PSN Outage Starting To Show At Retail

TSA Staff 185 Comments

“The ongoing PlayStation Network outage is beginning to have an effect on the high street,” Edge is claiming this afternoon.

The respected magazine claims that they have spoken to sources who say there’s a “growing trend of PS3 consoles being traded in for cash or Xbox 360s” in addition to “slumping sales of PSN points cards” and a “shift in the ratio of multiplatform game sales and pre-orders away from PS3”.

Our source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that from the second week onwards they saw “an increase of over 200 per cent on PS3 consoles being traded in, split almost 50/50 between those trading for cash and those taking a 360 instead.”

Another said that they had seen a “massive increase” in the number of PS3s being traded in, mostly for 360s.

One (Belgian) retailer speaking on the record, Gameswap, said that although gamers commonly trade in their consoles at the end of the month to pay bills, this time around they’re “bringing in PS3s together with all their games and they don’t want money, they want an Xbox 360.”

“In every case it is because of Black Ops and or Modern Warfare 2,” said the retailer.

The same source said it’s affecting game sales too.  “People are cancelling their order of Brink for PS3. People that have an Xbox 360 have switched their pre-orders – others are just cancelling entirely.”

There’s much more in the Edge article, including signs that people are becoming ever more frustrating with Sony’s customer services.  Remember that this is just from a sampling of retailers, getting the larger chains to talk on the record (or otherwise) would be considerably more telling…

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185 Comments

  1. I’ve actually bought a PlayStation Network card during the outage.

    • I did this too. Hope they extend that get 15 months of PS+ and pay for 12 after the downtime since that’s what I bought the card for.

      • I got my sister to get me some cards to pay for this for my birthday. My birthday was the week before the outage. She gave me the cards the day after the outage started.

  2. I can already hear them crying while I’m playing Resistance 3, inFamous 2, Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One, Twisted Metal, Ninokuni, Tales of Graces f, Tales of Xilia, Sorcery, Ape Escape, Ico/Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection, The Last Guardian, Yakuza of the End, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Agent, Whit Knight Chronicles 2, Starhawk and maybe Final Fantasy vs. XIII.

    Don’t get me wrong, I do have an Xbox 360 and I really look forward to Gears of War 3 but Microsoft’s Kinect focus is turning my preference to PS3 while Sony exclusives just keep coming and coming.

    Black Ops and Modern Warfare 2 are better played on the 360 though so they have my best wishes.

    • They’re not gamers, they don’t play anything outside of CoD or even Fifa… good riddance, these humans wouldn’t care

      • Bit judgemental

      • You say good riddance but those do fork out profits for all the other “great” titles we’re enjoying to exist :) What do you think would be if CoD and FIFA were a 360 exclusive?

      • “Bit judgemental”
        Agreed. I would love to buy just two games a year and get that much enjoyment out of them. Unfortunatley, as much as I love games, they bore me after a week or two so I move on to a new one. But if I had just those two games each year and played them with my mates most nights, etc I would seriously be considering by now to ‘change sides’ and move to a console where I can play those games again. Hell, I play lots of games and I still did the ‘change sides’ thing!

      • They need to look at other games…. , yes its close-minded but so many are overlooked, could they benefited from more sales?

      • Why do they “need” to? If they get all of their gaming entertainment for £80 a year good for them. Both games get terrific reviews each year so they are hardly buying naff games

    • MW2 is better on PS3 as it’s hack free.
      Blops on 360 is of course better.

      • “MW2 is better on PS3 as it’s hack free.” Last time I saw MW2 on a PS3 my screen was upside down and every kill was gaining my 5 prestiges…. things may have been patched now (no idea, i dont play it often) but your statement made me chuckle :P

      • It was patched a couple of months ago alright but I do remember when you couldn’t play 2 games in a row without a hacker ruining the game.

        On the other hand, only got a 360 on Saturday. Got MW2 2nd hand, since Saturday I’ve been shot on Rundown by a guy who was running around on the outside of the map. He could shoot me, I couldn’t shhot him. Played a few games of domination (on Afghan & Rundown especially) where I’ve been trying to capture a flag but was killed what looked like a mortar shell on the killcam that kept landing perfectly on the flag.

        Also encountered a couple of guys that whenever they were shot something like “i’m a beast, this shit is cool” appeared on the screen about 10 times.

        So yes, the 360 version is definitely hacked.

      • LOL sounds eventful. Can’t say I’ve ever played it on the 360

      • And there we were thinking the PS3 version being hacked was all down to Geohot! Its obviously just the game itself being easy to hack.

        *Would just like to add to the clamour for an edit button. Just noticed a couple of mistakes on my last post!

      • How exactly have the console games been hacked? I don’t own the games so I’ve no first hand experience but how can a hacked online game be run on a console? If the console is hacked then surely it could be blocked?

  3. I think a lot of people (like me) are probably delaying a lot of purchases, rather than avoiding them altogether.
    I don’t see the point of buying Brink, for example, until the PSN is back.

    • Ditto, especially as the reviews say the single player of Brink is a tad weak.

      I don’t play online a lot, but I do miss not being able to try Portal 2 co-op and the occasional UC2 night :-) and I usually spend a few quid in the store each week.

      In the last 21 days I’ve completed Portal 2, purchased the Orange Box (again) and re-played Half Life and the original Portal. Might have a second bash at Portal 2 to bide me over until LA Noire arrives.

  4. Good news, just means there’ll be less idiots on the PS3 versions when it comes back on :)

    • That is what i was thinking too :D

  5. Trading for xbox360? If all they care about is CoD and the likes, why not just buy a PC. I hear the mouse/keyboard combo is unbeatable :)

    • But that’s the thing – they will just get owned over and over :)

  6. Ironically I forked out for 75 quid’s worth of PSN cards a day after the PSN went down because I had no idea about the outage.

    • i bought 20 quids worth the day before the psn went down,i bought some new weapons and the arrival dlc for mass effect 2,but i opted to download it later,what a stupid mistake on my part.

  7. Meaningless without numbers – an increase of 200% could be one extra console of they only had one ps3 traded in the previous month.

    However it does prove that COD players really do need to get a life.

    • Maybe they traded that in to buy a copy of CoD???

      • COD costs more than the life of someone who’d be willing to trade it for COD.

      • Well they certainly sold their soul

    • its become the cocain of gaming; costs too much, only works for half an hour, makes you angry and anyone who finds out your using it thinks your a dick

      • You’ve just described my girlfriend.

  8. “slumping sales of PSN points cards”… Is that supposed to be a surprise? You’d have to be off your rocker to spend money on those, not knowing when you can actually use them. Personally, while I have no intention to ditch my PS3 I’m not buying any games until normal service is resumed. As a bonus gives me chance to get through Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age 2 and AC Brotherhood.

  9. All the people who sold their PS3 to get a 360 will be back when they realise there a few games coming out compared to PS3.

  10. i looked at 360s out of curiosity and i found out that the 360 or 360 elite doesn’t have built in wi-fi, my bloody DS has wi-fi! i dont fancy spending £110 for a 360 elite (has to by elite because i dont want RROD), £60 just for a wi-fi adapter then £40 for live, oh a harddrive too think thats around £30. so basically just to get an xbox to the same level as my ps3 would cost me £240 without any games, i think ill wait a few days thats for the offer M$

    • All the current 360s have WiFi, you’ve been looking at out of production models.

      • Also they start with 250Gb HDDs if it is the HDD model and not the 4Gb flash memory one, so you won’t need an extra hard drive.

    • £150 for the 4GB slimline or £175 for the 250GB version complete with headset and Wifi. £30 for 12 months live (amazon.co.uk). Just over £200 total. You’re welcome :)

    • Lol where are you looking?
      The new 360 has wifi and 250GB and it’s failure rate is low compared to old 360’s.

    • Why would you be looking for an Elite model (which also get the RROD) instead of the new slim model (which hasn’t had any reports of RROD)?

      All slim models come with wifi.

      So yes, if you pick the most expensive individual parts and add them up they cost more. Or you could just buy a new slim with wifi and 250 gig HD off amazon for 160 pounds.

      http://www.amazon.co.uk/Xbox-360-Console-250GB-Drive/dp/B003NSBMF8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305211113&sr=8-1

      • Good spot! Didn’t realise they were even cheaper now. My brother is after one so I will make sure I show him that link, ta :)

      • Good bundle available from Amazon too, £160 for the 250GB + Fable III and then Gold for only £15… tempted to upgrade from my Elite.

      • :| wow thats a good deal! I literally got £160 cash for selling my PS3 a few days ago. Damn thats tempting!

      • Holy shit! I paid €220 for a 2nd hand slim. That’s about £190. Show’s how much we’re being ripped off here in Ireland.

        You’ll be doing well to get a 3DS here as well for less than €270, which is about £235.

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