James Delahunty
7 Sep 2009 11:29
Following a disastrous week for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) platform in Japan in the week ending August 30th, which witnessed just 1040 unit sales, the PS3 Slim has injected new life into the platform. In the week ending September 6th, sales of the PS3 Slim in Japan jumped to 150,252 units (150,832 units of all PS3 SKUs combined), according to Kotaku.
The sales increase marks the highest PS3 sales in the region to date. In its launch week, the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console sold 88,000 units in Japan. However, the first week sales would have performed much better if it wasn't for unit shortages at the time.
In the UK, the response to the PS3 Slim introduction has also seen a dramatic climb in unit sales for the platform. Chart-Track informed GamesIndustry.biz that sales of the PS3 had jumped 999 percent over the previous week. "The uplift on week 36 on week 35 is plus 999 per cent," revealed Dorian Bloch, director of Chart-Track. "We don't give out the hardware numbers, but never-the-less it's a very large increase."
Chart-Track also said that last week the PS3 outsold the DS, Wii and Xbox 360 by approximately 3:1, representing the first time it took the lead in the UK since the first week of 2008. PS3 software sales jumped 17 percent in terms of units, which puts it third behind Xbox 360 and Wii, and 5 percent in terms of value, which puts it in second place behind the Xbox 360.
Mark Howsen, sales director at Sony UK, told GamesIndustry.biz that the PS3 Slim sales were higher than anticipated by the company. "The first week's Chart-Track numbers for sales of the new PlayStation 3 were ahead of our expectations, so we were extremely pleased," said Howsen. "A new price point and a new machine has proven a significant catalyst to help consumers make the move onto PS3."
He said that Sony will attempt to maintain the momentum in the UK with a well-financed ad campaign about the system, as well as the launch of exclusive titles. "Our new advertising campaign, The Game Is Just The Start, is also demystifying the value proposition," he said. "This ongoing campaign and the addition of some great exclusive and new IPs - Uncharted: Among Thieves, EyePet, Heavy Rain - and services [such as] PlayStation Video Store, will hopefully provide even more trigger points to drive future purchases of PlayStation 3."
The Xbox 360 also held up its growth in sales in the UK since its Elite price cut. A 43 percent rise in Xbox 360 sales followed the price cut in the UK, and according to Chart-Track, the next week also witnessed an additional 29 percent increase over the previous growth. It is shaping up to be a very interesting fourth quarter for the industry.