PlayStation sales tumble

Posted by Al Warmington on Thu 29 Jan 2009

PS3, PS2 and PSP feeling wintery blues

Sony has revealed its financial results for the three months ending 31^st December, 2008. Much like Sony’s previous set of figures, they make for grim reading.

PS3 sales were down 440,000 units; PSP sales dropped 680,000 units; PS2 slid a whopping 2.88m units. If you prefer percentages, that’s a decline of 9%, 12% and 53% respectively.

More depression comes from the software sales. PS2 software dipped 51% to 29.7m units. PSP software sales sank 15%. Basically, we’re running out of different ways to say that things are spiralling in a decidedly downward direction. 32.2% overall in fact – okay look, we’re stopping with the figures now.

About the only good news is that PS3 games and software sales are climbing nicely and that improved production techniques have reduced the cost of making PS3s, easing the pain on other fronts.

Sadly, these figures don’t come as much of a surprise. Faced with very strong competition, the crashing global economy has not left Sony’s premium priced consoles in very appealing positions. The PSP has had a hardware revamp, sure, but still doesn’t quite seem to be managing to get decent games on board. The Xbox 360 managed a crucial price drop ahead of Xmas, while the PS3 stuck at £299.

Nintendo, meanwhile, is continuing to print money with every Wii and DS console sold. But even here the withering hand of economic down turn can be felt. Ninty has been forced to lower its projections for Wii hardware and software sales by a few million. It expects to sell more DSs though. Our heart bleeds.

Link: Sony PlayStation (via MCV)