The first six months show PS3 lagging behind everything
PlayStation 2 is one of the most successful consoles of all time. Last generation, it devastated its competition, with Xbox claiming a very distant second, and Nintendo's Gamecube trailing behind at third. Interestingly, the first six months of sales for these consoles show a similar pattern: PS2, followed by Xbox, followed by Gamecube. While correlation does not imply causality, these figures certainly show that the interest a product garners within its first six months can be quite important.
Fast-forward to today. PS3 has suffered a crucial blow last month, and with fewer than a dozen games coming out in the next month, the immediate future does not look much brighter. Infendo (a Nintendo fan site) has constructed a graph, pointing out PS3's lackluster momentum in its first six months. Comparatively, it has been outpaced by last generation's "failures."
What can we garner from this data? Firstly, Sony is going to have to try much harder. Secondly, the PS3 isn't that much farther behind the Xbox 360. Finally, the most startling revelation: people aren't as interested in this new generation of console technology as they were previous year's. A look at Wii's phenomenal success is indicative of the industry moving in a direction that many could not have predicted. As distressing as this information may be to Sony fanboys, we have to remember that the battle is far from over.
[Via Joystiq]
