NPD September 2009: That's What Happens With Price Cuts

The PS3 is up, significantly up. Half a million consoles sold in North America just in the month of September, a testament to what price cuts can do.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 did significantly better also, selling 353k units, up 138k, the equivalent of 64%.

All in all, it was a good month for the industry, with sales being up slightly year-over-year, the second best September since 2007. Here's the full breakdown:

-DS: 524K29K (-5%)
-PS3: 492K282K (+134%)
-Wii: 463K186K (+67%)
-360: 353K138K (+64%)
-PSP: 190K50K (+36%)
-PS2: 146K40K (+38%)

Great month for the industry indeed.

10/20/09 Ernice Gilbert

Patcher: PS3 leads the sales chart, while 360 and Wii follow

The one who predicts and gets it right/wrong half the time is back at it again, this time telling you what to expect from hardware sales this month. According to the Webush Morgan analyst Michael Patcher, the US games trade will return to double digits growth after six straight months of steady decline.

"We forecast sales of $750 million, up 21% compared to last year's $618 million," Patcher said in a note.

The analyst also predicted the PS3 beating Wii and Xbox 360 for the month of September.

"We estimate sell-through of 390,000 Wii hardware units, (down 45% from last year), 350,000 Xbox 360 (up 1% from last year), and 410,000 PS3 consoles (up 76% year-over-year) as the price cuts for all three consoles spur demand," he concluded.

So that's Patcher's estimates, look out for the more accurate NPD numbers next week.

10/08/09 Ernice Gilbert

Tretton: PS3 helps sell TVs, Movies, Digital Cameras

When shopping this coming holiday season, the PS3 won't be sequestered to the gaming Isle of your favorite store, according to Tretton, it will be all over the electronics department because it helps sell other entertainment devices and will be a benefit to the retail outlets. Here's Tretton speaking on the PS3's diversity:

"You get into management and you tell them the PS3 can help devices in their stores and when they understand that they're very receptive to it and we're getting a lot of great traction with that ~ You can find the PS3 not only in the gaming Isle this holiday season, you'll see it where home theaters are sold, where blu-ray movies are sold ~ ultimately we'd like to be in the digital photo Isle to help people understand if you want to buy a digital camera you need a PS3, if you have a PS3 you should be interested in digital photos, there's multiple places in the store where we should be and where we will be this holiday season," he said.

Forbes: So you're saying, okay they're down there for cameras and we're indirectly connected, is that okay with your marketing people, don't they always want to be bright and shiny in the center of things? Tretton then replied:

"I think you start with the core and we're the star of the gaming Isle, but clearly I don't know how many people we're going to talk into buying a big screen TV although we've had a lot of impact there, conversely though, if you're interested in high definition television, the PS3 got to be your second purchase ~ if you knew what you could do with digital photography you might buy a better digital camera, if you knew what you could do in terms of home entertainment experience, you might buy a HDTV or you might buy a better HDTV."

Forbes: Oh okay so in that case you can come to the executives and say this is a means to an up sell? Tretton answered:

"Yes there's no question about it and then the other thing we're doing is having an influence on media purchases because if they buy a PS3 that retailer can sell them games, they can sell them movies, they can sell them music, there are multiple forms of media that are being played through there that people are consuming at the retail level, you buy a stand alone blu-ray player it's going to help them sell movies, but it's not going to help them sell games or music or some other devices," Tretton voiced.

Sony is pushing extremely hard to position the PS3 as a total entertainment device, and with the new "It only does everything" add campaign in full throttle, the results should manifest soon, hence informing us on whether their efforts have indeed been successful.

Source

10/07/09 Ernice Gilbert

Jack Tretton: PS3 Sales Skyrocketing thanks to Slim

Sony's Jack Tretton love the media these days, and there's no surprise to his new found fondness, because Sony it seems has regained momentum with the release of the redesigned PS3 Slim and in an interview with forbes, his optimism could not be held under a bushel. He said the company's PS3 Slim gamble has paid off, with the revamped console resulting in "skyrocketing sales ~ we couldn't be happier with the results we're seeing."

Tretton went on touching on different subjects, from having limited finances, to taking more risks than Nintendo.

"We don't have unlimited money, we cater to a more mass market audience, we're willing to take a little bit more risk than a competitor like Nintendo," he said.

So there you have it, move over Nintendo, you don't know how to take risks; let Kaz, Tretton and the Sony Gang teach you. The link has more.

Thanks vg247