Edge is reporting today that retailers are starting to see the effects of the over 3-week-long PSN outage, with an influx of consumers trading their PS3s in for cash or Xbox 360s.
Furthermore, sales of PSN points cards are almost non-existent and the ratio has begun to shift for multi-platform games, with Xbox taking the lion’s share.
One manager at a UK retailer had this to say:
In the first week of downtime we did not really see any major change in sales or trades. However from the second week onwards we have seen an increase of over 200 per cent on PS3 consoles being traded in, split almost 50/50 between those trading for cash and those taking a 360 instead.
A different retailer said most of those trading in their systems are from the “hardcore online shooter crowd,” gamers that spend many hours online looking to level up. Black Ops and/or Modern Warfare 2 were cited in many cases.
PS3 sales have also taken a hit (says independent retailer in Germany):
We’re just ten days into the month and already we have an increase of 200 per cent in PS3s coming into the store compared to all of March. Normally we sell them really fast, but not this time. We’ve only sold 30 to 40 per cent of our inventory right now.
For software sales, gamers buying Black Ops have split 66 percent to 34 percent in favor of the 360, although the numbers were 52/48 during the first week of the outage.
Not all retailers said trade-ins were growing but one retailer in the UK did say the satisfaction rate for Sony was falling:
[More]>>
Result for: software sales
For the six fiscal months ended September 30th, 2010, Nintendo saw its first semi-annual loss in seven years, thanks mostly to a steep decline in DS handheld sales.
Year-over-year, DS sales (which include DS Lite, DSi and DSi XL) dropped to 6.69 million worldwide, from 11.7 million in the same period last year.
The drop in sales makes sense though, given that the market has been very close to saturation for some time. Additionally, the Nintendo 3DS is set for launch early next year, so consumers appear to be bidding their time and waiting on the new, updated handheld.
Helping contribute to Nintendo’s falling bottom line was Wii sales, which fell from 5.75 million to 4.97 million in the same time periods.
With falling console sales came falling software sales, as well.
The Yen has made significant gains against the US Dollar in the past two years, leaving Nintendo’s net income down 34 percent.
Result for: software sales
Sony has reported today that they have shipped 1 million Move motion controllers in the Americas for the PlayStation 3 in just 30 days since launch. Sony Europe reported 1.5 million sales for the EU during the same time.
President Jack Tretton said the Move system is already out of stock in most retail stores and the company expects that strong Move sales will lead to an increase in console and software sales during the holiday season.
“Sales are brisk,” concluded Tretton, via the WSJ.
The Move, when teamed with the PlayStation Eye camera, gives gamers a chance to interact directly with their games using hand motions and other physical movements.
Sony sells the controller by itself for $49 or bundled with a game and the Eye for $99.
Microsoft will begin selling their rival Kinect system on November 4th.
