Fed up with the continued PlayStation Network downtime, PS3 owners are increasingly opting to trade in their consoles for cash or Xbox 360s.
This is according to a number of anoynymous retailers who reported these findings to EDGE magazine.
“In the first week of downtime we did not really see any major change in sales or trades,” said one store manager at a major UK retailer.
“However from the second week onwards we have seen an increase of over 200 percent on PS3 consoles being traded in, split almost 50/50 between those trading for cash and those taking a 360 instead.”
An independent retail source based in the South West said he’d seen a “massive increase” in the number of PS3s traded in recent weeks, with most swapping for an Xbox 360. The customers in question were described as being in “the hardcore online shooter crowd”.
Belgian indie retailer Gameswap also told the site. “At the end of each month people come to sell their consoles. People that need money [to pay bills]. What’s different this time around is that that they are bringing in PS3s together with all their games and they don’t want money, they want an Xbox 360. In every case it is because of Black Ops and or Modern Warfare 2.
“We’re just ten days into the month and already we have an increase of 200 percent 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 percent of our inventory right now.”
Thanks to EDGE for the info.
