PS3 Supply Outpaces Demand
January 9th, 2007 by Rajiv Ashrafi in Articles, Business
The launch of PS3 was quite an event to behold: there were long lines, people were shot and scalpers were aplenty. Now that the dust has settled, how well is the PS3 doing? ArsTechnica took that question to retailers, and the answer isn’t very encouraging for Sony. According to their investigation, the console is selling well, but not quite as well as people had hoped. Most stores were in stock and some even had people returning their units because it’s not fetching a premium over the online auction site anymore. Here’s a bit:
One retailer spoke to me on condition of anonymity, and broke down his version of the situation. “It’s not that we’ve gotten more PS3s than Wiis, it’s just that no one wants them. We’ve seen a few returned. We have four in the store right now,” he said. He also told of people coming in with multiple systems and no receipts, looking for cash back after their eBay listings failed to gather attention. “If you told me that I would have PS3s to sell and that I won’t be able to get enough Wiis back in October, I would have laughed at you,” he went on. He also detailed a memo from a regional vice president telling managers to put up a hand-written note telling customers that the PS3 is in stock.
Personally I think supply has far outpaced demand. The console is pricey and there aren’t many incentives to get it right now, but in the long run it seems to be a valid purchase. Heavenly Sword, Motorstorm, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII, anyone?
Tags: Articles, Business
January 9th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
$1200 here in the UK… no way… Id buy a good PC or even a gaming laptop for that price.
January 9th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
and with the PS2 still putting out good games, it’s definately going to be a lil’ while before the PS3 gains serious momentum. but i agree with the notion that PS3 will prove itself to be a more-than-worthy purchase in the near future.
January 9th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
i can verify the hand written signs, stopped by a eb games and they had them all over the place. ps3 will be ok once they have some decent games, its just really hard to compete with a bunch of great games for xbox 360 and the new gaming style of the wii… not that ps3 won’t pick up, its just pointless to own right now. i am interested in seeing ff13 tho, hopefully they get it right.
January 10th, 2007 at 1:31 am
Alex that is what I have been saying for some time now (though I don’t know that they need to cut that much off the price … maybe $60-$75)… that and the need to stop the devs from leaving them exclusively and help them to make some amazing games which really showcase the power of the Cell processor … they really needed a much better SDK for this Beast of a system.
God of War II should have been developed for the PS3 … but no they made a big mistake developing it for the PS2 … that gives most people very little incentive to move forward at this time (and that is really going to be the last great game for the PS2 so maybe after that people will start the shift … but that is a HUGE maybe if the price stays the same). What a lack of foresight on Sony’s part … that and this extremely high price compared to the other two leading competitors no matter what they have extra to offer.
January 10th, 2007 at 1:36 am
And to add … all people can do with the PS3 is look towards the future and hope … you don’t see that with the Wii (its future is NOW) and even though the 360 had some rather mediocre games it did amazingly well for a long time so no one was overly concerned about its future … everyone KNEW it was going to be bright with games like Gears and Halo 3. Only Sony seems to be stuck in quicksand looking for someone … anyone … to throw them a rope and pull them to safety.
January 10th, 2007 at 1:54 am
“Could be that ps3 will flop … ”
Amazing … an honest logical statement at long last. For that you are to be congratulated.
January 10th, 2007 at 8:36 am
Well considering yet another PS3 exclusive title is coming to the 360 … that being UT2K7 this time … I really don’t know about the viability of it long-term … as I say it takes software to make or break hardware. Unless some really amazing titles come out THIS year .. and they will have to be breathtaking and clearly better than the best of the 360 titles … things look bleak for the PS3 … especially if they don’t just swallow their pride and cut the damn price.
January 10th, 2007 at 9:50 am
I just read a comment someone made on another site and it got me thinking. Even if the PS3 is more powerful than the 360 and games look better since when does that matter in the big picture … I guess in a way it does but really let’s examine the PS2 vs Xbox battle. We all know that the Xbox was far superior to the PS2 in terms of power and graphical capabilities … that is just indisputable … and yet the Xbox could never catch the PS2 which launched well over a year earlier in most places and in some places almost two years … And Sony was always quick to point that out.
Yet in this generation of consoles we see the exact opposite. The Wii … the least powerful of all the three is easily outselling the PS3 at the moment and the 360 is still doing very very well. And this time Sony is talking about raw power when it didn’t matter for them before. It really makes you think if Sony really has lost this battle already or if it is only a matter of time before all those PS2s still out there are going to be upgraded to PS3s or if some people are just going to switch over to either the Wii or 360 or even both. Just some food for thought.
January 10th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
Okay how about just superior then … c’mon …
Everyone knows that the Xbox is waaay better than the PS2 from a graphical standpoint … every game that comes out on both platforms is always analyzed in detail during review times and every single time the short answer is if you want to see things at their best then get it for the Xbox platform … as GREAT as God of War is (probably my favorite vid game of all time) … and that is the best graphically I have ever seen on a PS2 … it is still far behind a game like UC2 for the Xbox. They are NOT comparable (I played them both obviously as well) But I am not going to argue something that is known by everyone else. And there are NO shortages of PS3s atm … they are just sitting on shelves collecting dust as people pass them over for Wiis and 360s … again these are facts that are not worth debating about in the least.
You even said yourself that the PS3 may flop … so come on if you really had NO DOUBTS why would you even say something like that. I think deep down you know that things are not right in the land of Sony and they need to do something major if they are going to stay in this race competitively.
January 10th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
The Gamecube also had better graphics than the PS2. Didn’t help it much either. Obviously people didn’t choose graphical power over gameplay back then. Why should they do it now?
Six months ago, the Sony fanboys said just wait and see who wins when the systems launches. Now the Sony fanboys says we have to wait a year before the console war really begins. Actually the console war first begins when Sony is selling better than it’s opponents. Thats also why the PSP dont compete with the DS.
And please credit Nintendo for all they have done, as well as Sony shall be credited for all they have done.
January 11th, 2007 at 12:16 am
“I’m not saying xbox was bad but… ps2 just had the same games in a comparable way and a lot more good titles.”
Correct … who can deny that and that is why they won that time around … plus the huge lead time. Now that is why I hate hearing all this complaining about how the 360 had a year head start and why they are more and better games for that platform … it seems to me as BG said the roles this time around are reversed and that is why I still believe that the PS3 will be playing catchup for a long while to come … not just this year. And keep in mind they are losing exclusivity on a monthly basis.
The 360 and the PS3 atm are more than just comparable … many games actually look a bit better on the 360 so even if the PS3 starts to flex some muscle by the end of the year and the games are visually more impressive than those on the 360 … especially the same titles … it may well be too late if past history is any indication … as you yourself have pointed out with the PS2 vs Xbox war.
January 11th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Before I begin I will state that I am not a PS3 hater.
If anything I just disagree with the direction Sony is going and if they are going to be able to get back on their feet the PS3 will save them.
BUT..
•More people are trying to sell their PS3’s and finding out they can’t get a better price for them online thus returning them (they had no use for them?)
•The PS3 backwards compatibility is horrible (FFX looks worse on PS3 than PS2). http://digitalbattle.com/category/playstation-3/page/5/
•There is the uncertainty about Blu-ray succeeding or failing, and the games aren’t up to par with the hardware yet.
•Resistance and MotorStorm don’t even use 1080p
Other than all that, once the developers learn how to utilize the hardware then I think the games will be great. Not comparable to DirectX 10 but still great.
For 2006 Sonys stock ended at the same value that they started out at the beginnging of the year.
http://digitalbattle.com/2007/01/02/nintendo-vs-sony-stock-in-2006/
I just think Sony needs to stop for a moment and rethink more clearly what they’re doing. They are losing quite a bit of profit off of their PS3s and they have to sell a lot of games to make up for it. Until better games start coming out though it will be hard for them to do that.
The PS3 is a risky console to get right now, it’s like playing the lottery. Nobody knows for sure if Blu-ray will become the dominant format and from the statistics we can see that people don’t want to sacrifice their money on the future.
January 11th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
The only reason why I’m interested in Vista is because of DirectX 10, its ability to use more than 2GB of RAM, it will be 64 bit and it will be able to use a dual core (or quad core) to its full potential, not just half. XP doesn’t even do everything just stated above.
I won’t get Vista when it first comes out because, like buying any console, that is just foolish and idiotic. No offense to anyone who buys on launch day. I am tempted to buy something once it comes out but chances are it will improve or be updated in time.
But especially when it comes to Microsoft, I don’t buy it right away. I don’t trust them enough.
If you’ve seen Crysis videos you know what is ahead for graphics. (Enviromental realism.)
January 11th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
“DX10 is a fable” … how do even you reply to such a nonsensical statement … Especially when EVERYONE who saw Crysis on Vista (hence DX10) could see a noticeable difference in quality and fps.
And unlike Evander I do trust MS far more than not and I will be an early adopter of Vista just as I have been an early adopter of all of their OSes since WinNT 4.0. I am not disappointed at all that I was one of the first people to get a 360 (at launch of course) so I after seeing Vista and Crysis on DX10 steroids I am going to go for Vista Ultimate as soon as I can afford it. So many cool games are coming in the next 12-18 months that will take advantage of DX10 (along with the hardware that will power it from AMD/ATI and Nvidia and Aegia as well and who knows who else will emerge) I am not worried. Then after the 2 year mark the games we will see are going to be nothing short of spectacular. Of course these are all just my opinions and as I continually say I don’t expect everyone to have the same POV which I more than respect … as long as the counter argument has some sort of logic to it.