Calling It: 2009 is the Year of the Playstation 3
By Jared Newman | Friday, September 11, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Even with the reduced-price PS3 Slim arriving at the tail end of August, Sony’s console gained considerable ground on the Xbox 360 and the Wii according to the NPD Group, coming in just behind the former by 5,400 sales, and the latter by 67,400 sales. Indeed, the stage is set for the PS3 to top both the Wii and the Xbox 360 in September.
So let’s make the declaration, shall we? 2009 is the Year of the Playstation 3. Nintendo and Microsoft fanboys, delay your vitriol while we qualify this.
The “Year of the Playstation 3” has become somewhat of a punchline in the gaming press. According to numerous accounts, 2008 was supposed to be the PS3’s year, except that the console never dug itself out of last place in North America, and had no signs of doing so. (To be fair, Sony’s doing just fine overseas, as PC World’s Matt Peckham wrote last month.)
At the start of this year, when some were bold enough to back Sony again, chuckling ensued. But now, things are looking up. It’s already September, so there’s a lot of catching up to do and little time. Come the end of the year, Sony may still be on the bottom of the heap in annual sales, but it’ll have something its competitors don’t: Momentum.
Yes, I said “momentum,” the buzzword Sony’s PR team kept using to describe the Playstation brand even as it languished through the end of last year. No joke, Sony has it now, thanks entirely to the PS3 Slim and the price cut it brought along. Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 seems to be stagnating with a pseudo-price cut, waiting for Project Natal to tap the casual audience. Same goes for the Wii, which desperately needs something to spark interest and stop the shedding of year-over-year sales.
Sony, on the other hand, has nowhere to go but up, and a cheaper, slimmer console is the best way to begin the ascent. Come 2010, the console wars will look a lot different.
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Mario, and Why the Wii Will Still Reign | Technologizer Says:
September 15th, 2009 at 12:19 pm[…] know, I said 2009 is the Year of the Playstation 3, and I still believe it, in that Sony will hit a major turning point this year. But Nintendo, which […]
September 11th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Japanese numbers for 1st week of September are crazy for PS3
PS3 – 151,783
DSi – 60,419
PSP – 22,184
Wii – 21,557
DS Lite – 8,309
Xbox 360 – 6,827
PS2 – 3,001
September 11th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Well 360 has 54.4 defective rate on their console. It’s like half of xbox 360 will overheat and stop working. Wii is like a gimick for few days. So ps3 is the winner with it’s exclusive game and gt5 and blu Ray. I bought one ps3 slim and it’s just amazing device.
September 12th, 2009 at 3:56 am
They called 2006 the year of the PlayStation 3. It wasn’t.
They called 2007 the year of the PlayStation 3. It wasn’t.
They called 2008 the year of the PlayStation 3. It wasn’t.
Now you call 2009 the year of the PlayStation 3.
Can you see a trend here?
September 12th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
I think this article not only jumps the gun but is clearly biased. In fairness, I’m also biased because I hate Microsoft.
I hate Microsoft and how they try and overtake the entire software market by simply buying everyone out. I hate that they care so little about the quality of their products and their profit, that they rush to release a product that ends up having a 40%+ failure rate.
The PS3 is a far better product than the 360, and I’ve seen so many 360 fanboys hate on the PS3 that I really do now want to see the PS3 utterly crush the 360, but what I’m saying is that we need to wait a bit before we declare victory for the PS3.
September 12th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
it was only a matter of time, especially when 360 has no wifi or bluetooth or blue ray
September 13th, 2009 at 7:10 am
I think the PS3 Slim spells the end of the xbox 360 unless Micrsoft add some new features for the same price tag. Now Microsoft are starting to know how hard it has been for Sony to give the customer a well equipped console for a low price. Now the PS3 Slim can offer this the xbox 360 has practically stopped selling.
September 14th, 2009 at 12:47 am
There are 55 million Wiis out there, more than double the number of PS3s. It’s no surprise their sales are slowing a bit.
As for momentum, put it this way: In a month were Sony dropped the price of the PS3, it managed to still get third place. That sort of momentum you can ride all the way to the basement.
September 14th, 2009 at 6:16 am
what planet do you live on? Sony would have to do these kinds of numbers for a really long time to catch both consoles, it ain’t happening.
I got burned on Sony stock buying it at $50 and having it go down to $15…. the year of the PS3? yeah okay chief.
September 14th, 2009 at 6:46 am
We are in September so I think the ship has sailed for calling 2009 for the PS3. Let’s call 2010 the year of the PS3 before the XBOX-420 and the Wii-Plus hit the market.
September 25th, 2009 at 8:31 am
To make this article make sense you have to understand that the PS3 is a complete failure in the US. Calling 2009 the year of the PS3 makes sense but what does it really mean? More then likely it means, AT BEST PS3 can match XBOX 360 sales for the year. So at best Sony matches MSFT. Not really a win by any measures. It really doesn’t matter that 360 fails a lot, because MSFT just replaces it for you, and they do a great job about it. People will put up with the failure rate because SUPRISE, the games on 360 combined with Xbox Live just makes 360 all in all a better package. (not to mention those buying their 360 from best buy can just go exchange it in store with their warranty) Blu-ray is a cool feature, but only 8% of people use it, it was predicted that blu ray would hold 50% of the market share BY THE END OF LAST YEAR, the masses do not want a $300 blu ray player to go out and buy $30 movies. Furthermore, the masses do not want a PS3 as their blu ray player. Example, why not go to a 40-50 year old woman and explain to her how to control her brand new blu ray player using X,0, square and triangle. She’s gonna throw the damn thing in your face! Try explaining to her that it updates itself with wifi! She’ll say ‘so what?’ PS3 slim is an amazing package at an amazing price. But the fact remains the same, (though its getting better) lackluster titles, and the unpopularity of blu ray means that device is way ahead of its time and Sony is gonna continue to pay dearly for it.
November 5th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
I could care less about which console wins whatever war: I’m interested in the games. I have verry little interest in games coming out as exclusives for PS3, leaving me with cross-platform games. Since i have a 360, that’s the system I’ll be purchasing my games for.
I’m eagerly awaiting God of War III, and I’ll borrow my buddy’s system when it comes out, but aside from that…now that FFXIII is coming out on Xbox, all that’s left is Kingdom Hearts, and I have both a PSP and a DS, so what need is there for anything other than my PS2?
April 26th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
I think with TheRealist. Sony is too ahead of their time. They should come out with a remote for the BluRay on the PS3.
Microsoft might have a often failing system, but you get what you pay for. Arcade is a cheap peice of crap, and the Elite is completely amazing.
And as for the wii: I will only buy it for the LoZ games. That’s really all it has going for it.