PlayStation 3 leapfrogs Xbox 360 in January US console sales

Hmmph. Would you look at that? Nary a fortnight after EA proclaimed that Sony's PlayStation 3 would best the Xbox 360 in sales during 2008, said prophecy is already starting to come true. Granted, we're only talking one month so far, but according to new US sales data from NPD Group, Microsoft's console actually slipped to third in the numbers race. Unsurprisingly, Nintendo's darling took home the gold (again) with 274,000 units sold in January, while the PS3 slipped in just 5,000 units below with 269,000. As for Redmond, it only moved 230,000 units last month, but spokesman David Dennis boldly stated that the firm believes its third-place finish to be "an anomaly." Considering that the Grim Reaper is well on its way to claiming the life of the 360s HD DVD add-on while Sony relishes the decision to cram BD drives within the PS3, we're not so sure these figures won't become a trend.

[Via TGDaily, ]

[Anthony @ Feb 15th 2008 1:12PM]

Explain to me why I should be surprised that people are buying more of a fairly new console over one that's been around for years & has saturated the market?

[AJ in the East Bay @ Feb 15th 2008 1:16PM]

+1

Once cheaper blu-ray players get out there, Sony will have to depend on GAMES for a change. That's when it will get challenging for them.

[sinai @ Feb 15th 2008 1:19PM]

because engadget is clearly a microsoft/sony/windows/mac/console/pc/blu ray/hd-dvd/AMD/Intel biased site.

n00b.

[massive_98 @ Feb 15th 2008 1:23PM]

You should be surprised because America is Xbox turf. This is like Xbox outselling PS3 in Japan.

Take these numbers with a grain of salt though, as lots of people buy PS3's just to play Blu-Ray movies.

[KayRazy Ken Kutaragi @ Feb 15th 2008 1:26PM]

FYI

the soon to be 8 year old PS2 outsold the "saturated the market 360" so that argument my fine feathered freind hold no water.

No SOUP 4 u...thank you try again.

[Michael @ Feb 15th 2008 1:28PM]

massive_98 is right. The PS3 is still the cheapest and best blu-ray player. Sony isn't just selling a game console like Microsoft is. Now that blu-ray is pretty much the winner, people are probably deciding it's time to buy into HD and looking at the PS3 as the best bang for the buck.

[Anthony @ Feb 15th 2008 1:29PM]

I agree w/ AJ- I've been thinking of buying a PS3 for the blu-ray alone as well. I have no interest in games since Kung Fu.

[Nick @ Feb 15th 2008 1:36PM]

It's been stated. This is news because the PS2 is the only systme currently on the market that has actually reached saturation. The 360 does not even have 10% of the market share that the PS2 has and yet the PS2 sold a whole lot more.

Maybe SONY should release the PS2.5 (just at a blu-ray player to it) it it could give the Wii a run for its money.

http://htcsource.com

[sinai @ Feb 15th 2008 1:37PM]

1. go to sonystyle.com
2. sign up for a sony style card
3. buy a ps3
4. get a 100 credit on your statement
5. ?
6. PROFIT!!!

[tom @ Feb 15th 2008 1:42PM]

On top of that, PS3 is technologically more superior than xbox360 right off the bat.

Unlike M$, they tried hard to beat everyone to the gate, resulting a half baked cake, RROD, sooner obsolescence. True they do offer "halo" gaming experience, better online service and gaming platform (some multimedia support).

PS3 features a well rounded product, which covers the full multimedia spectrum, BR drive and best of all (an open sourced o/s). STill, PS3 needs more kick ass games (like really kick a$$ ones)
Kudos to SEEE

P.S. to Logitech - Harmony with Bluetooth !

[Tony @ Feb 15th 2008 1:44PM]

@ Sinai

That's not how it's done. Please stop butchering an already overused joke.

[Backlin @ Feb 15th 2008 1:48PM]

+2

The Xbox 360 had a good two-year head-start, it's getting dry. Especially the HD-DVD player, that's going to be an epic fail now.

[Riley Freeman @ Feb 15th 2008 1:50PM]

umm it was out for 1 year before. so nice try bud and second microsoft decided to rush their piece of crap of a system thats why it has a 33% failure rate. while wii and sony are at less than 3%. its all about quality.

ps3 may get bought becaue of the bluray player but i dont know a single person that doesnt even play the occasional game so its still getting used for video games

[Mario @ Feb 15th 2008 2:04PM]

@ sinai

How can you be Blu-ray and HD-DVD biased. Are you implying Miller Lite tastes great AND is less filling?

[Jack Storm @ Feb 15th 2008 2:09PM]

My ps3 is called my blu ray player while my 360 is my video game system.

[Craig @ Feb 15th 2008 2:25PM]

PS3 plays games?

[Hickeroar @ Feb 15th 2008 2:56PM]

The PS3 has been out for over a year now. It's not like it's some "newcomer" anymore. Minimize it all you want but it's still something to take note of.

[Alan Strangis @ Feb 15th 2008 3:27PM]

I'm still waiting on a BluRay player that will be 2.0 compatible AND have an IR sensor. If the PS3 had IR, I'd buy it.

Dongles are so 1998. I might as well re-join the JP1 group.

[Boostjunkie @ Feb 15th 2008 3:29PM]

I can give you one good reason it's selling, it's $299 after SonyCard rebate. How can you pass up on a really nice $299 blu-ray player. I just bought one, and I've had the 360 and Wii since launch. Finally the PS3 is looking like something worth owning. Not so much for the games.

[rip @ Feb 15th 2008 4:01PM]

@ massive:

Actually, the US is PS2 turf.

The 360 looks like its going to be another also-ran. And that division will NEVER be profitable. Well, maybe not never, but not for another 25 years or so. Must be nice to run a division with no regard for profitability.

Microsoft got 2 things right with the 360: decent games and rabid fanboy support. Unfortunately, they missed with hardware quality, exclusives, broad appeal and HD-DVD. I don't consider xbox live a plus, since I don't like paying an extra subscription for something that should be included and I don't care for raving racist, misogynistic and homophobic users (ie. insecure 14yo boys). And regarding hardware reliability, this has been one of the number one selling points of consoles for, oh, forever. Stick in a game and it just works, unlike a computer.

[newgalactic @ Feb 15th 2008 4:45PM]

At rip:

Actually, they are profitable:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080125-gaming-profitable-once-again-as-microsoft-reports-earnings.html

[rip @ Feb 15th 2008 5:00PM]

@ newgalactic:

Yes, they had one profitable quarter. At that rate, they will be in the black as a division in about 25 years.

Why? Because the original xbox lost about 7-8 billion and the 360 is about 1 billion in the red.

[Abuzar @ Feb 15th 2008 6:53PM]

Rip, so it's MICROSOFT WITH NO EXCLUSIVES?!

What crack are you smoking?

[rip @ Feb 15th 2008 8:53PM]

@ abuzar:

Well afaik, only 3 of the top 10 rated games (metacritic) are 360 exclusive: Halo 3, Mass Effect and Gears of War. And maybe 5 of the top 20 are exclusive. Doesn't seem like a lot of exclusives to me.

Compare that to 7 of the top 20 for ps3 and 11 of the top 20 for wii.

I did say that the 360 has some very decent games. So I'm not knocking the quality at all. That said, I personally have no interest in yet another FPS so that kills about 80% of the quality games on 360 for me.

I guess what I am wondering is why get the 360 unless you love halo and fps. Yes, you save a few bucks over the ps3 and get a somewhat deeper library of titles. But you lose the hd disc. And some major exclusives, like FF13, MGS and others. Not to mention that the ps3 is worlds quieter, which is important to me.

But hey, I can also see the argument reversed. Except for blu-ray vs. hd-dvd. Which is what ultimately swayed my decision.

And like someone else posted in another thread: I just dropped 6k on a HDTV, like I really care that the 360 elite is $50 less than a ps3.

[rip @ Feb 15th 2008 8:53PM]

@ abuzar:

Well afaik, only 3 of the top 10 rated games (metacritic) are 360 exclusive: Halo 3, Mass Effect and Gears of War. And maybe 5 of the top 20 are exclusive. Doesn't seem like a lot of exclusives to me.

Compare that to 7 of the top 20 for ps3 and 11 of the top 20 for wii.

I did say that the 360 has some very decent games. So I'm not knocking the quality at all. That said, I personally have no interest in yet another FPS so that kills about 80% of the quality games on 360 for me.

I guess what I am wondering is why get the 360 unless you love halo and fps. Yes, you save a few bucks over the ps3 and get a somewhat deeper library of titles. But you lose the hd disc. And some major exclusives, like FF13, MGS and others. Not to mention that the ps3 is worlds quieter, which is important to me.

But hey, I can also see the argument reversed. Except for blu-ray vs. hd-dvd. Which is what ultimately swayed my decision.

And like someone else posted in another thread: I just dropped 6k on a HDTV, like I really care that the 360 elite is $50 less than a ps3.

[Jonathan-DBOSS @ Feb 15th 2008 9:41PM]

I for one welcome our Sony PS3 overlords to take over the world!

[Abuzar @ Feb 15th 2008 9:42PM]

If you're so damn rich then buy all of them. lol

Trust me it's worth it. I have my PS3 for Resistance and that's it. My game consoles are PC and the 360 and the Wii just collects dust.

I don't notice a big difference between DVD and Blu-Ray. I'm using a 65inch LCD 1080p TV over HDMI so it's not the equipment, I just don't see the big deal.

[Mike Garcia @ Feb 19th 2008 11:57AM]

you guys are so smart! you think that "Once cheaper blu-ray players get out there, Sony will have to depend on GAMES for a change. That's when it will get challenging for them" like AJ said in the 2nd post! I wonder, how did the original XBOX do when compared to PS2? Who had more titles? I say HAD because XBOX is dead, and I loved that thing - the 360 is simply an upgrade, the PS3 is a revolution....

keep thinking Sony will have a hard time repeating history, Blu-ray won this time which is more then they could say in previous format wars, so you must be dreaking if you've got your head up your @$$ like the Microsoft's spokesman calling it "an anomaly." This isn't the Matrix, you're going down just like the Toshiba-branded format you supported.......

[Mike Garcia @ Feb 19th 2008 12:00PM]

lol, "dreaking" = dreaming, stupid laptop keyboard

[andy @ Feb 15th 2008 1:13PM]

I'm not sure that's all that surprising considering the piles of PS3's laying around and the region wide shortages of premiums and Elites that went on into February.

[Andy M @ Feb 15th 2008 1:20PM]

Exactly... make no mistake about it, this is an anomaly indeed. M$ can't sell what's not there- ie: there were virtually no consoles (Elites and Pros) out there during Jan and 1st half of Feb.

[Jeff @ Feb 15th 2008 2:30PM]

There is no shortage. Find me a store sold out of the 360 premium. Even Elites are easy to find. One example: http://www.gamestop.com/search.asp?N=133+83

Check the local store results for each too. Even for the Elite, all the stores in my area are showing stock.

You bought into the pre-NPD MS spin, my friend...

[andy @ Feb 15th 2008 3:39PM]

If the shortage was in my head, then why could I not find an elite in any of the over 50 stores in the St. Louis area for over a month?

I checked every store twice a week for four weeks before I found one.

You can post links to all the Internet "facts" you want, but what I experienced IS fact not subject to change or retraction in the face of new "facts".

[Phour ZwanZig @ Feb 15th 2008 10:23PM]

Umm Jeff.. My Prem was giving me problems and at the beginning of Jan I finally used my BB warranty to exchange the system. When I called the nearest store , they told me they didnt have any Prems in stock and were hopping to get some on one of the next trucks. They did have a few arcades and an elite in stock and told me I can uptrade or downgrade for the difference in price. They check the store on the other side of town and they were in the say state. So the next day I went and payed a whole $50 extra for my Elite.. Which was the last Elite in stock.

So YES they are short on stock or were in the First weeks of the new year..

[h0mi @ Feb 15th 2008 11:28PM]

@jeff-

Go to those game stops yourself and see where the xboxes are. The gamestop "store indicator" is notoriously unreliable. I checked a few of those stores that say they have 1-3 360's in stock and none of the stores I went to had them.

[NineT9 @ Feb 15th 2008 1:17PM]

this obviously shows the PS3 is better then the 360 in every aspect

[Zak @ Feb 15th 2008 1:22PM]

Seems to me like the 360 is just hitting a saturation point. It's been out a lot longer than the PS3 and for a long time had better games too. And the whole death of HD-DVD thing surely had something to do with the jump in PS3 sales. I think the 360 still has a better game library overall.

[KayRazy Ken Kutaragi @ Feb 15th 2008 1:28PM]

How do you explain the PS2 outselling the 360 then, you wanna talk saturated.

[sinai @ Feb 15th 2008 1:41PM]

i know ken kutaragi's crazier than batshit, but talking logically to zak actually defies logic. divide by zero and whatnot.

[Juriko @ Feb 15th 2008 5:26PM]

Just because the ps2 has sold more doesn't mean the 360 isn't meeting the saturation point for its priced market. The PS2 has a massive pre existing library of titles and is cheaper for both media and the system. Hell I just bought a ps2 less than a year ago for that reason, but wouldn't have dreamed of it at the higher original price. Only so many people are willing to spend 350-400 dollars on a video game system. The PS2 is cheap enough I would buy it as a gift.

But I don't actually think that is the case anyways. These are the first few moths that blueray has been unceremoniously declared the winner of the format war, and even I thought about grabbing a ps3 for HD video even though I could care less about it as a system. It was inevitable that the ps3 would start gaining traction if only for its legacy so it is hardly a surprise.

[Zak @ Feb 15th 2008 1:53PM]

I'm sorry, did you have a point to make? Are you going to counter anything I said? If not, then why say anything?

[insertAlias @ Feb 15th 2008 1:57PM]

Goddamnit sinai, did you just discover 4chan or something? That's like the 3rd meme you've used on this page...

[sinai @ Feb 15th 2008 3:03PM]

i think i'm up to five now. trying to catch up to zak for most "lowest ranked" comments on a single thread.

[Skullfighter @ Feb 15th 2008 3:21PM]

I gotta admit I laughed about Sinai's last comment.

IMHO, this is all about Blu Ray. I'm considering a PS3 simply for the BD. Xbox however, has Xbox Live. That's where I'll be.

Also, why buy a standalone BD when you can get a console to boot?

[Michael @ Feb 15th 2008 1:23PM]

Well for $50 more you get 20 more gigs of hard drive space, a slightly more technically advanced system and a blu-ray player. I'm not surprised if this trend continues at all.

[Scott @ Feb 15th 2008 3:28PM]

Don't forget you don't have to worry about the device failing!

[JayVe @ Feb 15th 2008 1:24PM]

Leapfrogs?

Oh please.

Congrats for Sony for being able to say they outsold the 360, but this in no way makes the console a winner in the next gen race.

[YouFaceTheTick @ Feb 15th 2008 1:28PM]

True. But the PS3 at $400 offers something we can't get with Xbox 360...a viable High Def movie player option. It's got two things going for it. Even if BR players were $300, a $400 PS3 is a great deal as it gives people a real BR player and gaming platform.

[ben @ Feb 15th 2008 1:28PM]

Yeah, that title goes to the Wii.

[John @ Feb 15th 2008 1:30PM]

Not yet. But the gap is slowly closing. M$ better hurry up and beat everyone to the next-gen's market so they can once again have a multi-million console head start.