Posts Tagged ‘ps3’
Lights Dimming For Sony’s Playstation 3
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Sony’s PS3 is struggling to find the “sweet spot” in the video game market as its sales drop again.
Despite Sony’s Playstation 3 quarterly sales growth doubling from last year, the end result from this year’s holiday sales doesn’t bode well according to the Wall Street Journal.
Sony hoped the PS3 would take the number-two spot in video-game consoles, as it currently trails the Wii and Xbox 360, respectively. Instead, PlayStation 3 sales are down 19 percent from last holiday season. Contrast that to Nintendo and Microsoft, which saw the Wii double its sales and Xbox 360 sales rising by eight percent, respectively.
Sony places a lot of hope on its videogame division as its electronics business is suffering terribly due to the global economic crisis. Sony projected last spring that its games division would finally make a profit since launching the PS3 in 2006.
Earlier this month, I reported that by 2010, Sony plans to eliminate 8,000 jobs (four percent of its global work force). This is certainly the result of a tail spin of poor electronics sales.
Here’s where Sony probably went wrong.
A pricey console featuring fancy components is backfiring on them as this recession continues to spiral out of control and people are less inclined to drop money on the priciest gaming console. And why should they?
An entry-level PS3 model costs at least $150 more than the Wii or the cheapest Xbox 360, right? And although the PS3 has Blu-ray functionality that isn’t in the Wii or the Xbox 360, it’s still a bitter pill to swallow when parents just want to buy a respectable video-game console for their kids. Besides, the cost of actual Blu-ray players are relatively inexpensive, and you still can get one with an Xbox 360 for cheaper than what it would cost you to buy a PS3. Dang!
We also know that Microsoft helped its sales of the Xbox 360 when it slashed the price this past fall and bundled games, too. Nintendo kept the Wii’s price at $249 but cranked out more consoles taking care of the shortage problem.
Let’s also be frank…Sony hasn’t had the great exclusive titles it enjoyed with the PlayStation . Microsoft has its heavyweight giants Halo and Gears of War franchises. Nintendo’s big money makers are mostly in-house games. While Sony used to have a stronghold of exclusives, clever Microsoft found a way to get publishers to launch biggies simultaneous with Sony.
Lastly, the PS3 just costs way too much to make. Last week, I told you Sony found a way to take the console which once took $840 to manufacture, and make it for $448.73. Granted, it still loses money on every PS3 it sells because it retails at $399, so Sony is going to have to cut the price to help boost sales.
Let the numbers speak for themselves. Since its launch, the Wii has sold nearly 35 million units, the Xbox 360 has sold 22 million, with the PS3 trailing at 17 million. Let’s get even more specific. Last month, in the US, the Wii sold 2 million, consumers bought 836,000 Xbox 360’s, and only 368,000 PS3’s were purchased.
While Sony’s best seller last month (according to The NPD) was Call of Duty: World at War…dang again! The Xbox 360 version sold twice as much.
Sony: Shoddy machines won’t grow the market
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Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves says releasing quality hardware is key to growing the games market.
“… Another thing we have committed to for supporting market growth is putting out quality hardware - you don’t grow the market by putting out shoddy machines,” he said. “So we try to make sure that PS3s have a failure rate of just two to three percent, which is very low by industry standards.”
The Sony exec’s comments come from an interview with MCV, in which he doesn’t directly refer to Xbox 360’s dreaded Red Ring of Death failure, although it’s hard not to draw the link from what he says. Our Wii’s still working anyway…
It’s a fair thing for Reeves to point out too. Only yesterday we were talking about how reliable PS3 seems considering the fact that we’ve all experienced the RRoD with our 360s, some of us on four different consoles.
However, it wasn’t all cheeky sniping, with Reeves actually going on to praise the other platform holders, showing a bit of Christmas spirit between the big guys.
“On the competition, I will say Nintendo have only done good things. They have expanded geographically and dramatically extended demographically. They have never been afraid to try new products, be that hardware, or software or peripherals.
“For Microsoft, again, I can understand that, again, they have put money into the market and have initiated growth. In some ways what they have done is brought forward consumers from next year into this year.
“By bringing the price down they are trying to establish themselves quickly, as they did with the first Xbox. But they have built online in a meaningful way and the competition they have brought to the market place is great.”
Sony Didn’t Intend PS3 To Succeed As A Console
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Everyone was probably glad to know that the PS3 managed to sell more than a 150k during November. And while many Sony fans would see the glass half full, analysts and skeptics would see the glass half-empty, considering that the PS3 and PS2 combined didn’t come close to the Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii’s numbers. However, selling a console during this generation wasn’t Sony’s priority for the PS3 to begin with. Good numbers or not, Sony already accomplished what they wanted from their third-generation console.
It all started back in E3 2005 with an article on IGN comparing Sony’s and Microsoft’s console specs. A lot of people are going to say “But the specs have changed since then.” However, it’s not the specs that gave away the PS3’s general purpose, it was the intention of the specs. The one comment that stands out above them all in the article is the one that pinpoints what the PS3 has displayed in realtime gameplay (at present) and for what Sony was really using the PS3 for, as the comments states: “Sony’s CPU is ideal for an environment where 12.5% of the work is general-purpose computing and 87.5% of the work is DSP calculations. That sort of mix makes sense for video playback or networked waveform analysis, but not for games.”
That comment has stuck with me for the past three years, and with good reason. Now I’m sure techies will break down the PS3 specs to justify it as a more suitable gaming platform than the Xbox 360, but the fact of the matter remains: Developers needed multithreaded middleware just to keep the framerate stable when developing high-end games on the PS3. However, there was nothing needed for optimized video playback for high-definition optical media, specifically, Blu-ray media.
It all comes full-circle, and the facts are these: Even if the PS3 is Sony’s last console Sony still wins. Whether the PS3 turns a profit or tanks, Sony still wins. For those of who you don’t know what I’m talking about, simply understand that Sony, as an electronic giant, simply needs to survive the economic ebb to reap the benefits of what the PlayStation 3 established for the company. That establishment happens to be the Blu-ray format. The company didn’t intend for the PS3 to succeed as the next big console, so much as they intended it to push their new format through the door, successfully. And it did.
Unless another form of high-def optical media emerges within the next two years, Sony will control the high-definition era of optical media for visual entertainment. Anyone who wants to see high-def movies, guess what format you’re going to have to go with? Anyone who wants to burn high-def media, guess what format has to be used? If Microsoft wants the Xbox 360 to play anything other than DVD9 material, guess what format they’re going to have to use? Sony didn’t need the PS3 to just win over gamers, they just needed a vessel to carry over a new format that they would own. Something that Sony’s BetaMax and their UMD failed to do in the past.
While Nintendo may control the console gaming market, and Microsoft has a stranglehold on the hardcore gaming arena, Sony will own all with Blu-ray. Even Microsoft and Nintendo will have to bow to Sony if they plan to use the formats for their current or future consoles. The only thing gamers can hope for is that Sony doesn’t abandon the PS3 too soon (since they have no need for it anymore), or otherwise the entire gaming community will be stuck with Wii shovelware and Halo spin-offs for the rest of this gaming generation.
NPD: November Sees ‘Blistering’ 10 Percent Growth, 2 Million Wiis, Gears 2 Dominant
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The video game industry saw November revenues up 10 percent over last year to nearly $3 billion — even amid an economic recession, and despite the fact that last November had seven more post-Thanksgiving shopping days, the NPD reported today.
This brings the industry’s revenues to date to $16 billion — and according to the NPD’s Anita Frazier, who describes this month’s revenue performance as “blistering,” the games biz is still on track to reach NPD’s previously-estimated $22 billion for 2008 as a whole.
“One reason for the continued strength of the industry compared to other forms of entertainment comes from a number of sources,” says Frazier. “Certainly, the expanded audience for gaming due to the availability of a wider variety of compelling content is a strong contributor.”
Hardware
Hardware revenue was up 10 percent year over year to $1.21 billion, and 14 percent over 2007’s year-to-date total.
The Wii was the victor in spades, selling an unprecedented 2.04 million units, over twice what it sold during November of 2007 when its supply was considerably more constrained
Nintendo’s DS handheld sold 1.57 million units, followed by the Xbox 360 at 836,000 units. Having recently received a price cut, the Xbox 360 more than doubled the PlayStation 3’s 378,000 units in November.
Sony’s PSP beat its home console with 421,000 units, and the PlayStation 2 still made a showing with 206,000 units.
Wii - 2.04 million
DS - 1.57 million
Xbox 360 - 836,000
PSP - 421,000
PS3 - 378,000
PS2 - 206,000
“The expanded supply of Wii systems at retail was clearly evident in the sales figures this month,” says the NPD’s Frazier. “The 360 realized a nice unit sales bump over last November and the PS3 year-to-date unit sales growth is impressive.”
“It’s clear there can be more multiple victors this generation, and while price is certainly a strong factor, particularly as the current economic situation continues to prevail, the most important factor that will drive success in 2009 will be the line-up of compelling games that will keep consumers involved in the industry.”
Software
Video game software grew 11 percent year over year in November, representing 31 percent growth in year to date sales.
Gears of War 2 topped the month’s top ten, selling 1.56 million units in November, and the NPD pegs its attach rate to the Xbox 360’s install base at 13 percent.
The Xbox 360 SKU of Call of Duty: World at War came in at a close second with 1.41 million units, and Wii Play still maintained its chart tenacity in third place.
The software top 10 for November is surprisingly broad-ranging:
1. Gears of War 2 (Microsoft, Xbox 360) - 1.56 million
2. Call of Duty: World At War (Activision Blizzard, Xbox 360) - 1.41 million
3. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) - 796,000
4. Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii) - 697,000
5. Mario Kart (Nintendo, Wii) - 637,00
6. Call of Duty: World At War (Activision Blizzard, PS3) - 597,000
7. Guitar Hero: World Tour (Activision Blizzard, Wii) - 475,000
8. Left 4 Dead (Electronic Arts, Xbox 360) - 410,000
9. Resistance 2 (Sony, PlayStation 3) - 385,000
10. Wii Music (Nintendo, Wii) - 297,000
“After a soft introduction last month, Wii Music came back to score a spot on the top 10 list for the month,” said Frazier, calling it a “testament” to Nintendo’s marketing power and the Wii’s brand equity.
Frazier also notes that Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King sold 1.4 million during the month, its debut at retail.
She also speculates that the recession could actually be aiding video game sales: “Economic factors are also at play, given that a video game is a relatively inexpensive form of entertainment for the hours of value it provides,” she says.
“Our Consumer Spending Indicator shows that video games is the category consumers are least likely to cut back on this holiday.”
And The Home Marketing Onslaught Begins…
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We always knew Home was going to be heavy on advertising and corporate sponsorship. But this heavy this soon? It’s a little unexpected.
Contained within the press release nailing down the service’s launch were a number of sponsorship/marketing announcements. For games, for movies, for…contemporary French furniture.
Here’s a rundown of Home’s first batch of corporate tie-ins:
GAMES: We’ve seen a number of these before. But in addition to the Far Cry, Uncharted and Warhawk spaces there’ll also be MotorStorm and SOCOM themed areas. And that’s just the start. EA, Sega, Atari, Ubisoft and Midway will also be contributing “engaging environments” for Home in the near future
MEDIA: British tech site Hexus TV and gaming site Eurogamer will be part of the PAL launch, both outlets providing video content for Home’s various theatres and screens. Paramount Pictures will do the same thing, but presumably on a more global level.
WATCHMEN: Specifically mentioned in the release is a bunch of Watchmen-themed tie-ins. Director Zack Snyder has recorded some kind of “video greeting” for new users, while your virtual avatars will in the new year be able to spend your real money on t-shirts, clocks and statues. Also mentioned is “an exclusive Q&A event”, hosted by “cast and filmmakers”, where press and fans can talk the movie/comic from within a Watchmen Home space.
MISC.: Can’t think of any other way to classify this. Along with the already-announced Red Bull sponsorship (which, as you could probably guess, is a virtual Red Bull air race), Home will also launch with a virtual Diesel store, giving you the chance to dress your avatars in…well, virtual Diesel gear. Interestingly, Sony say the items will range from “free” to a maximum of €1.50.
A Diesel store’s nothing compared to the last item on our agenda, however. And that’s a custom store for…contemporary French furniture company Ligne Roset. I can’t put this any better than the press release, so…
At the virtual store, people will be able to choose from a selection of the most popular Ligne Roset designs, including the iconic Togo and Facett upholstery collections. It will be possible to personalise furniture by selecting from a wide selection of fabrics and leathers allowing a unique and individual look. This is an opportunity to get acquainted with Ligne Roset’s cutting edge designs created by some of Europe’s most talented designers.
Yeah. The Ligne Roset fanboys in the house happy about this?
Sony Cuts 8,000 Jobs - Time to Cut the PS3 Too?
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With the economy deep in the throes of a recession, the only question these days is who — or what — is next? Today it was Sony’s turn, which, citing “the sudden and rapid changes in the global economic environment,” said it’s laying off 8,000 employees in its electronics division and shuttering 10 percent of its manufacturing facilities. In the subsequent corporate restructuring to come, “unprofitable or non-core businesses” are in the firing line, Game Industry Biz reports — most notably, the company’s Playstation division is under review.
What this means is too soon to tell, but if you were to ask me, I’d say it’s time for Sony to walk away from the Playstation 3 as much as possible. Its $400 price point is uniquely ill-suited for these recessionary times, and while the company could lower that MSRP, it already loses $130-$260 on each sale (depending on who you believe.) Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 sold twice as many units as the PS3 in October, the most recent month for which data is available (though both consoles trail far behind the Wii.) With the PS3’s install base so small in comparison, and the appeal of its highly touted Blu-ray drive questionable at best, it’s hard to see Sony benefiting from Playstation 3.
I checked in with Wedbush Morgan game analyst Michael Pachter to get his take; he thinks that with the PS3, Sony has “too much at stake to walk away.” Instead, he continued in his email message, the company needs to “plug away until manufacturing efficiencies allow them to be cost competitive. I don’t see them taking many risks over the next few years, but think that they can get by with a relatively lean operation until they become profitable.”
Maybe so. I think Sony could invest more resources in its Playstation 2 line, which is still selling almost as well as the PS3, and can easily be revamped into an attractive, cheap alternative to the Wii. Even at an $130 MSRP, Sony sells the PS2 at a profit, and the line’s record-breaking install base of 140 million units means a large audience to which Sony can sell peripherals and upgrades.
Whatever they decide, Sony has some tough choices to make. Of course that’s true for most game companies nowadays, but since Sony’s stuck with the white elephant called the Playstation 3, that pain will be all the more keen.
Home Launch Date Announced
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ONY Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced that its highly anticipated PlayStation Home Beta service for PLAYSTATION3 will become available for all PS3 users around the world on December 11th, 2008. Following the successful completion of the closed beta service, PlayStation Home’s open beta service will continue to evolve with new features and functionality.
PlayStation Home is a ground-breaking 3D social gaming community available on PLAYSTATION3 that allows users to interact, communicate and share gaming experiences. By leveraging the power of PLAYSTATION3, PlayStation Home delivers overwhelming visual graphics and rich gaming social experiences only possible on the PLAYSTATION3 platform. Within PlayStation Home, users can create and customize their own unique avatars and explore the virtual community in real time where they can communicate freely through text or voice chat.
PlayStation Home users will not only be able to enjoy variety of entertainment content such as Mini-Games, videos and special events along with their friends, but will also be able to create their own community by using the “Club” feature to create clubs with other PlayStation Home users who share the same interests. PlayStation Home also allows groups of users to launch directly into their favourite online games together from PlayStation Home. PlayStation Home, available as a free download starting December 11th, will launch directly from the PlayStation Home icon on the PlayStation Network column of XMB (XrossMediaBar) on PLAYSTATION3. Users will be able to experience basic features and services of PlayStation Home, free of charge. PlayStation Home will allow open interaction among users, business partners and SCE, and will evolve with additional features including dedicated game spaces, special events and exclusive themed items, to further enrich the entertainment experience on the PLAYSTATION3 platform.
“PlayStation Home is truly a promising network community service on the PlayStation platform, made possible with the powerful combination of PS3’s overwhelming computational power and PlayStation Network that covers many countries around the globe,” said Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO, SCE. “We are committed to providing PS3 users with exciting gaming experiences with PlayStation Home and together with our partners and users, expand the new world of interactive entertainment as we move forward.”
For users accessing PlayStation Home in the SONY Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) regions, themed virtual environments will be available to explore. Starting with a themed Far Cry 2 space, PlayStation Home will offer game inspired environments that allow people to discuss the specific games, plan strategies and access content and clues that will enhance the gaming experience. The number of gaming environments such as this will regularly increase, with spaces for Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Warhawk, Motorstorm and SOCOM following very soon. SCEE is working with leading publishers such as: Electronic Arts, UBISOFT, Midway, Sega and ATARI to create engaging environments that will provide users with an on-going gaming experience.
“We are very excited to be bringing PlayStation Home to Europe and the PAL territories, offering users an interactive, social, gaming experience,” said Daniel Hill, Home Service Manager, SCEE. “PlayStation Home is unique to anything else in the gaming world and by partnering with both global and regional gaming and non-gaming brands, we are able to offer exciting and entertaining content that will enhance the PlayStation experience.”
SCEE today also announced the first partnerships with some of the world’s most respected lifestyle brands for the Open Beta. Fashion leader Diesel, contemporary furniture designers Ligne Roset, energy drink Red Bull, film studio Paramount Pictures and video content providers Hexus TV and Eurogamer are the first on board. They will offer resident’s virtual clothing for their avatar, virtual furniture for their PlayStation Home apartments, exclusive video content and a virtual flying challenge: the Red Bull Air Race. Visitors and residents will be able to explore PlayStation Home with their avatar character and, thanks to Diesel, avatars can look great from the start with Diesel offering the latest men’s and women’s designer avatar clothing, with items ranging from free of charge to €1.50. So for those visiting PlayStation Home, they can dress their avatars in the latest jeans and jacket prior to getting out and about.
On the home front, PlayStation Home gives everyone their own apartment to spend time in and entertain friends - who will now be able relax on exclusive Ligne Roset furniture. At the virtual store, people will be able to choose from a selection of the most popular Ligne Roset designs, including the iconic Togo and Facett upholstery collections. It will be possible to personalise furniture by selecting from a wide selection of fabrics and leathers allowing a unique and individual look. This is an opportunity to get acquainted with Ligne Roset’s cutting edge designs created by some of Europe’s most talented designers.
As the very first consumer brand space, Red Bull has created the Red Bull Island where visitors to the Island can interact and take part in many of Red Bull’s unique events. Initially there will be the opportunity to get inside the cockpit of a Red Bull Air Race plane and compete against the PlayStation community. The real-world Red Bull Air Race World Championship has become a global phenomenon in just four years, attracting millions of spectators. Now those spectators can leave the stands, become a pilot and tackle the Red Bull Island course themselves. The Red Bull Island will continue to expand, adding new and exciting content in early 2009. Taking full advantage of the PlayStation Home Theatre, SCEE has partnered with various content providers to enhance the cinematic experience.
Offering a wide range of content, the PlayStation Home Theatre will provide lifestyle technology programming from Hexus TV, gaming content from Eurogamer and exclusive film content from Paramount Pictures. Starting with the release of the highly anticipated film, Watchmen, Paramount Pictures International will use PlayStation Home to promote its latest films. Initially, PlayStation Home residents will be able to view an exclusive video greeting from Watchmen Director Zack Snyder as well as the latest Watchmen trailer. A selection of virtual Watchmen merchandise e.g. T-Shirts with the smiley face logo, Doomsday clocks and character statues, will also be available in the New Year, ahead of an exclusive Q & A event where cast and filmmakers will meet selected press and competition winners fans within the Watchmen themed environment.
PlayStation Home is exclusive to PLAYSTATION3, free to download and easy to join. It’s the ultimate online community – a place where you can meet friends, try the latest games, hear new music, watch videos, relax in the apartment of your dreams and much, much more. With more and more spaces being created and partners like Diesel, Ligne Roset and Red Bull coming on board, the PlayStation Home experience is just getting started.
SCE will vigorously promote the expansion of the world of PLAYSTATION3 by introducing new services that will open up new possibilities and enjoyment in interactive entertainment.
PlayStation friends finally get a second life
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The annual battle of the consoles that takes place every Christmas will heat up this week when Sony launches its own version of Second Life for the PlayStation 3. The new service, called PlayStation Home, will allow players to create an online “virtual life” and interact with other players in a make-believe world.
Sony hopes to cash in on the massive success of Second Life, which claims to have 15m registered players around the world — albeit that the highest number active at any one time is about 76,000. It is, however, available only on a computer rather than a games console. To try Home, which is slated for release in the next 10 days, players must download a piece of free software from Sony’s PlayStation store onto their own PS3.
From here they must create their own character, known as an avatar; they are then free to explore Sony’s virtual lands complete with shops, apartments and cinemas. They can also meet and interact with other avatars from around the world, exchange ideas and play mini-games such as chess or 10-pin bowling. Avatars can dance together or blow each other kisses but, in case you’re wondering, interaction will fall short of full-on sex, a popular option for many Second Life fans.
Sony has high hopes of Home becoming a digital clubhouse where those with time on their hands can let their avatars hang out together online. Most of the service’s initial features will be free, and you are given a harbourside apartment that you can furnish as you choose. If you want to embellish your virtual home with fancy furniture or bling up your avatar with posh clothing, this will inevitably cost real money. For example, a pair of jeans will cost about 85p and a flash apartment will cost about £4. This will be paid for via PlayStation’s online store.
Home has been in the pipeline for some time, but the announcement of the launch so close to Christmas is no coincidence. This is traditionally the most popular time for gamers to invest in new consoles. Two years ago, when Nintendo launched its Wii, the device sold out across many shops in Britain, and — in what was something of a PR coup — the company was forced to airlift new stock in from mainland Europe. It pioneered the idea of creating permanent player avatars on a console.
Whether Sony’s marketing move will prove as successful remains to be seen, but initial reports are good. While Home is not as ambitious an undertaking as Second Life, Sony appears to have successfully created a slick environment for gamers to enjoy exploring. The initial choice of clothing for your avatar is limited, but many of the virtual stores have not opened for business yet and this, along with other aspects, will undoubtedly evolve rapidly.
Perhaps the most important feature is that if avatars meet up online, the players can launch a PS3 game directly from within Home that they can participate in, if they all have a copy. This may help PlayStation to catch up with the hugely popular Xbox Live online service.
Sony is not alone in attempting to entice buyers by adding new features to its console: Microsoft has completely revamped the software for its Xbox 360 consoles in time for Christmas shoppers. The company also insists it has finally replaced the errant chip that caused so many of its consoles to malfunction and has begun building some storage memory into even the cheapest of Xbox machines.
The crucial point for many buyers in these cash-strapped times will, of course, be price. And here the Xbox 360 has the advantage. Microsoft has recently slashed the cost of its Xbox range so that gamers can buy the most basic console for £130. The PS3 will set you back at least £350.
Gran Turismo 5 in Christmas 2009
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From a very surprising yet highly reliable source, we’ve got the most likely and realistic Gran Turismo 5 release date! Sony’s chief executive in southern Europe, James Armstrong, revealed in a statement to Spanish newspaper El Financiero that we can expect the game to arrive (in Europe, at least) Christmas 2009. Here’s the full translated quote:
For next year, the chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment for southern Europe said that they are developing a new game thriller, in which the player may be designing their own history, and the new version of Gran Turismo, which will arrive at Christmas.
This would provide for a late summer release in Japan, and late fall/early winter releases in the United States and Europe. From a sales perspective, it would also provide the PlayStation franchise with a major blockbuster release heading into next year’s Christmas season. What do you think?
LittleBigPlanet Not Doomed in Sales?
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You might have been worried over the sales of the PlayStation 3 gem, LittleBigPlanet. However, ESPLA Chart Track has given LittleBigPlanet a Silver sales award for November 2008.
Lets just make this clear, the Silver award is given to titles that sell more than one-hundred-thousand units in that particular month. LittleBigPlanet launched on Novemeber 5th in the UK, so the title performed relatively well in its launch month, despite falling down the charts.
Not that many titles received the award this year, so it appears that LittleBigPlanet did get some recognition from the masses. Now, I can hear you whispering “only one-hundred-thousand”? Now listen. These are numbers for the UK, for one month, and the actual sales number will be between 100k and 200k.
After a little bit of research and some simple sums, we can estimate that if the title sold exactly one-hundred-thousand units in the UK, it would have sold over three-hundred-thousand units in all of Europe; since the UK accounts for approximately one third of the European video games market.
Add on US and Japan sales, and LittleBigPlanet isn’t too far off the 1 million mark worldwide. So although the title is dramatically sliding down the charts, the stuffed Sackboy isn’t doing as badly as we might have first thought. Especially considering that Sony has yet to implement its $1 million December advertising campaign for the game.
Other titles received the Silver award, including Fall Out 3, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. The Gold award (two-hundred-thousand units) went out to Fable II and Mass Effect. The Platinum award (three-hundred-thousands units) to Gears of War II and Call of Duty: World at War. Whereas, Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii reached Diamond status by selling more than 1 million units in November.
The full list of winners can be found below. Confused or inspired by the chart? Don’t hesitate to express yourself after the article.
[UPDATE] - It has been pointed out to me that although the UK represents around a third of Europe’s video games market, it actually represents approximately 25% of the PlayStation market. That is, PlayStation games sell very strongly in Germany, France, Spain etc. This means that LittleBigPlanet should be above four-hundred-thousand units in Europe.
