GW: Did the PS3 Just Outsell the 360 in November?
By half a million units?Published 17/12/2009 at 11:00 by Gamoc
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The gloriously named Thomas Pain has given us quite an interesting GW, in which he questions the integrity of the majority of gaming journalism. Obviously, we almost wet our pants in excitement when we got this, so without further ado…
Well, is that true? After all, almost all news outlets were talking about “the unforeseen victory” of Microsoft in November, “the reversal of fortunes” that had happened overnight.
Follow me into this dark rabbit hole, to find out what actually happened.
A quick look at VGCharts LTD data for both consoles shows that since the price drop, Sony has closed down the gap between ps3 & Xbox by about 1 million units. That is, 4 month ago xbox360 was roughly 7 million units ahead, while now it’s 6 millions ahead.
But what’s most striking about these numbers isn’t the success of Sony, rather the failure of gaming journalism at large to report on crucial trends in the market.
In the same month that Sony finished the job it had started in August, NPD November numbers came out in which MS Xbox had outsold PS3 by 100,000. That is in US only.
A simple search on Google News shows about 300 articles covering NPD numbers, many of them with sensationalist headlines describing how Xbox has violently “beaten down”, “finally taken over” & done other naughty stuff to PS3. Good luck finding any report describing Sony closing down on Microsoft.
While US is the largest single market for console gaming, it only accounts for about 47 % of worldwide Market; that is less than half of it!
Now if you think selling US only information as overall worldwide info is outrageous, wait to see this.
In the same month of November, in Europe, PS3 outsold Xbox by a margin of about 215,000. Yep, that’s about twice the margin of victory MS had in America. In Japan, in the same period, PS3 outsold Xbox by about 140,000 units. And the fun ain’t over yet. In November, in terms of units sold in markets outside Europe, America & Japan, PS3 sold about 740,000 units (as much as it sold in US), while Xbox sold 500,000. That again gives Sony a 240,000 margin of victory.
Now, add up all the numbers, and you see that overall, in the month of November, Sony sold about 500,000 more consoles than Microsoft. That’s about… (Sigh)… half a million!
You see, it’s political news all over again; the balloon boy vomiting on screen gets presidential-level news coverage, while hundreds of thousands of boys dying somewhere in Africa barely squeeze themselves in the lower third of our TV screens, miserably crawling from right to left.
This is not a rant about console wars. Xbox & PS3 are both great console & they’re both doing great. Whatever console is set to win this cosmic war is irrelevant here (ironically, wii is gonna beat them both); what’s important is the sad state of affairs in Gaming Journalism when the whole establishment has been reduced to a circle of bloggers, copy/pasting the same articles off their RSS reader, inserting funny jokes here & there. All the while, the crucial trends gather dust in accessible statistics & available reports, waiting for someone to find them.
But perhaps, there’s no reason to get angry for. Only next time around, when you saw the word “analyst” being tossed around in the room, pause for a moment… and remember, that those guys in “the other side”, in that magazine, or website, are in no way more qualified to tell you what’s going on in the gaming world…than you. It’s sad, but true.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
Vandix | 17/12/2009 11:10
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1199 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
Great read, thank you Thomas.
And I agree with you about the general ‘news’ items. Most sites seem to forget the US only bit or ‘Is there a world besides the US?’… But what can you do…
micromagic | 17/12/2009 11:11
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57 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2009
VGChartzzz…….not the most reliable source of information but the logic is probably right.
Aitrus | 17/12/2009 11:15
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1491 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
I have noticed this trend since the release of the Slim, and now that you mention it, it is very strange that it hasn’t really been reported. I would asume it’s a pretty important trend for the business side of gaming.
bunimomike | 17/12/2009 11:21
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4802 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
Great article, Gamoc. Down-to-earth and oh-so informative. Pity the rest of the gaming press can’t look past the soundbites and catchy headlines to realise what’s actually going on. Well done, Sony.
fiffyfu | 17/12/2009 11:36
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70 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
This guy should get a monthly slot when the NPD results are out, where he can give us the real figures lol.
Great article and nice to see my big black box outselling the… other big black box…
teflon | 17/12/2009 11:54
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1998 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
As in the Pandora’s Box thing yesterday, not a euphemism… right? :p
bajere | 17/12/2009 12:41
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1068 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
Yep, every month he can tell us the ‘real’ figures, not the US only stats.
cc_star | 17/12/2009 11:46
Team TSA: Writer
7879 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
This is fucking huge, we should put this on a healthily sized international gaming website so the whole world can read about it… or something
bunimomike | 17/12/2009 12:02
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4802 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
If the pace continues then PS3 will be moving into 2nd position (for consoles sold globally) above the 360… in around 12 months time. I know it’s all just a cock-measuring competition but it’s one of the more important ones.
3shirts | 17/12/2009 20:50
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2494 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
What could be more important than a cock measuring competition?!
Sympozium Gro Mak | 17/12/2009 11:47
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1651 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
likely American biasism
monkeyspoon | 17/12/2009 11:48
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71 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2009
The gaming press in general is very pro 360. Even these so called neutral comparrison sites ate biased. There might be a game that the PS3 version is much better than the 360 nut has one flaw but the site will say the 360 version is much better even tho it has a lot more.
bajere | 17/12/2009 12:39
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1068 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
The 360 is massive in America as its American, just like the PS3 is big in Japan…problem is, they hold that dear, so the views always seem slanted. We will never get and equal review as deep down everyone has there favorite system.
teflon | 17/12/2009 11:51
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1998 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
Great to see the PS3 doing so well, specially in europe where it’s still noticeably more expensive than the Elite..
The whole BD player/Games console/Man about the house value thing is really paying dividends it seems.
52pickup | 17/12/2009 11:56
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202 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2009
I read an article a while back (before the slim, i think!) that the PS3 outsold 360 in foreign countries (France,Germany etc…), while 360 dominated mainly in english speaking countries (UK,US etc…). I’m sure since the slim and price-cut that PS3 has gained a lot of ground on 360 in english speaking countries and worldwide sales in general. As it stand what are the total global sales for 360 and PS3?
Watchful | 17/12/2009 12:07
Team TSA: Writer
2084 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
You’re right, we haven’t said since yesterday how well the PS3 is selling in Japan:
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2009/12/16/ps3-breaks-4-million-japanese-sales/
Or back as far as the 9th for a graph of comparative sales:
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2009/12/09/pspgo-in-japan-one-month-on/
VGChartz figures are widely regarded as ‘estimates’ at best. The only solid numbers we get are from Japan (Media Create) and America (NPD) so it is those that do get reported. It would be great if reliable monthly figures for Europe were available, but as it is we have to wait for financial results from the likes of GAME to find out.
The sales story in Japan is not as often reported on these days as it is widely known that the PS3 is kicking 360 ass over there. America is the key 360 vs PS3 battleground which is why there is a focus on the NPD numbers. That fact is the majority of English-language news outlets are likely American too so they will show a homeland bias.
jimmy-google | 17/12/2009 12:28
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1727 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
Doesn’t help that MD and Sony use different definitions of Europe.
The PS3 has been ahead in most European coutries for quite some time now. If this was a US presidential election the PS3 would be ahead as it leads in the 360 in most countries (in the same way George Bush got into power despite picking up less overall votes).
seedaripper1973 | 17/12/2009 12:27
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1733 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Pfft! Numbers, shnumbers…i coudnt care less…
top read though
NOSAJ19 | 17/12/2009 12:38
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62 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2009
I totally understand where this article is coming from!
The amount of bad press for the PS3 may even suggest that it is as good as a smear campaign paid for directly by Microsoft.
It is this kind of press that killed off the 3DO and its sequel the M2, as rather ironically, at the time it was better than the PSOne with better versions of such classics as Po’ed, and console exclusives of such games as the superb Killing Time.
However, Sony has wethered the storm regarding the PS3 with a brilliant marketing campaigm in such key territories as Europe, America and Japan. Good on you, Sony!
Vaile23 | 17/12/2009 12:49
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269 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2009
I can’t believe the Wii sells so much. Its those Crazy Asians (or Crazians, if you will) that are snapping them up like hot cakes.
Bilbo_bobbins | 17/12/2009 12:53
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1406 TSA Points | Member since: Jun 2009
Great article. It’s articles like these that give me the reason to love TSA. Nice one Gamoc.
mynameisblair | 17/12/2009 16:21
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3879 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
It wasn’t Gamoc that wrote that, it’d probably have more sexual references if it was.