“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…
gideon1451
I don’t think anyone expected there to be so much downtime.
cam the man
When it went down I thought, that’s OK I’m away for the weekend and it will be sorted by the time I get back. Couldn’t have been more wrong.
Rodney
I think the older, less impulsive players are less likely to trade-in. I love our PS3, but remember my video game roots. Playing Atari, (Pitfall was my favorite), then I got my Commodore64 and so on. So, I still appreciate single player mode and and actually am little turned off by stabbing virtual humans to death in the face. As to Microsoft, I have nothing good to say, except they did a “competent” job with Windows 7. My Zune is practically a paperweight, and after watching my sister send her Xbox360 in twice in a year for three months at a time for repairs, an Xbox isn’t even a consideration. Also, is it true they have to put LA Noire on three discs for Xbox?
Winkle
Yes mate good times! How did we live without online game play? It was bad enough waiting for the C64 to load from the tape deck and people complain now about slow loading games, my god they have it easy.
As for LA Noire, yes for the Xbox it is on 3 discs.
cc_star
Not really surprised by any of these findings to be honest. I can certainly understand people who predominantly play multi-platform games like FPS (CoD/BF/MoH etc) & Sports (FIFA/PES/Madden etc) titles swapping, makes perfect sense and whilst many may thing Killzone & Uncharted are big draws, so are Halo and Gears so the loss of the ability to play those may not be as big as some PS3 owners think.
With regards to myself, I’m indifferent to the outage now, not being able to play online was a mild annoyance at the start but now I barely play anything, doing a variety of things with my time instead.
If I didn’t have hundreds of pounds invested in un-resealable digital content I’d have probably already sold mine too, I don’t even think I’d have switched to the 360, I’d have just taken the money.
The outage has highlighted to me just how much other stuff I could be doing, how much more productive I can be and that doing the other stuff isn’t the drag I’d convinced myself it was as I settled in for either a quick blast or lengthy gaming session, blocking the rest of the world out of my mind.
It has put the thought at the back of mind for when the PSN does come back up, whether I want to slip into the old habit or not?
If someone who played for many, many hours a week can think this, what for more casual users. I think getting the PSN back online is just the start of the battle for Sony.
grimm
Would have to get a lot worse than this for me to trade my ps3 in for the RRODmobile.
UKZ-N3M1515
Nice comment there, your also forgetting that the PS3 has become quite known for its YLOD problems, not to the extent of what was i beleive 33%? but its way higher then it should be… Also, the 360 is a very good console with more stable servers so if CoD is the only game they play, then switching better for them. I love how most these types of comments are from ‘level 1’ TSA’ers.
tonycawley
What does servers have to do with cod? Servers are only used for matchmaking, gameplay is peer to peer.
hazelam
so, was pachter wrong?
wow, that’s my whole world view shaken.
^_^
Radiitz
So people are trading in their PS3’s just because the network is currently down?! Those idiots are selling PS3’s off JUST because there is currently NO ONLINE?!
This makes me mad. Probably because I’m more of a retro gamer than a current-gen gamers. But this just makes me so mad.
uuuhh
Hey, they’re just video games ya know. They’re just for pissing around on, killing time and, well ya know, having FUN! If they just get their fun playing cod online who cares?! At the end of the day it’s not as if games are important.
Shakugan
After reading this article, my penis started to move on itself and want to slap with it who just traded PS3 for Xbox 360 just only, because they can’t play online and their favourite games. Don’t get me wrong online games are fun, but come on there are many great MP/SP games out there waiting to be played, but they just only buy CoD games…Peace and no hate
Klart
Please, can everybody just keep their penis in their pants?
Thank you.
Sympozium
Yes, I agree
Shakugan
Why so serious? :D
jaksmakndaxter
I personally don’t mind the PSN downtime at all. It’s giving me more time to do some of the things I was putting off because of just-one-more-level-up with Killzone 3 lol. Sony has never let me down in the past,and although I sure would like to be playing online I’m not willing to give up on them just yet. I am upset with the hackers,however, for ruining it for millions of gamers all over the globe. I cannot fault Sony for this because anything computerized is subject to be hacked,but those douche bags………..
TheArgonian
Jesus those retards that have heart attacks because they can’t play online are stupid Just.Play.Singleplayer. IS IT THAT F***ING HARD?
UKZ-N3M1515
Why be so judgemental, ive wanted to go back to xbox for a while now, i like things fresh, and now would be a better time then ever, i could stump up the cash to get a 360 bundle with a years live and replace blops and get Fable 3 ( after loving the previous 2 ) and maybe even another game. I havent turned on my PS3 in over 2 months, the only thing holding me back is the fact that A) ive had one breakdown on me, and B) UC: Drakes deception, If uncharted wasnt on the horizon, i think i would have made the switch by now.
R4U Eldave0
Yeah when I traded mine recently the one thing that was holding me back was U3, but after replaying U1&2 I’ve decided I’m a bit bored with the series now, which made trading it much easier lol. I’m now back on XBL for the first time in about 4 years and having a blast playing the Gears3 beta, Left 4 Dead, etc with mates I haven’t spoken to in years :) No regrets.
UKZ-N3M1515
The only other game i like the look of really, which is exclusive, is TLG, but i never played ICO and i didnt really enjoy shadow of the collosus, Why is this game so hyped? im a guy, on a horse, killing giant rock mosters, which to my memory just had weak spots and i had to climb to them and stab them, and there were 12 all killed in a similar fashion? i think i killed 4 then gave up on the game. So anyway, im not too fussed about missing this game. i may have to see if i can get any life out of my old 360, damn disc read failure, wasnt even RROD so i cant get a new one, and if i got it to RROD now, its too late… 2 years too late. How i miss that thing, despite how ugly i think it is.