Archive for January, 2006

According to EFYTimes, BusinessWeek said that they expect the PS3 to sell 200 million copies in its first five years, with 12 million of those in the first year. That would leave an average of, oh, about 47 million in each of the four subsequent years.

This sounds just a bit, uh, crazy to me.

Maybe the estimate for the first year is okay – isn’t Microsoft shooting for 6 million in the first six months? (Correct me if I’m wrong.) So having the PS3 do the equivalent in the first year isn’t a big stretch. But an average of 47 million in each of the subsequent year sounds a little nuts. Say the console keeps selling better and better. That could mean a distribution like this:

Year 1 – 12 million
Year 2 – 20 million
Year 3 – 40 million
Year 4 – 57 million
Year 5 – 71 million

I’m just distributing the numbers somewhat haphazardly. But still, do they look like anything even close to what the reality may be? I doubt it.

EFYTimes – Sony To Sell 200 Million PS3’s

When I see article titles like “Sony has no strategy for an online service – Ballmer” I just have to respond. Everyone is always on Sony’s back for making claims that end up being no more than vapour. (Personally, I think that Sony has been rather restrained this time around compared to the PS2 launch.) But what about Microsoft’s posturings?

In this article, Ballmer says “Sony has no strategy for an online service.” That statement is so ludicrous, I can hardly keep a straight face typing this. Maybe Sony doesn’t have plans for a centralized online service, but they certainly do have online service plans, and Ballmer knows it.

But that’s not all!

Then Ballmer claims that the Xbox 360 launch was “phenomenal”. This is the launch where people couldn’t sell their souls to get an Xbox 360. It is perpetual short supply. It actually sold less in the opening week in Japan than the original Xbox did! And didn’t Microsoft recently have to downgrade expectations for sales in the first three months?

Okay, okay. I guess all this can be considered part of the gamesmanship that happens when two large companies battle it out. But why does everyone give Sony flak for this when Microsoft does the same?

Eurogamer – Sony has no strategy for an online service

PS Before you say it, I’ll do it for you. At least one person will reply to this post saying “I totally dug your site up until this post, which was stupid”. I always get comments like that when I post anti-Microsoft stuff. Guess what? I don’t care!