Executives at Sony's games division may not be carried away by last month's PlayStation 3 sales data but they could be forgiven a wry smile at the first good news for many years.
After bleeding red ink for seven consecutive quarters, the performance of the PS3 in November could prove the catalyst for a strong holiday season for Sony Computer Entertainment. For the first time since its launch, sales of the PS3 last month surpassed those of Nintendo's Wii in Japan, primarily because Sony introduced a 40-gigabyte model for Y40,000 ($360) and slashed prices on older models.
Continued losses in Sony's games division – following large investment costs for the PS3 and lacklustre sales – has weighed on overall profitability at the Japanese consumer electronics conglomerate, as it is one of the main drivers of future growth. Analysts do not expect the unit to be back in the black until 2009.
Others point out that since the PS3 has such a small presence at the moment, it has nowhere to go but up.
Slower-than-expected Wii sales in Japan have provided the chief boost for the PS3. Though sales in the US and Europe are still strong, Wii sales have started to taper off in Japan: it has a staggering 60 per cent market share and the buzz surrounding it has died down.
In the five years to 2012, Soichiro Fukuda, analyst at Nikko Citigroup, expects the Wii to capture a 46 per cent global market share, compared with 33 per cent for Microsoft's Xbox360 and 22 per cent for the PS3.
Square Enix launches Final Fantasy X 25th anniversary site, revealing new Nomura art, books, music releases, and merchandise.
Look I know VIII has its issues and all that but how on earth can the do big anniversary events with new artwork and merchandise for VII, IX and X yet VIII got sweet f*** all.
They could have given it something during its 25th anniversary yet all it got was a single Happy Anniversary post on their social media.
they should know that we are OG fans of VIII as it sold truckload as well. not as much as VII or X. I personally didn't like IX but X and VI are my personal fav.
Shadow Hearts 2 covenant is another game I love. I hope one day someone can make remake, I would be delighted
Final Fantasy VIII is great and you are always the first to defend it in the comments
The Wii is now a retro console. Let’s get nostalgic about an often maligned system.
Crazy to think the WII is to the Switch 2, as the NES was to the WII back then. 20 Year difference.
My wife asks me to bust it out (heh) everyone once in a while to play bowling and tennis with the kids. There was a ton of slop on it but some good stuff as well.
Wii was great but boy howdy did it cause Microsoft to go on a dark walk with the Kinect and the disastrous XBox One launch that they arguably never recovered from.
Not nostalgic for me.. I was there.. anyone who wasnt a little kid realized it was a gamecube with shit tacked onto it, it was the "joke" system and was well below even the switch in terms of comparing it to the latest machines at the time. The machine was well loved by young people and "casual gamers" who now remember it 20 years on, or in most cases more of its sales came in the 15-20 years ago range not right at launch- but again its not nostalgic for people who were "gamers" then really, just for those who ended up with one in their house, the games , graphics, interface and online features were archaic already in 2006.
A brutal reset, a smarter story, and a return to what made it great—Mortal Kombat (2011) revived the series.
Underrated comment. I used to hate that game so much that any time my siblings asked me to play it, I just picked Hom and shut myself down mid-match.
15 years went by so fast. I remember playing through the story mode at launch.
theFury, Naruto...your going back and forth in Pending News and reporting each as a duplicate
Yes this is bad PS3 news...but its news.
grow up guys
Specifically 21st December 2012 there will be no such thing as PS3 or X360 or Wii
your gonna let some analyst who looks at the PS3 in a negative way ruin your day?
It's like someone calling out who's gonna make it to the World Series at the start of season. It never turns out the way they think.
tell this analayst his misimformed. he doesnt decide anything
If sony want the PS3 to last for 50 years they can. Its up to them
PS3 will WIN and analyst are ALWAYS WRONG