Mon, Sep 07, 2009 | 22:51 BST
Sony UK: PS3 sales are past our “expectations”
The huge spike in sales of the PlayStation 3 that was confirmed to VG247 today by Chart-Track was beyond the “expectations” of SCE UK. That is according to sales director of Sony UK Mark Howsen.
“The first week’s Chart-Track numbers for sales of the new PlayStation 3 were ahead of our expectations, so we were extremely pleased.”
Speaking to GI on the 1,000% increase in sales in the UK of the console, he said “A new price point and a new machine has proven a significant catalyst to help consumers make the move onto PS3.”
“Our new advertising campaign, The Game Is Just The Start, is also demystifying the value proposition.
This ongoing campaign and the addition of some great exclusive and new IPs – Uncharted: Among Thieves, EyePet, Heavy Rain – and services [such as] PlayStation Video Store, will hopefully provide even more trigger points to drive future purchases of PlayStation 3.”
More through here.



17 comments
#1
Syrok
07/09/09, 11:15 pm
Now they just need to fix everything they broke with 3.0.
#2
Psychotext
08/09/09, 12:56 am
Firmware 3.0 complaints were beyond their expectations too.
#3
spikeymike
08/09/09, 9:13 am
Luckily I have held back from updating to 3.0, so I still have a lovely looking XMB.
If I bought the new PS3 based on the ad that mentions the BBC iPlayer, I’d be asking for my money back from Sony for false advertising, as the iPlayer on the PS3 is ****.
#4
JonFE
08/09/09, 10:44 am
For some reason I think that their decision to introduce a lower price along with a new form PS3 was a really clever one.
It repositions them on the market in a more significant way: “Here’s our new proposition at an attractive price”, cutting them clean of the mistakes of the past and the expensive image of the original PS3.
#5
rrod360lol
08/09/09, 10:47 am
“If I bought the new PS3 based on the ad that mentions the BBC iPlayer, I’d be asking for my money back from Sony for false advertising, as the iPlayer on the PS3 is ****”
I don’t know where people get this from, have you got a shit wireless network or sommat ?
Been using iplayer on the ps3 for months from the browser and it was fine and it’s better now from the xmb. You didn’t hear this from me, right, but apparently they’re doubling the quality of the ps3 stream in the next couple of weeks too…
#6
Psychotext
08/09/09, 11:04 am
Depends on what you’ve used. It’s shit compared to the iPlayer system used by Virgin Media for instance.
#7
rrod360lol
08/09/09, 11:09 am
“shit” in what way ? Mine plays fine on a 32 inch screen and never drops frames…
#8
Psychotext
08/09/09, 11:10 am
The quality is considerably lower, and the interface isn’t nearly as good.
#9
spikeymike
08/09/09, 12:38 pm
rrod360lol – Last night I watched over 3 hours of continuous streaming of HD programmes on the iPlayer on my PC. Full-screen, full frame rate – and not a single pause to reload. My PS3 is wired to the same router, and cannot play official iPlayer streams at more than a few frames a second. Granted, they’ve made the picture quality much better recently, but the frame rate has suffered accordingly. It used to be a lot better when they didn’t force the PS3 to use fullscreen Flash, and we could zoom in on the video.
If I use ps3iplayer.com, the frame rate is much better, but still nowhere as good as the PC, and the HD streams on there play fine for a couple of seconds until the PS3 fills its memory and has a spazzy fit for the next few minutes.
#10
rrod360lol
08/09/09, 12:47 pm
As I said earlier, they’re doubling the bandwidth on the official ps3 stream in the coming weeks…
#11
Psychotext
08/09/09, 12:56 pm
That’s super… but it doesn’t really change peoples impressions of how it is now.
#12
rrod360lol
08/09/09, 1:49 pm
“change annally retentive people with framecounting software’s impressions of it”
As I said, I’m happy with it and watch all my telly through it these days.
#13
Psychotext
08/09/09, 1:55 pm
I’m happy for you. I really am.
#14
spikeymike
08/09/09, 2:46 pm
I thought the problem was the PS3′s memory usage, not the bandwidth. Before the BBC changed the site recently, I was happy enough watching iPlayer on my PS3, zooming in on the video and getting a very good picture and framerate. Now the PS3 has to render fullscreen images, rather than upscaling smaller images, and the performance has dropped massively.
Anally retentive, my arse! Haha. Do you see what I did there?
You’re the one with the red ring
#15
DaMan
08/09/09, 3:02 pm
N4G already celebrating victory: http://www.n4g.com/News-390740.aspx
#16
Blerk
08/09/09, 3:04 pm
They’re calling a win based on a single week of sales?
#17
Johnny Cullen
08/09/09, 3:33 pm
What do you expect Blerk?
Its N4G ;D