back to article Sony PS3 extends lead over Microsoft's Xbox 360 by a cool million

Bad news for Microsoft and Xboxers: in December 2012, Sony shipped sufficient consoles for the number of PS3s the Japanese giant has sold to exceed the volume of 360s Microsoft has sent out by a margin of a million machines. And that’s despite the year in which the second-generation Xbox had no direct competition from Sony. …

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  1. Xpositor

    Wait and see?

    "Sony...can afford to wait and see what its arch-rival will come up with"

    Right, because it takes no time at all to develop a new console?

  2. RoboJ1M
    Holmes

    Not in the UK I don't think.

    I own an Xbox 360. It's my 3rd one (First RROD, free replacement, Second traded in when the HDMI Elite came out)

    It's the first console I've ever bought, leaving PC gaming due to hassle (Windows) and cost (GPU rapid obsolescence)

    Things I have noticed over the last seven years:

    1) I've only ever met 3 real people who have owned a PS3. Every other gamer I know is PC, Xbox or PC AND Xbox.

    2) In our local exchange store, the Xbox has 9 shelving units, the PS2 has 4 shelving units and the PS3 has 3 shelving units.

    3) This was the generation in the UK where Xbox replaced Playstation as the term synonymous with Gaming. In TV, print and general conversation, you go and "play xbox".

    I'm a gamer through and through and in 7 years I've only ever seen an installed PS3 ONCE and I've never played on one.

    Last generation? Everything was PS2. Everyone HAD a PS2 and everyone said "Playstation".

    In my book, that's pretty meaningful.

    J1M.

    1. weenoid

      Re: Not in the UK I don't think.

      "I've only ever met 3 real people who have owned a PS3."

      So that would be 75% of the 4 people you know then.

    2. jason 7

      Re: Not in the UK I don't think.

      I must say that my experience in the UK is the same.

      I know at least 15+ friends that own a 360 and 2 that own a PS3.

      Anecdotal I know.

      However, a lot of folks forget just how large the population of Japan is. Ask a lot of people and they'll often go "oh I dunno, say 50 million!"

      1. John Riddoch

        Re: Not in the UK I don't think.

        Jason 7 has the point - the PS3 is massive in the far East and Xbox reach is negligible in comparison. My guess is the Japanese "buy local" and get PS3 (or possibly Nintendo) and don't bother with that American thing. Not so sure why Brits go for Xbox, though.

        1. Greg J Preece

          Re: Not in the UK I don't think.

          Not so sure why Brits go for Xbox, though.

          http://www.computerandvideogames.com/345512/ps3-leading-european-hardware-sales-in-2012/

          Couldn't find UK-specific data, but according to the European data, it's actually us buying the PS3s most recently.

          1. wowfood

            Re: Not in the UK I don't think.

            It's more like nobody else likes the xbox outside of the USA. Going by VGChartz here

            42.25 s 25.97

            23.03 vs 28.45

            1.63 vs 8.9

            7.34 vs 9.09

            Not certain when VGChartz updated last since they put 360 ahead by a bit, but effectively the left hand side is 360 sales, the right ps3. The 360 is winning sales in NA by almost double. The PS3 wins in EU, Japan and everywhere else.

            There is a reason why ps3 sells so well in japan though. There are a lot of games in japan that never make it over here, Sony own a hell of a lot of japanese media in the form of anime / manga titles which sell for a large amount, that and a lot of western titles don't port over very well.

    3. MJI Silver badge

      Re: Not in the UK I don't think.

      Real people not on friends list

      PS3 - 3

      360 - 1

    4. Frostbite
      Mushroom

      Re: Not in the UK I don't think.

      Are you qualified to judge each system considering you have never used a PS3?

      I have 3 PC's, 1 Mac, 1 Wii, 1 XBOX and 3 PS3 systems in the house.

      Why 3 PS3's? To meet family demand.

    5. Greg J Preece

      Re: Not in the UK I don't think.

      1) I've only ever met 3 real people who have owned a PS3. Every other gamer I know is PC, Xbox or PC AND Xbox.

      Try harder. I can point to four people in my office who own a PS3, along with several of my friends. 360? Actually, can't remember the last time I saw one in the wild.

      In my book, that's pretty meaningful.

      Anecdotal evidence is more meaningful to you than actual sales figures? Would you like to buy some of my snake oil? I have plenty of anecdotal evidence that it works great!

    6. IHateWearingATie
      Go

      Re: Not in the UK I don't think.

      Don't worry, me and my mates all chose to go PS3 and don't ownXboxes so my anecdote evens yours out.

      I'd love to know what percentage of the sales figures are replacements - none of my mates still have their original PS3 having all been hit by the YLOD at one point or another.

  3. ColonelClaw
    Meh

    Profit?

    What I'd really like to know is not how many they've sold, but whether or not either company has turned a profit on their respective consoles over their complete lifespans.

    1. MJI Silver badge

      Re: Profit?

      Profits are made on games for MS and Sony.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    But how long will it last ?

    The PS3 has several advantages over the competition in my opinion; for starters you can buy a game and then play it online with your friends without any extra charge. You do need a PSN account obviously (Playstation Network) but all that takes is a registration. Next we have the obvious stuff such as bluray player (but then again; those have become much more common these days) and the option to use it as media player (but even that is a bit limited when compared to dedicated media players).

    And although a new model has been released ("slimline") this doesn't mean that owners of a previous ("thick") model suddenly need to upgrade or something. Quite the contrary; when looking at recent developments such as the Move you'll notice that it works on all PS3's.

    But there is also a downside to all this. Sony preserves the right to change your system environment, sometimes in such ways that they add forms of advertisement, which can sometimes be very annoying. Right now my PS3 has an icon "Sing star" or something sitting at the top of the games list and you can't get rid of this. Because its not a real game; its an icon which only starts the installer which will then get said game online and set it up for you. They're trying to get you to install & play this game. However; I despise games like that and as such am very unhappy to see such a useless and annoying icon always sitting at the top of my games list without any option on my part to get rid of it.

    What I also don't like is that functionality can also change and not always for the better. When this 'change thing' started (somewhere last year, or the year before) Sony 'copied' the trophy list icon (where all 'achievements' are being kept) and put another copy in the games list, just as they did with their online store. It took getting used to, but allright then. Not that I would get that to persuade me to buy more games anyway....

    In the mean time they finally made the system more modular. There are options on your system screen which you can now more easily view in-game. Amongst which; the trophy list.

    And just after they implemented all those changes they suddenly decided that us players don't need easy access to our trophies and as such removed the icon from the games list entirely. Now its only sitting at its original location; the PSN menu. But that means quite a bit of navigating if all you want is checking your trophies while playing a game... Those are not the kind of changes in favour of the players.. But players are still somewhat forced into all this, because if you don't upgrade your firmware because you don't agree with all those changes then you'll also lose your option to play your games online.

    So yeah... I can see how Sony can get the upper hand, but the way they're going now I honestly wonder how long it'll last. Not if they keep this up I think.. That song star nonsense has already made me evaluate where I stand now on gaming and how much I really do online, any more drastic changes and I might even get provoked into "stalling": Keep a recent firmware, don't play online and consider another console for online experiences.

    We'll see where its heading...

    1. MJI Silver badge

      Trophies

      That WAS annoying when I was trying to get the last couple on a game

  5. Alistair MacRae

    I dont think Microsoft ever did well in Japan.

    It seems the Japanese have more loyalty to their home product.

    Isn't Sony bleeding money at the moment? I'd be interested to know how PS3 and xbox game sales rank against one another.

    The PS3 used to be a good deal as just a blu-ray player and that may influence things.

    Not sure what is going on with Nintendo really. They announced the Wii U ages ago dropping sales of original Wii consoles and then after that they made the mini Wii.

    Also they made the 3DS that sold poorly, so naturally they made an XL version of it and put that out.

    Seems like they've lost the plot

  6. CyberCod
    Boffin

    My honest non-trolling thoughts on this

    Microsoft is completely capable of bungling the next XBox iteration. It'll only be their 3rd console, whereas it'll be Sony's 4th. I'm betting that Sony will learn more from their mistakes than MS will.

    I'm also betting that many people will wait until Sony has released another console before deciding whether or not to buy the next XBox.

    If Sony would re-open the ability to add a linux distro to the PS3, they'd double the number of PS3's sold. They just have to price the next one where they're not losing money or subsidizing the console cost with game sales.

    I'd be happy with the PS4 taking the route that Nintendo took with the Wii (suped up Gamecube). The PS3 is powerful enough, just needs more RAM. Add something new like SD reader or built in charge cradle on top, triple the RAM and call it a PS4. I'd buy it.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: My honest non-trolling thoughts on this

      >If Sony would re-open the ability to add a linux distro to the PS3, they'd double the number of PS3's sold.

      They could, but why would they want to sell consoles to people who then won't buy the games? When first released, it was Sony's subsidy of the hardware that attracted power Linux users (such as the USAF) to the platform in the first place- that and its ability to be clustered. I don't know how the PS3's current bill of materials compares to its retail price, but presumably its still being pitched against the XBOX who are making similar calculations against future games sales.

      Rumours are that the PS4 will be more conventional, and maybe use an AMD CPU and GPU.

  7. Scott 49
    Thumb Down

    Similar to another article i have remarked on today. I remember reading a article on The Register stating how well Microsoft XBOX sales were doing over the PS3 due to the increased popularity of Kinect vs the playstation move. Why has the market all of a sudden just changed in favour of the PS3 or are these figures just pure properganda.

    1. Greg J Preece

      People realised that the Kinect is a piece of shit? The Move can be hit and miss, but when the game isn't a badly-coded Wii port, it works pretty well. The Kinect is just awful. Have a look at the reviews for the abysmal Steel Battalion: Heavy Armour. I saw it top several "worst of" lists for 2012, just because of how utterly broken it is.

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