Wii outselling PlayStation 3 'six to one'

Considering that some retail locales in America are still having trouble keeping a fresh supply of Wii consoles in stock (whilst the PlayStation 3 units tend collect thin layers of dust), it's no surprise to see such dramatic sales figures surface. Sure enough, Enterbrain's latest report demonstrates that Nintendo's darling moved into 270,974 new households in June, while only 41,628 PS3s were sold in the same timeframe; just to compare, the even older Xbox 360 was able to sell 17,616 units. That brings the overall sales figures to date for Nintendo to nearly 2.76 million, while Sony has yet to break the magical one million in units sold. But don't count Sony out just yet -- it's coming back, remember?

[ScOObyDoo @ Jul 5th 2007 9:08AM]

Sony gambled. And lost. This isn't just a financial loss for Sony, it is also a major embarrassment for them. They lost the portable music lead they had, and now they have lost their lead in gaming.

[compuguy1088 @ Jul 5th 2007 9:19AM]

I didn't know they ever had a real lead in portable music players in the US. I recall they had some lead overseas with there Mini-Disc players for a time...

[ScOObyDoo @ Jul 5th 2007 9:22AM]

compuguy1088: It may have been before your time, but once Sony sold products called "discman" and "walkman". Those sold like hotcakes.

The mere fact that after all these years Sony still tries to make you use SonicStage for their players shows that they a) never read their own product reviews and b) are ignorant.

[compuguy1088 @ Jul 5th 2007 9:32AM]

No, I remeber way back they had a lead, I was narrowly thinking portable music as in mp3 players.....

[ssuk @ Jul 5th 2007 12:13PM]

Ah, MiniDisk... I still know only one person who actually uses MiniDisk... She doesn't know a mouse from a monitor on a computer... Which MAY JUST BE the reason why she doesn't have an MP3 player. =P

[tekdroid @ Jul 6th 2007 12:45AM]

Ah, MiniDisk... I still know only one person who actually uses MiniDisk... She doesn't know a mouse from a monitor on a computer... Which MAY JUST BE the reason why she doesn't have an MP3 player. =P
------------
Or perhaps just wants a great-sounding portable with removable media, removable batteries for trips anywhere without downtime, great choice of remotes, and supreme on-disc editability, recording from optical, line and mic sources?

The MiniDisc ignorance is really grating on me..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniDisc

[CowboyGA @ Jul 5th 2007 9:13AM]

Let's see, Sony forced a high priced, unnecessary optical drive on their market, ran ads with a crying baby that had nothing to do with their product, and they lost to cheaply priced, fun-for-all system that focused on games. Huh. Weird.

[Chris M @ Jul 5th 2007 3:44PM]

Hey- I'm a Sony fanboy before I'm Microsoft or Nintendo; and I still don't have a next-gen console. The PS3 is just too damned expensive to make it worthwhile. Maybe in a year or two; hopefully less time and I can pick one up.

Chris

[bluestate @ Jul 5th 2007 9:15AM]

argh ... it seems that no one is reporting PS2 figures anymore ... is it still outselling ALL new consoles? it sure seems like the PS3 is a big turd, dead on arrival, but until Sony stops selling the PS2 its hard to quantify how big/little a success the PS3 is ... i.e. when PS2 is discountinued will that translate into more sales for PS3?

[Tim C @ Jul 5th 2007 9:24AM]

wishful thinking

[bluestate @ Jul 5th 2007 9:33AM]

seems like a logical conclusion - if the prices were equitable. $130 (or whatever they are) PS2 still sells enormously ... followed by a more expensive Wii console ... followed by a more expensive than that XBOX360 ... followed by the most expensive PS3. with all the rhetoric, it still just seems like a pricing game.

[Karan @ Jul 5th 2007 10:16AM]

which, uh, conveniently fails to explain the 2.5-to-1 PS3 vs X360...

[Calviin @ Jul 5th 2007 2:08PM]

According the the NPD Group, PS2 sales for the year are #3, with Nintendo DS at #1 and Nintendo Wii at #2. Numbers in order of high to low for January to May are below:
NDS - 2,126,000
Wii - 1,728,000
PS2 - 1,255,000
360 - 1,050,000
PSP - 971,000
PS3 - 664,000
GBA - 628,000

[JBDragon @ Jul 6th 2007 1:25AM]

All those people still buying a PS2, have no plans any time soon to go and buy a PS3!!! Might as well rule all those people out for at least 2-3 years. By then they'll buy a cheap Wii maybe. PS3 will still be to costly if it's still around.

Personally I think Sony should just DUMP the PS3 NOW, Really, what does it have?!?! Keep selling the PS2 for a couple more years and then come out with the PS4, better and cheaper then ever. Release it like 6 months before the next Xbox system is released. Right from Launch some GOOD games and many more within a few months. Get the Online Done RIGHT and have lots of cool thinks right from the start. Of course have Rumble and Motion control both. Dump the Blu-Ray and have the true and cheaper standard HD DVD if they must or something else all together. Plus good Development Tools. Most Important, it needs to sell for $399 or less and have some Great games right from the start. Oh and these $60 game prices just have to go. Get it back down to $50. People will end up spending more money in the end buying more games.

[tekdroid @ Jul 5th 2007 9:14AM]

Ray is feeling blu.

[timatl @ Jul 5th 2007 9:20AM]

good one

[tyler @ Jul 5th 2007 9:20AM]

Think about it. A $250 console as opposed to a $5-600 console. Naturally there are going to be a lot more people (parents) that can afford a $250 console. Add in games and accessories and the PS3 will move slower.

Look at the hardware you are getting though. Granted, Nintendo has a larger, more stable library of games right now. But it is essentially a GameCube 2.0 with motion controllers. On the flip side, you have HDD, HDMI, BluRay, and free (albeit sparse) online content.

Give Sony some time for a price cut and more games. No, I'm not a fanboy. I own and enjoy both consoles. Just my $0.02.

[Xavier Gill @ Jul 5th 2007 9:37AM]

The Wii is cheaper but its not six times cheaper. It's just a remarkable turnaround considering the PS2 outsold the Gamecube at about 5:1 in overall sales.

[tyler @ Jul 5th 2007 10:06AM]

I agree as well, its a huge turn around. Sony gambled big time by doing what they did. But they really didn't have anywhere to go after PS2. 360 added the optional hard drive and online connectivity, so they had to include something along those lines. The inclusion of WiFi is nice as long as you're close to your router. The media card readers are dumb if you ask me. I've never used them. But with Sony backing BluRay it made sense for them to put that in. The HDMI was an added bonus.

With the 360 Elite on the shelves, the pressure is on Sony now to drop the price and get things rolling. The only thing they have on Billy G. is BluRay and the *dun dun dun* cell processor. I'd be real curious to see what sales would have been like for the 60GB model if it was $499 at launch.

Either way, (and I know I'm rambling) Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft all have very different audiences. I just wonder if Nintendo has something up its sleeves that we don't know about. Maybe a new console sooner than thought? Maybe they chose Wii because they want to keep Revolution for the next console? Maybe I better quit talking now..

[DBX00 @ Jul 5th 2007 9:21AM]

umm...those are Japan figures only. Last time I checked Sony was dominating Europe, but those figures don't come out weekly like Japan. Anyway, who really cares about sales figures if the Wii doesn't have great titles and the PS3 is just starting to come out with some titles. The game is far from over. E3 is around the corner and the fall lineups is what will drive sales in the holiday season.

[ruckus @ Jul 9th 2007 2:37PM]

Not according to this:
http://www.vgchartz.com/eweekly.php

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Jul 5th 2007 4:58PM]

"Last time I checked Sony was dominating Europe, but those figures don't come out weekly like Japan."

Which Europe is that?

It should be some /other/ Europe.

In Europe I leave, Nintendo DS is start kicking big time. And it is reportedly biggest seller. PSP is also doing well.

Wii sells better than Xbox and PS3. I know many Wii owners over here in Germany. I know several (simultaneous) PS2 an Xbox360 owners. And I know two Sony-flameboys who are still enjoying PS2 and wait for PS3 to drop its price.

Biggest sellers in Europe last time I was checking were PS2 and DS. They were respectively #1 and #2. How it is now I do not have any information. You can hardly beat them at their price here - both go for about 130-140€.

P.S. The PS3's /outstanding/ numbers (per cents) were misreported numbers of units *shipped* in UK. Not sold, not Europe-wide numbers.

[Chuckles McGee @ Jul 5th 2007 9:24AM]

Nintendo profits from every Wii sold. Every PS3 sold currently means a loss for Sony... carry the two...Maybe it's in Sony's advantage to hold off from aggressive marketing until there's a larger library of games to offset the loses they take for every unit?

[redsyrup @ Jul 5th 2007 7:06PM]

I agree with you, but with major publishers withholding releases untill there are more PS3's out there, it begs the question how is this all going to happen?

Sony will make a price cut this fall and I hope it's substantial enough to put them back in the game.

[gibber9583 @ Jul 5th 2007 9:40AM]

Fanboyism ho!

[CowboyGA @ Jul 5th 2007 9:49AM]

Doubleposter, would you care to point out where the "fanboyism" is? So far, the comments have been accurate and focused on pricing. Until now, there haven't been too many petty comments.

[gibber9583 @ Jul 5th 2007 10:00AM]

Its just a prediction of fanboyism to come in the comments, so relax. Anytime Wii, 360, or PS3 the comments get inundated with fanboy comments. Also, i called out my own double post 8 minutes before you did, so again, relax bud.

[CowboyGA @ Jul 5th 2007 10:14AM]

Actually, I didn't respond 8 minutes after you made the comment... it just took that long for my post to appear. :(

[Logik @ Jul 5th 2007 10:30AM]

@CowboyGA : Do not feed the trolls!

[Tim C @ Jul 5th 2007 9:38AM]

sony is in a bad situation at this point":
1. if they lower the price to $400 then they will be losing about $450 per unit
2. if they leave the price as is, sales will continue to be low and soon lose 3rd party support in which many of them are not pleased with PS3 game sales.


either way the PS3 is screwed. now the standalone Blu-ray players are cheaper than the PS3 the sales will continue to decline.

[Metalhaze @ Jul 5th 2007 9:51AM]

You call this news? This is on the front page of Engadget? This was reported like almost last week for crying out loud!

[Travis @ Jul 5th 2007 10:22AM]

"This is on the front page of Engadget?"

Dude, it's not like they put less important news (a subjective term to each reader) back on page 3. Its called chronoLOGICal order and it seems to work quite well. I don't really care for "USB virtual friends" much this morning, but you don't see me in that comment section complaining.

[gibber9583 @ Jul 5th 2007 9:41AM]

Fanboyism ho!

[CowboyGA @ Jul 5th 2007 10:06AM]

In all fairness, now I see that it's Engadget's system that lagging, causing people to double-post.

[gibber9583 @ Jul 5th 2007 9:41AM]

Double post! Yesssss, thats a sure fire way to get voted down.

[Metalhaze @ Jul 5th 2007 11:28AM]

Here is an even better article to be posting...

http://www.ripten.com/2007/07/03/failure-rate-xbox-360-high-as-33-sony-ps3-less-than-1/

[Billy Gun @ Jul 5th 2007 9:55AM]

They mean "the even older Xbox was able to sell 17,616 units" and not "the even older Xbox 360 was able to sell 17,616 units" right?

[Trojan @ Jul 5th 2007 10:13AM]

No, they mean the XBox 360, but this is in the Japanese market only, not the US or Europe (or the rest of the World).

[Trojan @ Jul 5th 2007 10:05AM]

No, they mean the XBox 360, but this is in the Japanese market only, not the US or Europe (or the rest of the World).

[Paris K @ Jul 5th 2007 9:56AM]

I'm really glad demand for PS3 is so low. I wasn't going to get one until it's price fell but I actually managed to get a used PS3 (60GB) for £250 from ebay!

[ScOObyDoo @ Jul 5th 2007 10:02AM]

Looks like Sony found a way to make money: sell your user data...

http://thebrowser.blogs.fortune.com/2007/07/03/sony-playstation-to-sell-user-data-to-advertisers/

[Andir3.0 @ Jul 5th 2007 10:45AM]

In all fairness, they aren't selling user data. They aren't selling your credit card numbers and social security information. They are selling "hits" or how much people play a particular type of game. It is in no way tied to your personal info more than TV commercials or other forms of advertisement.

[Hardcore @ Jul 5th 2007 10:07AM]

Sony maybe smarter than we think - by including the Blu-Ray in the PS3 (trojan horse as it may be), they are gambling not on PS3, but on Blu-Ray. Sure they can make a lot from the royalties they get from games, but if Blu-Ray is the dominant format they'd probably stand to make a whole lot more on the royalties from that. I mean think of the number of games sold to the number of dvd movies sold and you'll see my point. I'm willing to bet that a lot more people own way more dvd movies than games.

[Warhorse @ Jul 5th 2007 10:25AM]

That's a good point, sony thinking long term like that in case Blue Ray is dominant. And I thought Nintendo was sneaky by creating a very active gaming experience fur clutzes like me who break your average game controler too often. It's a Wii bit of a mess after that Tennis game as i put the coffee table back together and look for the other game of my game controler.

[fistpittingnork @ Jul 5th 2007 10:07AM]

That dollar sign skin sucks.

[shaun @ Jul 5th 2007 10:09AM]

The PS3's sales are comparable to the PS2 on release, and the Wii, which admittedly is a great seller, will run out of steam very quickly when they run out of things you can point at in games.

Better equipped consoles such as the PS3 or 360 (and probably the previous generations of these consoles) could easily mimic the functions of the Wii by releasing similar games and a controller, whilst still being capable of playing conventional games, whereas the Wii has this gimmicky function that seems destined to wear out soon.

It's only really the same as a console being released that is based on a controller add-on, such as the Buzz games with the buzzer controllers, or the xbox camera/eyetoy, or even the singstar microphones (theres a weird console)

[Natedog @ Jul 5th 2007 11:11AM]

Last I heard, PS2 was also outselling the PS3... and Xbox 360, but not the Wii. I think that was at the end of April, haven't heard any figures since then. The Wii is a good little system, and this is coming from a PS2 fanboy.

[MrFuNKy @ Jul 5th 2007 10:23AM]

I haven't even powered on my Wii in months, I got sick of flailing my arms around to play every single game on that thing.

It sells well because of all the Nintendo fanboys, Nintendo could paint a turd white stick a power cord in it and all the fanboys will think it's the greatest thing on earth.

[darter9000 @ Jul 12th 2007 8:04PM]

That's an awful lot of Nintendo 'fanboys'

[tiuk @ Jul 5th 2007 10:25AM]

I'm just waiting until the PS3 is worth less than $200 so I can use it as a computer.

If there are some decent games by then, great. If not, I'm happy with Wii/360.