Sony Misses Worldwide PS3 Shipment Targets

[rickonker]

When Sony detailed finalized launch shipment numbers for North America and Japan in September of last year, they also lowered their previous worldwide shipment numbers, too. Japan would only receive 100,000 at launch, but Sony maintained they would sell as many as 2.4 million machines worldwide before 2006 was over.

Despite the upbeat news at CES about reaching the 1 million shipped in the US -- when you look at the big picture, Sony actually missed the mark. IGN reports the Enterbrain year-end numbers show Sony sold 466,716 machines in Japan before the New Year kicked into gear. That's less than half of what they would have needed in order to achieve their 2.4 million number, given the US only recently passed 1 million itself.

Sony themselves won't even acknowledge the previously announced numbers. When approached by the Reuters news service, Sony Computer Entertainment America chief executive Jack Tretton declined to comment on how many machines had been diverted from Japan in order to meet demand over here or whether Sony had managed to reach their previously announced year-end goal worldwide.

There's a reason for that: they didn't. Unless the Enterbrain numbers are off by over 500,000 units (they aren't), Sony didn't even come close. Shipment and production issues? Absolutely -- but they were still wrong.

So the PS3 did worse in Japan than in the US? WTF?

[botticus]

Have to wait to see the NPD numbers tomorrow(?) to know for sure. Enterbrain reports sales for Japan, Sony reports shipments for the US.

I'm sure they sold a lot closer to a million than 500k in the US, but the PS2 also sold twice as many units to the larger US market than Japan, so the numbers make sense.

[dpatel]

I'm pretty sure Japan got fewer units. By how many, I have no idea. I just know that the US got about 4x as much as Japan did on Launch day, which might be some indication.

[icruise]

So the PS3 did worse in Japan than in the US? WTF?
They ended up only being able to ship 80,000 units to Japan at launch -- less than half of what they shipped to the US. Supply issues are the main cause here.

[ryanbph]

well considering the production problems, is this alleged number really a shock?

[Dead of Knight]

1 million units shipped when thousands of them are sitting on store shelves collecting dust. Nice.

[Chacrana]

So the PS3 did worse in Japan than in the US? WTF?

Yeah, but didn't the US get significantly more units than Japan did? I thought Japan got like... less than half as many units as we did.

[furyk]

1 million units shipped when thousands of them are sitting on store shelves collecting dust. Nice.

I imagine a decent number of those sold, but got returned after the holidays. Apparently we've learned that $400 with no competition is the current highest most gamers will go to get a system in the US at launch to play. Thankfully, the PS3 has some great titles coming down the road to hopefully put Sony back in the game.

[rodeojones903]

Have to wait to see the NPD numbers tomorrow(?) to know for sure. Enterbrain reports sales for Japan, Sony reports shipments for the US.


And as always you can not take the NPD numbers as the end all be all since they exclude the largest video game retailer in the world, and some independent stores/small websites.

[icruise]

And as always you can not take the NPD numbers as the end all be all since they exclude the largest video game retailer in the world, and some independent stores/small websites.
Who do they exclude?

[rodeojones903]

Who do they exclude?

Walmart.

[hiccupleftovers]

I imagine a decent number of those sold, but got returned after the holidays. Apparently we've learned that $400 with no competition is the current highest most gamers will go to get a system in the US at launch to play. Thankfully, the PS3 has some great titles coming down the road to hopefully put Sony back in the game.

Wishful thinking, but we all need dreams I suppose.

[botticus]

And as always you can not take the NPD numbers as the end all be all since they exclude the largest video game retailer in the world, and some independent stores/small websites.They're the most accurate numbers we ever get, so they will have to do.