NPD: PlayStation 3 sales fall shorter than expected
updated 03:10 pm EST, Fri December 8, 2006
PS3 Sales Fall Shorter
Sony failed to meet its already lowered expectations for PlayStation 3 shipments when it launched the console on November 17th, according to an NPD report obtained by Bloomberg. Despite reducing its forecasted shipments to 400,000, Sony is said in the report to have shipped only 197,000 systems in its North American launch and is likely to fall far short of the 1 million units promised by the end of 2006. The company's game system has been plagued by numerous technical problems relating primarily to the Blu-Ray optical drive at its heart, cutting the number of useful systems the company can sell.
Other consoles fared much better, NPD says. Nintendo's Wii sold 476,000 during November, while the Xbox 360 in fact led sales figures with 511,000 systems sold in the month, buoyed in part by sales of the heavily promoted Gears of War. Both Microsoft and Nintendo are said to be thrilled with the response to their less expensive systems and are preparing for the possibility that they will sell more than first anticipated for the holiday.
