Videogame News

Worldwide PS3 Sales Down 25%, Xbox 360 Sales Increase

Reports of year-to-year hardware sales for the financial quarter were recently released. Sony saw a 25% decline in worldwide sales of the PS3 compared to this financial quarter last year. From April 2011 to June 2011, Sony sold 1.8 million PS3 units. During this time period last year, Sony sold 2.4 million PS3 units worldwide.

The PSP saw an increase of sales by 50%, up to 1.8 million. Previously the PSP sold 1.2 million units during this time period last year. The PS2 saw a decline in sales to only 1.4 million units.

The Nintendo Wii sold 1.56 million units worldwide; it had previously sold 3.04 million units during this time period last year, which means sales of the Wii are down about 50%. The Nintendo DS/DSi handhelds sold 1.44 million units, while the 3DS sold 710,000 units. The sales of the 3DS are expected to increase significantly in August when Nintendo decreases the price from $250 to only $170.

The Xbox 360 is the only console to see an annual increase in year-to-year sales. The Xbox 360 sold 1.7 million units worldwide. During this time period last year the Xbox 360 had sold 1.5 million units. The Xbox 360 console continues to dominate the English-speaking parts of the world, particularly North America -- the largest game market in the world. Xbox 360 has also seen a significant increase in sales in Europe.

The large decline in worldwide PS3 sales represents the worst sales performance the PS3 has seen over the last two years. This is probably why Sony is currently developing the PS4 and is shooting for a release of late 2012 in Japan, and spring of 2013 for other parts of the world.

PS4 Starts Production at End of 2011 & Scheduled for Release in 2012

According to Taiwan factory producers, production of the PS4 from Sony will begin at the end of 2011. The product is scheduled for release in 2012, with 20 million units being shipped worldwide. This information comes directly from the Taiwan makers speaking to digitimes.com.

Previously, I gathered information from reliable sources at third-party videogame developers, confirming that at least one next-generation console would be on the market by the spring of 2013. You can read about this here, but there is no doubt the developers appeared to be telling the truth since they were opening a new studio specifically to work on a game for that new hardware platform. In the world of business, this is referred to as "Putting your money where your mouth is."

I originally thought the factory producers in Taiwan probably were just confusing the PS Vida with the PS4. However, the makers of this product specifically described how the PS4 will use motion-control technology similar to Kinect. This seems like a logical step for Sony, since the Kinect motion-control device used with the Xbox 360 is now in the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest-selling electronics item in history.

Please feel free to share your thoughts on this issue. There is no doubt the PS3 has experienced disappointing sales this generation and is the least successful Playstation console ever released. But is it a good idea for Sony to pull the plug on the PS3, even though it now has over 50 million units sold worldwide?

Although it's true that 50 million units sold places the PS3 behind the Wii from Nintendo and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, it doesn't necessarily represent a "bad" number. Only now is the PS3 finally capable of consistintly earning hundreds of millions of dollars in net profit for Sony each year. On the other hand, Sony may feel that hundreds of millions of dollars in net profit do not make up for the billions of dollars in net loss the PS3 has cost the corporation. Do you think Sony is doing the right thing by trying to get a head start on the competition? 

Crysis Exclusively Coming to Xbox 360? - UPDATE

Earlier today, Jamie Feltham of IGN reported:

"A member of the MyCrysis community has found a listing on the Korean Games Rating Board for a possible Xbox 360 port of the original Crysis. According to the listing, the game will be published by EA Korea. A PS3 version was not mentioned.  Crytek's PC powerhouse achieved notoriety for being a step ahead of what was possible on both PS3 and 360, although the sequel showed up on both systems earlier this year. It will be interesting to see if the original game has to make any sacrifices if it is indeed making the move to Microsoft's box."

Crysis 2 on the Xbox 360 is currently the most graphically impressive game available for consoles, as IGN specifically said in the review of the game. The PS3 version of Crysis 2 isn't quite as good looking as the Xbox 360 version, but it still looks great (although there are problems with frame rate, since the PS3 GPU and rasterizer are not as powerful as the Xbox 360). But the best looking game released this generation on any platform is the original Crysis on the PC.

The reason why Crysis is probably being ported to Xbox 360 but not to the PS3 is because of the frame rate issue. It's simply a matter of polygon-based math. Xbox 360 can display up to 500,000,000 polygons per second, while PS3 can display up to only 275,000,000 polygons per second. A difference that large is capable of influencing a difference in frame rate, as we often see in multiplatform games that are better on Xbox 360.

Similarly, the Xbox 360 doesn't face the 256MB bottleneck for RAM that the PS3 does. Developers will have more flexibility putting Crysis on the Xbox 360, particularly in jungle areas that would no doubt slow the PS3 to a crawl. The combination of intense graphics, lighting, shading, reflections, lens flare, and artificial intelligence would probably be far too intense for the PS3 to handle.

These are some of the technical reasons why the Xbox 360 version of Rage runs at 60 frames per second, just like the PC version, while the PS3 version is only capable of running no higher than 30 frames per second -- as this article explains.

I also believe the relationship Microsoft has formed with Crytek may have something to do with the original Crysis being released exclusively for Xbox 360. Codename: Kingdoms from Crytek is going to be one of the biggest games of 2012, which is why Microsoft purchased that game as an exclusive in the same way they did with Gears of War and Halo. History has proven Microsoft only does this with AAA games, and then works very closely with the game developers. It wouldn't surprise me if someone from Crytek told Microsoft they thought it would be possible to bring the game to Xbox 360, but could only afford to do so if a deal of exclusivity was reached.

There’s no doubt the Xbox 360 version of Crysis would not look as good as the graphics seen on a high-end PC with a top-of-the-line graphics card. However, there’s no doubt the Xbox 360 is capable of handling Crysis, as proven by the excellent translation of Crysis 2 which almost always remains at 30 frames per second or higher. With the experience Crytek gained programming Crysis 2, it may in fact allow a high-quality port of Crysis to be released relatively soon. The reason for this is because the PC and the Xbox 360 share so much in common in terms of development environments.

What are your thoughts on this subject? Now that Cyrsis 2 has been released on consoles, the game has become very popular and established a loyal following. If Microsoft were to get the Crysis series as an exclusive from this point on, it would really be a smart business move with no risk involved. There is no doubt Crysis is a successful franchise, and with the right marketing it could stand alongside games like Halo, Gears of War, Forza Motorsport, Fable, and Perfect Dark as one of the Xbox 360’s premier exclusive game series.

UPDATE: Although the Xbox 360 version of Crysis is still the only version that has been acknowledged by the Korean Games Rating Board, the American ratings agency known as the ESRB currently displays Crysis as a PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 game. Is this a mistake, since so many games are released for all three platforms -- including Crysis 2? Or does this mean Crysis is actually on its way to the PS3, too? If so, will the PS3 version be able to keep up with the Xbox 360 version graphically? Only time will tell; it would be nice if EA would announce something officially.