[ # ] PS3 Sales Pass XBOX360

/* Posted March 19th, 2008 at 8:49am */
/* Filed under Microsoft, Nintendo, PS3, Wii, Xbox */

Last February Sony shipped 280,800 PS3 units versus Microsoft’s 254,600. Sales were up in the video game console market 17% from a year ago and video game sales rose even more, a whopping 47% (and this is not even factoring Super Smash Bros Brawl’s sales figures from this month which sold at a rate of 120 copies per minutes during its initial release). The biggest seller was Call of Duty 4, followed closely by Devil May Cry 4–both for XBOX. This month looks to continue the trend as the next-gen DVD format war has ended, with the PS3 coming out on top as the only console supporting the Blu-Ray format, while the XBOX dropped its HD-DVD drive add on and plans no support for Blu-Ray. As a Blu-Ray player, the PS3 is actually quite reasonably priced considering all the other perks it provides for being a gaming console.

Unsurprisingly, the Nintendo Wii continued to outsell both its competitors as it’s been very popular for it’s price point and unique remote controlled gaming style, shipping 432,000. What is surprising is the PS2 sales figure of 351,800 units shipped. This shows the evident staying power of the last-gen console as well as the reluctance of the game market to adopt the newer consoles, in favor of a lower print and huge and established gaming library. The console makers might want to rethink their strategy of reducing console life cycles. Hardware refreshes have done wonders for sales (see DS-Lite, PSP-Slim) without any need to drastically cross over into next-generation.