If Japan is any indication, buyers worldwide are avoiding PlayStation consoles. Following the latest PS5 and PS5 Pro price increase, the systems experienced a dramatic decline in weekly sales. With the Xbox Series X making up ground, only the region-locked digital option remains appealing.
The Famitsu data includes several days before the unwelcome announcement. Even so, buyers are already shying away from PlayStation consoles that are straining wallets . The PS5 with optical drive moved 558 units, down from 2,801 sold the week before. Not faring any better, adoption of the Pro went from 4,662 to 840.
Xbox gaining high percentage because they sell 100x less units than Sony.
From that famitsu issue:
Hardware Sales (followed by lifetime sales)
Switch 2 – 59,543 (5,011,059)
PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 12,141 (1,248,515)
Switch OLED Model – 7,468 (9,526,329)
Switch Lite – 4,807 (6,903,964)
Switch – 4,067 (20,0271,045)
PlayStation 5 Pro – 840 (341,548)
PlayStation 5 – 558 (5,910,474)
Xbox Series X – 525 (325,952)
Xbox Series X Digital Edition – 278 (29,362)
Xbox Series S – 129 (341,622)
So, PS5 digital non pro sold 12k units while the equivalent Xbox digital non pro sold 120 units.
If next month a Japanese retailer does a clearance sale and sells 200 Xboxes the headline isn’t “Xbox got a massive 100% increase in sold units in Japan, while Sony tumbled 2%”
I don’t think Sony is discovering anything. They’ve said the focus this year isn’t on console sales but rather the bigger monetization of the existing userbase. They probably thought that since they’re not planning on selling a lot of units anyway they might as well ask extra from anyone determined to get one.
Maybe. I find that to be a really weird business strategy. But, maybe their analysts are very confident that console gaming is rapidly dying. If not… shrug.
Whilst it’s an oversimplification, if the old price only got Y sales then a higher new price was always only going to get a subset of Y.
Console sales go up over time in part because the price goes down, broadening the customer base. Sure, the library gets bigger over time too, but that’s barely happening either.
How? Xbox increased more, and first. And Xbox always did poorly in Japan.
If anyone doesn’t know the history, I think it was NEC, was a big electronics company in Japan that tried to make computers that competed with Windows 95 (because they ran something else, I forgot which) and they got their asses handed to them. So the Japanese have been salty toward Microsoft since then. The grudge has started to fade a bit, but it was still going strong at the start of the Series X|S generation (2020). The problem is twofold: Japanese developers won’t make games for Xbox, only Nintendo and/or PlayStation. And two, gamers aren’t buying Xbox in Japan.
I wonder if Xbox went up at all in Japan. It never moved much there. I wonder if they even bothered installing GamePass CDNs there. I wouldn’t.
Also worth noting, a lot of gamers/power user types in the west have been turning against Microsoft for issues with Windows 11 and Copilot. I got tired of their shit years ago and went to Mac for computers, but I still game on an Xbox Series X.
I do like seeing PlayStation get taken down a peg, because for all Microsoft’s issues, PlayStation has always been more anti-consumer. Trophies exist on PlayStation because Achievements were so popular on Xbox that PlayStation (and Steam) were practically forced to adopt them. Xbox has pushed for cross-play and PlayStation has always rejected it. Backwards compatibility is what the PS2 was known for, and the PS3 did it at first, but since then, they haven’t been as good, whereas Xbox has been great about backwards compatibility. Not perfect but great.
The official PS blog says the disc version of the PS5 is $649 and discless is $599. It’s currently on sale on Amazon, but the regular list price for a PS5 with disc drive there is $649.
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Here we go Nintendo! Sue your way out of this!
Xbox gaining high percentage because they sell 100x less units than Sony.
From that famitsu issue:
Hardware Sales (followed by lifetime sales)
So, PS5 digital non pro sold 12k units while the equivalent Xbox digital non pro sold 120 units.
If next month a Japanese retailer does a clearance sale and sells 200 Xboxes the headline isn’t “Xbox got a massive 100% increase in sold units in Japan, while Sony tumbled 2%”
Part of a much larger trend of companies finding out that there is a limit to consumer spending, and most consumers are already beyond it.
I don’t think Sony is discovering anything. They’ve said the focus this year isn’t on console sales but rather the bigger monetization of the existing userbase. They probably thought that since they’re not planning on selling a lot of units anyway they might as well ask extra from anyone determined to get one.
Given wealth inequality growing in every country, expect this trend to continue.
Higher prices for everything as more and more products become luxury only goods, and everything else is for the peasantry.
Maybe. I find that to be a really weird business strategy. But, maybe their analysts are very confident that console gaming is rapidly dying. If not… shrug.
LOL
LMAO
XD
Whilst it’s an oversimplification, if the old price only got Y sales then a higher new price was always only going to get a subset of Y.
Console sales go up over time in part because the price goes down, broadening the customer base. Sure, the library gets bigger over time too, but that’s barely happening either.
Plus people knew the increase was coming so I imagine there was a spike in sales just before hand.
How? Xbox increased more, and first. And Xbox always did poorly in Japan.
If anyone doesn’t know the history, I think it was NEC, was a big electronics company in Japan that tried to make computers that competed with Windows 95 (because they ran something else, I forgot which) and they got their asses handed to them. So the Japanese have been salty toward Microsoft since then. The grudge has started to fade a bit, but it was still going strong at the start of the Series X|S generation (2020). The problem is twofold: Japanese developers won’t make games for Xbox, only Nintendo and/or PlayStation. And two, gamers aren’t buying Xbox in Japan.
I wonder if Xbox went up at all in Japan. It never moved much there. I wonder if they even bothered installing GamePass CDNs there. I wouldn’t.
Also worth noting, a lot of gamers/power user types in the west have been turning against Microsoft for issues with Windows 11 and Copilot. I got tired of their shit years ago and went to Mac for computers, but I still game on an Xbox Series X.
I do like seeing PlayStation get taken down a peg, because for all Microsoft’s issues, PlayStation has always been more anti-consumer. Trophies exist on PlayStation because Achievements were so popular on Xbox that PlayStation (and Steam) were practically forced to adopt them. Xbox has pushed for cross-play and PlayStation has always rejected it. Backwards compatibility is what the PS2 was known for, and the PS3 did it at first, but since then, they haven’t been as good, whereas Xbox has been great about backwards compatibility. Not perfect but great.
Xbox Series X is $649. PS5 is $699.
649<699
Xbox Series X is cheaper than PS5.
The official PS blog says the disc version of the PS5 is $649 and discless is $599. It’s currently on sale on Amazon, but the regular list price for a PS5 with disc drive there is $649.
As if Microsoft supported Japanese customers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC-98
PlayStation and Nintendo were embedded in the market, why would they engage with the Americans?
Anybody not just buying a steam deck instead of the recent consoles is a moron, plain and simple.
The Steam Deck, both LCD and OLED models, are out of stock, unless you count Swappa, eBay and other resellers.
https://swappa.com/listings/steam-deck
https://swappa.com/listings/steam-deck-oled
Just don’t be lazy and retroactively buy one a year ago before the shortages and AI RAM issues. It’s not that hard. Just invent a time machine. 🤷♂️
if anyone cant invent a time machine to go buy a steam deck, youre a moron. plane a simple