Is it games or Blu-Ray driving the PS3 resurgence?

Mike Bantick
Friday, 18 January 2008 03:35

Opinion and Analysis

Or is it that Sony have found a sweet spot of features and price that gives the total package the attractiveness required to loosen cash from wallets?  Either way the PlayStation brand is back in the game.

So some pundits have called it, HD-DVD is the loser against the competing Blu-Ray format in the High Definition Disc wars.

Most analysts quite rightly attribute this perceived victory to Sony’s ability to get a significant number of Blu-Ray machines into households disguised as a games console, the PlayStation 3.

Having over 9 million PS3’s sitting in the world’s living rooms gives Blu-Ray obvious penetration numbers to throw on the desk of Studio cigar chomping suits.  It is easy to make a convincing argument that this, along with arguable movie sales themselves may have been the catalyst for Warner to jump ship to the Blu-Ray camp.

As sales of HD television rise and in parallel awareness of the High Definition replacement options for DVD, so it seems does the success of the PlayStation 3.

In the major sales sectors around the world, PS3 sales have been steadily rising and though - in world-wide terms – trails both direct competitors (Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360), I doubt Sony execs would be upset with the devices standing as a living room entertainment hub.

But is it the rising Blu-Ray hype that is driving sales?  Or a baser aspect of the techno-toy that is beginning to spur on the return of the PlayStation brand.

In my opinion the answer is a bit of both, sales have steadily increased arguably in line with the rise of HD TV.  But similarly world-wide sales of the Wii and Xbox 360 have also increased almost in parallel.

The big jumps in PS3 sales have occurred on a regional basis because of significant software releases, for example, in Japan there were spikes of PS3 sales for the release of Virtua Fighter 5, Gundam Musou, Hot Shots Golf 5 and more recently for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.

Amongst the differing tastes of Western regions on the other hand, it is hard to find a PS3 exclusive that became a console seller.  Unlike Halo 3 for Xbox 360, games such as Lair, Heavenly Sword and even Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune caused only minor ripples of increased hardware sales.