be any major PS3 exclusives that would allow Sony to inch closer in the global competition, and Microsoft does have Alan Wake , which is shaping up quite nicely. Therefore, despite the surge when GT5 arrives, I don't think that'll do it…it'll be close, but I think we need one more massive exclusive to even things up. I'd like to think it might be Final Fantasy Versus XIII , but we just know so little and God only knows when it'll finally arrive. How about The Last Guardian ? Eh…it's probably too "artsy" and too "niche" to really have a huge sales impact. But then again, we said that about Heavy Rain , so…
Then there are the shooters like Killzone 3 and Resistance 3 . Maybe we should go with the third effort from Guerrilla Games; the title should hit store shelves at just about the time the PS3 is extremely close to the 360 (maybe just a few months after GT5 releases), so the timing would be just about right. Any other guesses? I'd mention PlayStation Move, but I don't have a lot of confidence that it will generate enough interest over Natal to help bridge the hardware sales gap.
P.S. By the way, Joseph Gatt did sign up to contribute; I think he posted three replies as "MoCap Kratos." Check it out !
MAn we need more games now! i can only see gran turismo and modnation racers coming since all the blockbusters went out. I hope they announce something in e3. Versus 13, Uncharted 3, demon souls 2, resistance 3, killzone 3, HAZE 2 (LOL JK). anyweiz. Cmon sony!!! announce some games!!! oh yeah FFIX will be out too but i don't think alot of FF fans are going for this since its an online FF.Im not saying its bad, its just a different feel(like FFxI)
Those games are coming at least a few of the around christmas time. I'm hoping for resistance 3.
Last edited by Cpt_Geez on 4/23/2010 10:23:02 PM
*FFXIV
I don't know if FFXIV will be a big system seller… MMO's are a rare breed when it comes to gaming, and console gaming expecially. The people that buy XIV will be the same ones that are still playin XI…and maybe a few others. I like the idea of XIV but I don't see me investing in it as I just don't have that much time to put into an online FF…I mean that is a lot of hours to log… But we'll see, maybe Squeenix will do a stellar job and change my mind.
@ ch1nook
You should realize tho that SE has claimed that ff xiv will allow you to solo even if you only want to play as little as an hour a day or so.
so ya never know, I got into mmo's a little too late to try ff xi, so I'm looking forward to xiv.
the gap at 5million is already broken considering the year head start and all the people who rebought the console because it failed
The ps3 could tie the 360 at the end of the year, especially if natal doesn't turn out to be as good as Microsoft says it will be.
I'm not gonna say it's completely impossible but I really don't think that the PS3 could outsell the 360 by a full five million units in just one year. It will definitely happen after two, though. That's for certain IMO.
No, that likely won't happen.
It'll probably be 2 years. The fact that Sony stuck to their 13 million sales as predicted, I think Sony probably planned out when they'll catch up.
The fact that Microsoft keep bragging that they owned US HD gaming already means that they admitted they lost and won't win the other territories. Microsoft probably waiting for the next Xbox for the other territories.
Yeah, Japan was lost fromthe beginning and Others has started doing in hardware what it's been doing in software for a good while now; favoring the PS3.
Doesn't matter if sony will overtake microsoft sales, as long as I have my passion to play PS3with these upcoming games
Honestly its been driving me crazy how many people come into my Gamestop to buy a PS3 and settle for a 360 because we haven't had any for the last couple months.
We get maybe two a week and they are gone in the first day. Around income tax season I was hoping Sony could have put more units on the shelf, but they really didn't.
Also was truly funny how many people came into the store looking for God of War 3 on the 360.
Unless the 360 sees a spike in sales (more banned consoles?), the PS3 should catch it. 360 is selling about 9-10 million units a year, while PS3 is now up to about 14 million.
Of course, in terms of WORKING consoles, PS3 is already ahead.
It's gonna take at least 1-2 years from now for PS3 to at least tie with the 360.
Right now the number of PS3 sold in the US is quite far behind the 360, maybe worldwide the PS3 is winning but the Americans are still supporting the 360 more than they do for the PS3.
Recently they've been selling at a statistical tie. Well see how Reach and Natal affect the sales in NA.
Reach probably won't matter a lot but Natal might.
I think all Halo fans already got a 360 at this point, it's 3 years after Halo 3 already….
True snake but they will need new systems by now.
Yeah, that seems to be the consensus on Halo. For Natal, I think it will have a decent start because of hype and anticipation, but fail in the long run. That is, of course, unless they come out for E3 with some games that aren't just neat minigames or smoke-and-mirrors presentations.
Halo Episode 4 : The Return of RRoD.
I didn't realize people were still excited about natal. Most gamer sites that were excited about it initially seem to have lost all interest now. Personally don't know what they were excited about in the first place.
Bouncing red balls, yeah thats so exciting.
If the PS3 goes even one year without competition from the xbox (I.e. Microsoft jumps ship before Sony), the PS3 will outsell it. Patience…
Newsflash, since Sony counts real sales, and MS counts units shipped (better known as the xbox cardboard box fort at your local store), and taking into consideration the replacement of off warranty broken and banned systems, PS3 has probably already outpaced 360.
Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 4/23/2010 10:44:01 PM
Sony hasn't released there sale numbers yet. Maybe the margin is a whole lot smaller now.
I was going to say the same thing world, but you said it for me.
Heck even if M$ counted shipped but didn't count replacement units for broken consoles, they'd still be way behind.
For a while they were claiming over 50% failure rate on 360's. What would that do to those sales numbers. Do the math, very sad for M$.
World / Krygen… Very reasonable point, and probably true!
Q!
"play.experience.enjoy"
Sony has been consistently outselling Xbox year to year. Microsoft is hugging the US sales and claiming they own the world. This holiday will be interesting.
I was looking at the sales of some sports games like EA's Fifa 10. The PS2 has over 1 million sales according to vgchartz.com. If you have a choice of console, it would be bought on PS3 or Xbox 360. Only reason I can think of is that these people are still sitting on the fence waiting to buy a next gen console. When the price of PS3 go down to 199, I'm sure it'll attract these gamers.
So I don't really think any one game in the near future will put it ahead of the 360, especially not in the near future. I agree with Snaaaake that a reasonable timeline to pass it is about 1-2 years.
But I think it's going to be a combination of games, Blu-Ray, Move, and 3D that will help the PS3 slowly overtake MS's Red Ringer.
It's like Kevin says – it only does EVERYTHING.
It will be SO hilarious to have Kevin Butler represent Sony as Vice President to present the games on E3 2010!!
GT5 is gonna still be a massive shot in the arm.
Uuuuum godsman, is that confirmed? Is that really happening, because if so….0_o I'll need a change of pantaloons.
The Ps3's in my area are sold out.
and a couple of my friends are irritated that they can't play uncharted 2 and God of war 3.
my xbot is irritated about that too.
Yea I got lucky they had 1 left at the best buy I normally go to. Bought myself a second system! 😀
MLB the Show is a main point of jealousy at my lunch table… ;P
I think it's funny how we all have little xbot pets we talk about. Well my xbot is sad cause he can't play this and my xbot is still in denial. It's hilarious.
My xbot is frantically trying to reassemble 4 consoles into one mighty (functioning) console.
My xbot thinks that Xbox is better than the PS3, when its not even better than a Gameboy Color.
lets not dis the game boy colour, that thing was a tank!
With the way the Xbox's exclusive games look this year, if this trend keeps up, Sony will catch up before long. There just isn't any system selling games coming out. Those who buy Halo and Gears are most likely on their 3rd or 4th unit. Allen Wake looks sorta interesting but not enough to go out and buy another 360 and I doubt there will be many who think it's worth the investment in a whole system. It may take some more time but if Sony can keep up the momentum then they should have the 360 beat in sales within 2 years I'd guess. I'd also guess most of their sales are rebuys. MS doesn't seem to be selling units as fast as Sony at the moment.
Last edited by Jawknee on 4/23/2010 11:42:46 PM
Not to play devil's advocate but if they announce a price cut on their elite system and not that crap arcade unit, it could make it harder for the ps3 to catch up.
Yea i would agree with that but i can't see it making that much of a difference. Yea it would make it harder to catch up but the price cut that followed the PS3 price cut did very little to boost their sales overall in the long run.
I was just at Target yesterday and today. Yesterday they had 3 PS3s left and 6 Xbox's. Today, Zero PS3's left and still 6 Xbox. 4 of which were the Splinter Cell C bundle.
Last edited by Jawknee on 4/24/2010 4:44:47 PM
Yeah all the xbox bundles are failures here too… We sold 1 Splinter Cell xbox on 20 since launch… 1 final fantasy XIII bundle on 10 ( Go figure why they give two controllers with a single player game lol ) … And I don't even want to talk about the ModernWarfare edition XD sold like 7 outta 40 since launch and it was suppose to be the big console seller. Just want to specify they sell those for 400$ too.
PS3 on the other hand is selling very fast. We are flagged by sony and recive about 40 PS3s 120gig a week. But for all I know it could be only like this in downtown montreal… Maybe MS's brainwash and the consumers ignorance has a bigger influence in outter regions.
Last edited by VicTheMighty on 4/24/2010 6:32:10 PM
It's too early to tell if the PS3 is selling at its potential every month. Remember the lack of PS3s all around the world? People unable to find a PS3 in stock at any retail store? Well, from last we were told, that's still an issue. I honestly think that the PS3 should be pushing 400K units a month. So when demand is met (like Nintendo did with the Wii) the PS3 can still hit those high numbers every month.
Rock on Gamers, Gamers rock on.
No matter what happens in the end the REAL winner will be US GAMERS!!! Eh? Eh? *sigh*
I would agree with you except that I keep seeing more and more how the xbox is holding back gaming these days.
Has anyone else noticed that more and more multiplats are showing up with cartoony type graphics. Trying to find ways to squeeze it onto that tiny little dvd is my guess.
Yeah I agree with you Kraygen…
We are not only winning out of their fighting.
I guess the pros are: We get price drops faster and first party exclusives rape the market. So the likes of naughty dog can shine even brighter when compared to the other generic titles.
and the cons: Lesser quality multiplat games limited by an inferior outdated machine (xbox360)…
So if the 360 died way earlier and only the Wii remained… We would have better quality games but the PS3 might still be selling for 400-500$ lol.
Not necessarily. Those working in the millions of offices forced to use Windows would disagree.
I can hear the casual Wii gamers right now just snickering as Microsoft and Sony battle for second place…
We're too busy playing Mario Galaxy 2 to snicker.