PS3 may be delayed, but PS2 continues to outsell Xbox 360

June 14, 2006

Even though Sony's Playstation 3 will not be available until November, their current PlayStation 2 is going very strong. Microsoft recently criticised Sony for using Blu-ray
technology in its PS3, which they call unproven technology and tries to remind us that Sony was the maker of the unsuccessful Betamax tape format in the early days of video cassette tapes. However despite Microsoft launching its Xbox 360 on the market seven months ago, it is still struggling behind Playstation 2 sales!

Since the
launch of the Xbox 360, Microsoft and Sony sold an average of 246,000 and 473,000 units per month respectively. However, things appeared to have changed in April when the Xbox 360 sales succeeded in taking over the PS2 by 90,000 units. But just a month later and Xbox 360 sales fell by 74,000 to 221,000 units in total and PS2 sales continued to climb to over 231,000 units, bringing it back in the lead.

On the
other hand, while the Xbox 360 is more advanced and powerful than the Playstation 2, there is a drastic difference in the price between them with the Xbox 360 priced at $299 and the PS2 priced at $129. Then again, with Sony's strong PS2 sales, chances are that these will keep it going for a good while ahead should the Playstation 3 struggle to make a good start.

Like a good soccer match, the monthly sales battles between the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 2 have a lot of exciting back-and-forth. So far, however, the PlayStation 2 has remained in control of the match, outselling the Xbox 360 in six of the seven months since the Xbox 360's debut. The situation is a strong reminder that Sony's PS3 gamble, while huge, has a little more cushioning than is commonly recognized.

Since the release of the Xbox 360, Microsoft has averaged 246,000 console sales each month in the US, while the PS2 has seen an average of 473,000 units'”a number bolstered by an estimated 1.5 million sales in December alone. Leaving out December, Sony's average drops to 302,000 per month, still outpacing the Xbox 360 by a healthy margin.

If the price is the main factor here into why the Playstation 2 is doing so well, in my opinion this would be bad news for the Playstation 3 even with a subsidised price of $499 as it could end up being the hard gamers that will pay this on a console. On the other hand, if non gamers end up buying the PS3 as a budget Blu-ray movie player, it will not be easy determining what percentage of consumers have actually bought a PS3 for playing games, at least until the pricing of dedicated Blu-ray players come down in price enough.

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Source: Ars Technica