Sony sets 150 million sales target for PS3

Robert1986 · 21 Jul 2008 at 13:52

No chance in hell the PS3 will ever be as popular as the PS2.

www.ft.com said:
Kaz Hirai, chief executive of Sony’s PlayStation games console business, has set an ambitious target of reaching nearly 150m in sales for its slow-starting PlayStation 3 console.

Sony told those attending the video game industry’s E3 convention last week that sales of its original PlayStation, launched in 1994, had reached 102m units and the PlayStation 2 console had now passed 140m worldwide in its ninth year on sale.

source

Shamikebab · 21 Jul 2008 at 13:57

Well maybe if once we get to the PS5 they start selling them for a pound or something!

Jonners · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:06

I reckon once it gets a price reduction to around £150-200 it may start selling.

Didn't the PS2 have a worrying start?

FrankJH · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:06

Many charts are saying that the PS2 sold at the same rate as the PS3 is currently doing - so Im not sure why the article is stating "slow selling"

I still dont think its got a hope in **** of selling 150m even with another 5-8 years on the shelf - I guess it could get to around 90m though (as it should sell a hell of a lot more units once the huge games come out, and then again when it gets a lot cheaper to manufacture)

XPE · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:07

Next weeks head lines will be "police seize large pile of drugs at sony HQ"

Tupac said:
Didn't the PS2 have a worrying start?

Nope i remember you couldnt get it for love nor money in the UK

Edz · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:07

That's figure is becoming more and more feasible if in fact the PS3 has a 10year+ life span purely from the point of Blu-ray. As a gaming console it will struggle to get anywhere near that target due to Nintendo grabbing a large share of the casual market.

Once the PS3 hits the £100-150 mark and Blu-ray becomes more wipespread and cost affective for the general public there should be a huge influx of purchasers but obviously we can't see into the future and Sony would have to make some significant price changes before that would happen.

But it's definately possible...

Wyrdo · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:08

As soon as the PS3 gets cracked it'll sell better

Shamikebab · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:09

XPE said:
Next weeks head lines will be "police seize large pile of drugs at sony HQ"

Yep giving free drugs with a PS3 purchase would certainly help

Jonners · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:10

Wyrdo said:
As soon as the PS3 gets cracked it'll sell better

Is that why the 360 and Wii are doing so well? :eek:

james.miller · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:14

Edz said:
That's figure is becoming more and more feasible if in fact the PS3 has a 10year+ life span purely from the point of Blu-ray. As a gaming console it will struggle to get anywhere near that target due to Nintendo grabbing a large share of the casual market.

Once the PS3 hits the £100-150 mark and Blu-ray becomes more wipespread and cost affective for the general public there should be a huge influx of purchasers but obviously we can't see into the future and Sony would have to make some significant price changes before that would happen.

But it's definately possible...

an interesting point that and i agree completely.

sony will achieve their target but for all the wrong reasons lol

FrankJH · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:17

I cant see it being down to that price point inside another 3 years at least, it just wont be feasable to lose that amount of cash no matter how many BR drives they are getting into homes

mcwildcard · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:23

XPE said:
Nope i remember you couldnt get it for love nor money in the UK

That's because we only got a poxy 50,000 for pre-order in this country.
Sony invented the 'short supply' frenzy, which Nintendo later perfected with the Wii.

PS2 sold 10mil in it's first year, which is around the same as the PS3 has sold to date. So not quite as good, but still fairly comparable.

wannabedamned · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:25

Considering the size of the population in the country that PS3 is most popular.

and also considering the game that is a Japanese favourite hasn't hit yet.

It could start moving more consoles faster. Dunno about 150mil though

Edz · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:29

james.miller said:
an interesting point that and i agree completely.

sony will achieve their target but for all the wrong reasons lol

Thanks, but why exactly would it be for the wrong reasons?

Surely your prime concern as a manufacturer is to get the hardware into the consumers homes?

XPE · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:31

Tupac said:
Is that why the 360 and Wii are doing so well?

I think he was referring to the psp.

james.miller · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:37

Edz said:
Thanks, but why exactly would it be for the wrong reasons?

Surely your prime concern as a manufacturer is to get the hardware into the consumers homes?

from one point of view. but if they are loosing money doing so they it's a different story. as far as getting the hardware in to homes yep, success. but if its only on the back of its BR playback rather than the strength of its gaming ability (which is the only way they are making money on the ps3 atm) then as a console, it wouldnt be near the success the ps2 was.

Robert1986 · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:39

Did anyone back in the day buy a PS2 because it could play DVDs? The PS2 was my first DVD player. I remember watching Gladiator on it for the first time. Ah good times.

wannabedamned · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:53

Robert1986 said:
Did anyone back in the day buy a PS2 because it could play DVDs? The PS2 was my first DVD player. I remember watching Gladiator on it for the first time. Ah good times.

no, lol. Was just a bonus to the games.

DarkMatter · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:54

well, i dont know the sales figures for the ps2 but in general it was a complete sell out, sold as many as they could produce. I think the PS3 will sel 150million units..... just maybe not until 2015 lol

Edz · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:56

james.miller said:
from one point of view. but if they are loosing money doing so they it's a different story. as far as getting the hardware in to homes yep, success. but if its only on the back of its BR playback rather than the strength of its gaming ability (which is the only way they are making money on the ps3 atm) then as a console, it wouldnt be near the success the ps2 was.

That's a fair point, but tbh we are talking about now and for all we know Sony may be making money in 2-3 years time, who knows. Also whether it's for BR or games the main objective has got to be to make consumers aware of the consoles capabilities even if this means that they buy the console just for BR, you then have two benefits firstly word of mouth which is a very strong marketing tool, and secondly you can then begin to push the console as more than just a BR player. Even if the average owner only buys 2-3 games a year you've acheived more than just aiming for the gaming market when talking about these sorts of numbers.

Sony's strength has always been appealing to the mass market, and the PS3 is no different. It may not happen over night but in time the PS3 will acheive what it's predecessors have, and that's a large install base.

The market is definately more balanced this generation in terms of gaming, but I don't believe for one minute that Sony are sitting back thinking they are number one regardless. They have a long term plan that is heavily influenced by BR and as long as they can keep the PS3 competative especially with other BR players then they can't really lose.