The less-than-stellar sales for Sony next-generation video game console PlayStation 3 continued Thursday as the platform was made available in Europe.
According to reports from around Europe, the scene bore little resemblance to the frenzy that greeted the release of the PlayStation 2 Latest News about PlayStation 2 console in 2000.
After the scheduled midnight launch, from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Paris, and even Australia, reports indicate only a fraction of the anticipated number of gamers showed up to purchase the PS3.
London was the site of the largest number of shoppers clamoring for a PS3, according to the BBC. Sony handed out free HD TVs and taxi rides to buyers there. Crowds in Germany and France, however, were distinctly underwhelming.
Several stores in France stayed open to welcome the expected midnight rush only to have that rush quickly become a trickle. One Web site claimed that nearly 95 percent of the consoles remained on store shelves following the late-night release spectacle beneath the Eiffel Tower and the FNAC store on the Champs Elysée, where only 300 of the available 1,000 units were reportedly sold.
At the Eiffel Tower, near which Sony had moored a boat to serve as a temporary sales outlet, reports indicate that more journalists than customers showed up. The same was true in Sydney, Australia, at a release event held by Sony and Australian retailer Myer. The Sydney Morning Herald termed the launch “feeble” after counting a sparse showing of some 80 consumers. Meanwhile, in Germany, the release brought out several hundred gamers to the Sony Center launch event in Berlin.
In Amsterdam, queues consisted of mere handfuls of gamers. More than 100 people turned out to pick up the new gaming platform in Prague, Czech Republic, and, according to the BBC, that was one of the better attended events.
Yeah, we’ve got the outdoors and legs and hobbies and stuff over here.
1. “Yeah, we’ve got the outdoors and legs and hobbies and stuff over here.”
Translation for Americans: We have so little income left after paying our ridiculously high taxes, all we can afford to do is walk around outside and masturbate.
The reason why a fraction of people showed up is because people have preordered in large numbers and since there is a large quantity available at lunch there is no need to wait in the freezing cold to buy one.
2.
“Translation for Americans: We have so little income left after paying our ridiculously high taxes, all we can afford to do is walk around outside and masturbate.”
Translation for Europeans: We can’t walk around outside and masturbate because we couldn’t afford the health care costs to fix our penis and it fell off.
I hear that the PS3 are kicking ass at Folding@Home but that is not enough to get me to buy one. If someone comes out with a CELL co-processor card for my PC I would definite by buy it.
I saw a stack of PS3’s in Costco, selling for $799 (included extra controller and a game). There weren’t flying out the door.
Because $799 is too much to pay. So is $599 or $499.
5. “I hear that the PS3 are kicking ass at Folding@Home but that is not enough to get me to buy one.”
Wow, that is so fucking funny. When the best you can say about a gaming console is its ability to “kick ass” in understanding protein folding, you know the console sucks ass!
In Australia, the PS3 costs about a weeks wages for the average joe. An Xbox 360 costs about 2/3 of that, and a Wii about 1/3. That must have something to do with it.
#2… Taxes = $9.00 a gal gas in Scotland.
Suckers!
Consider 1 thing…
NO company will SELL anything without a profit.
Even IF’ sony and MS make NOTHING, the sellers MUST gain profit, or they Will NOT sell the product.
I wonder how MUCH these people are making.. $100, $150…Standard practice Is’ about 1/4-1/2 the price point, is profit.
Sony is really in a pickle. Seems that they lost creative engagement with technology, years ago. It costs as much as a nice computer system and only plays games and movies. I wonder how many MBA graduates they have in positions of influence over product development.
10. “NO company will SELL anything without a profit…. I wonder how MUCH these people are making.. $100, $150…Standard practice Is’ about 1/4-1/2 the price point, is profit.”
I’m not sure where you’ve been ECA, but both Sony and Microsoft are losing money on their consoles. Heck, the first Xbox lost four billion dollars for Microsoft. The 360 is doing better, I think it has only lost a couple of billion so far.
Nintendo the only console company left that makes profits on the games and the console.
The PS3 is turning out to be a disaster for Sony. They have sunk billions into NRE and infrastructure. If momentum doesn’t build soon they’ll be forced to drastically drop the price to have any chance in rescuing their dominance in consoles and to build dominance in high-definition DVDs. There is too much at stake for Sony to idly watch this thing go down in flames.
#13 you are assuming that Sony is smart enough to realize that the roof is on fire.
I am not so sure.
The roof.. the roof, the roof is on fire.. We dont need no water let the MF burn… burn MF burn….
12,
REAd my post closer…
I didnt mention much about MS and sony, I mentioned the RESELLERS.
Pick a name…best buy, Newegg, sears, Target, Costco,….And alot of others, WONT sell a product unless they are making money from it.
And standard markup, is 1/4-1/2(at LEAST) of the wholesale price..Which means that they mark it upto 2 times the Wholesale price. 150-200% of wholesale price.
MS and Sony KNOW how to make money off the games. Just as the Printer sales, make MORE money on INK, then the printer.
13,
sony Jumped before BUILDING their own world…As MS made their OWN world with the Xbox(NOT 360)… they are running behind and trying to catchup, trying to coompare themselves with MS’s console world.
Ms is only advancing their console, and making New advancements and interface. Sony, hasnt figured this out, and is suffering from it, how many updates So Far for Sony??
#8
Down here a Wii costs about $400 PLUS A 12% Sales tax, is it because of the shipping and handling? NOOOOOO! IT’S BECAUSE RETAILERS ARE GREEDY SOB’S DOWN HERE..
That also explains why a craptastic $200 Dell machine is sold here for 5 times the price…
15. “REAd my post closer…”
Ok, let’s do it.
“I didnt mention much about MS and sony, I mentioned the RESELLERS.”
You said, “NO company will SELL anything without a profit.” As both Sony and Microsoft are companies, you’re clearly wrong. Heck, for Japanese companies such as Sony obtaining and maintaining market share are much more important than short term profits.
“Pick a name…best buy, Newegg, sears, Target, Costco,….And alot of others, WONT sell a product unless they are making money from it.”
Oh, so first you said that “no company” would sell without a profit and now you’re saying that “alot” of them won’t. I guess you’ve recognized that you were wrong.
“And standard markup, is 1/4-1/2(at LEAST) of the wholesale price..”
Not for consoles. Retailers are not making much selling consoles. I’ve read that some of the smaller stores are actually selling them at a loss too. That’s why so many bundle them with games and extra controllers.
The Euro PS3s are also more restricted on what past PS2 game titles will play on it, Vs. the US version of the PS3. I have no idea why they did this. Plus there’s no cheaper version of the PS3 with a smaller hard drive.
Still there’s no new games for the PS3 right now, they are STILL producing and advertising games for both the PS2 and even the PSP.
I don’t think people think the PS3 is total crap. But it is way over priced, no one really cares about Blu-Ray, and there aren’t any games for it. Perhaps in a year when people can buy USED PS3’s for a better price, and more titles come out, then we should see.
#18
Maybe because the Russian geeks have much more fun hacking the consoles than playing with them.
17,
Sony and MS are the manufactours, They have them MADE to be distributed to resellers. they are NOT the resellers.
And I mentioned,
1. that they Wont sell them UNLESS they can make a profit.
2. That the consoles Are not the selling point, the GAMES are.
Games are about 80% profit. IF’ they sell.
If a reseller is ASKEd not to markup the price, THEY are being PAID by the maker of the product. That is STILL a profit.
Retailers make their money on accessories such as cables, software, skins and remotes. Usually a 50% markup, the console is about a 5% markup. Years ago printers were very expensive and the ink was a reasonable price, printers didn’t sell that well so ink didn’t either. So the business model changed.
ECA: Back when the N64 came out, I know for a fact that it cost Shopko $195 to buy it and they sold it for $200. Not a lot of profit there (and they actually lost money on employee purchases after 10% discount). Stores make their profit on the 5 games, spare controller, and memory cards you buy with the console. It may be stipulated in a contract with Nintendo/MS/Sony, or it may just be them realizing it is well known the thing sells for X dollars, so they don’t want to sell it for X+Y dollars.
haha love to see the karma police biting sony squarely in the ass.
Rootkits, overpriced hardware, out-of-touch marketings…all adding up to sony being the tom cruise of hardware manufacturers…and the number of blind fanboys shrinking by the day to defend the paperweight, err PS3.
Wii360 is and will remain a vastly superior choice to sony’s debacle of a gaming system.
and dollar for dollar.. the ps2 is still the best choice
as far as bang for you buck, in the console world, goes.
but that won’t last for long..
once the bottom drops out of their ps2 revenues.. will the ps3 be ready to take over?
#2 – “Translation for Americans: We have so little income left after paying our ridiculously high taxes, all we can afford to do is walk around outside and masturbate.”
Which country are you referring to? You do know there are a couple of dozen separate countries in Europe, right? And that they’re all different?
Also, don’t know masturbation.
#2
“Translation for Americans: We have so little income left after paying our ridiculously high taxes, all we can afford to do is walk around outside and masturbate.
Comment by Jerk-Face”
Sex costs money??? Not very flattery to your female companions in life, Jerk-Face…
Befitting name though…
Here’s the low-down: the PS3 has superior capabilities. It does, and it has the price tag to match. However, the Cell design is something new that developers have to learn how to fully exploit before the thing will have NEW interesting games. Hopefully, they don’t re-hash a bunch of old titles as “XXX the best game: ULTIMATE edition” or something…
The Wii, OTOH, is FUN! I’ve played the thing with friends and their kids. We’re all able to play, and the kids can even keep up on most of the games (we primarily still play Wii Sports)! Bowling is great, golf’s fun, tennis is fun, boxing sucks ’cause the kids just wildly flail their arms (and end up winning).
PS2 and the 2 XBox drones are quite viable systems, with a large selection of games, availability of the boxes and accessories, and they’re all affordable!
Last, but not least, Blu-Ray. Sony believed their own bullshit about this being in some sort of high demand. The Executives and Management-level employees at Sony should commit seppuku over the whole Blu-Ray thing.
PS & BTW: Those of you dick-waving about country vs. country, continent vs. continent, profit and loss, etc. — GET A LIFE!!!
This is the BBC news of the day (screw video game news):
British requests for access to 15 Royal Navy personnel held by Iran have been denied, the UK has said. In a meeting in Tehran between Iranian government officials and the UK ambassador, Iran also failed to say where the 15 were being held.
The UK will need help attacking Iran to get these 15 guys (probably spies on a mission) back. Who do you think will join in, and open another war front?
Sony have to have a killer app up their sleeve – something to differentiate this rather than the massive processing power, for networking an xbox beats it hands down, theres a bit missing from this jigsaw methinks.
20. I don’t know why you don’t give it up ECA. You clearly know nothing about business, especially the console business.
“Sony and MS are the manufactours,”
Actually, MS does not manufacture the Xbox or the Xbox 360. Microsoft farms that out.
“They have them MADE to be distributed to resellers. they are NOT the resellers.”
Yeah, so what?
“And I mentioned,
1. that they Wont sell them UNLESS they can make a profit.”
Well, as I’ve mentioned Microsoft lost four billion dollars on the Xbox, and that included Xbox Live and game sales. So, you’re wrong. Companies will sell for a loss to obtain marketshare. That’s something else I’ve already pointed out.
“2. That the consoles Are not the selling point, the GAMES are.
Games are about 80% profit. IF’ they sell.”
Funny, because Nintendo makes tons of profit selling their consoles. I guess you didn’t know that, despite the fact I already told you.
“If a reseller is ASKEd not to markup the price, THEY are being PAID by the maker of the product. That is STILL a profit.”
The big retailers, e.g., Target, Walmart, Best Buy, certainly make profits selling consoles. I said the little stores that cannot buy in quantity are losing money selling consoles. They to hope to sell more games and make up their loses.