Sony was the last of the big three console manufacturers to release its Black Friday week- November 18th to November 24th- figures, but it has done so, and surprisingly, it was Nintendo’s Wii U that came in third this year.
The PS3, just like the Xbox 360 with its sales of 750,000, has managed to outsell the Wii U. Sony’s home console managed to sell an impressive 525,000 units. “Black Friday bundle sales increased 15%, and total PS3 sales including hardware, software and peripherals, grew 9% over the same period last year,” said Sony.
In Latin America, the system saw a stunning 200% year-on-year growth, although no concrete sales figures were provided.
Even the PS Vita, which has been selling very poorly ever since its release- especially in the face of its competitor 3DS- managed to gather some pretty impressive numbers. The handheld sold 160,000, and Sony pointed out that Amazon sold out of “specially priced” Vita inventory in under five hours.
PS Plus also got a lot of subscriptions. Subscription sales for Sony’s service were up 259% compared to last year’s Black Friday weekend, and customer satisfaction rates were over 95.
Collectively (Wii+Wii U+DS+3DS), Nintendo moved about 1.2 million hardware units, which is almost as much as Microsoft and Sony put together, and this puts Nintendo ahead of its two competitors. But the Wii U sold 400,000 units, which puts it behind its generation old counterparts.
Is this reason for Nintendo to worry? Analysts don’t think so. They say the 360 and the PS3 are only selling more because the Wii U’s stocks are in shortage. Read the full story here.
[IGN]
