Multi |
by Serban Stokker |
11th December 2006 |
Despite the crushing figures published late last week by market research group NPD, Sony is absolutely oblivious of their situation in the US. As previously estimated by various groups, Sony didn't even manage to sell 200,000 PlayStation 3 units in the United States in November, despite their pre-launch promise to deliver around 400,000 units in North America, whereas Nintendo sold well in excess of 400,000 Wii units. The sales figures
announced by NPD for the month of November are 476,000 Wii units, and just 197,000 PS3 units. But despite selling less than half of what Nintendo sold in terms of next generation consoles, and leaving thousands of fans bare-handed, Sony shows no remorse:
"Sony Computer Entertainment America is very pleased with the NPD data for November, showing outstanding sales for all of its platforms. These figures clearly demonstrate the strength of the PlayStation family of products in the US market. PlayStation 3 remains one of the most sought after items this holiday season, selling through almost immediately in all retailers once placed on store shelves. We will continue to utilize airfreight delivery for the PlayStation 3 to assure a steady stream of systems for North American consumers through the end of the year. And while initial day-one launch shipment goals weren't achievable due to early manufacturing issues, those problems have been resolved and we do remain focused on having one million PS3's in the pipeline by December 31, 2006."
At least, that's what they told
1UP. And, in effect, Sony did continue to register strong sales for the PSP and their aging PlayStation 2 consoles: during November alone, they sold 419,000 PSP units and 664,000 PS2 units in the US, according to NPD data. Also, let's not forget that over 100 million PlayStation 2 consoles have been sold worldwide to date, a figure that Sony has every reason to be
cocky proud of.
Certainly worth mentioning is a comparison with Microsoft's launch of the Xbox 360 one year ago, which was also plagued by shortages. But considering that they sold 326,000 Xbox 360 units in November of last year, Sony's "manufacturing issues" this year seem to have caused an even bigger catastrophe, whose after effects will probably last for a few more weeks to come.
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