It's true, the PS3 is on a rapid rise. From Europe to Japan and even The United States, but in the latter, the road is rough to say the least.
Microsoft's early arrival in this current generation was bittersweet; because they rushed out the Xbox 360 a hefty price was paid, over $3 billion in repair costs for the dreaded RROD. But at the same time, they managed to build an insurmountable lead on their competitor, namely Sony. That lead has afforded them to gross substantially more from the Xbox 360 over Sony's PS3, and according to three sources, it will be extremely hard, in fact almost impossible for Sony to overturn Microsoft's fortunes in the U.S.
Through April 2009, the Xbox 360 sold 14.4 million pieces of software accounting for 35.49% of market share, while the PS3 sold 7.5 million pieces of software with 17.93% of the market belonging to Sony. As you can see, during that time, the Xbox 360 sold double the amount of software compared to the PS3, numbers that must be pleasing to the Redmond giant. The Nintendo Wii is on a cloud of its own, with apparently no one to reach it. Wii has 46.58% percent of markert share, selling over $19.6 million pieces of software.
In my humble opinion, I see the PS3 coming close to matching software sales of Xbox 360 especially with the smashing success that is the redesigned PS3 Slim. It is for now outselling the competition which will undoubtedly close the gap between said consoles. But to be realistic, that's as close as it's going to get. The Xbox 360 has already won the race in the U.S.
But is winning The United States enough to declare victory in this generation? It's a question many would answer with a resounding no. If you want to win this war, you'll have to do it like Nintendo did in its day, like Sony did with the PS1 and PS2. If you're going to win this console war, you must win at least Europe and America to get a clear cut victory, something that's very hard for either the software or hardware giant to do in their current state.
10/14/09 Ernice Gilbert
