PS3 bested by older brother

[racersimage]

PS3 bested by older brother - plugged in - Yahoo! Games

According to official April figures released by the NPD Group, the Playstation 3 found itself beaten out for fifth place by an unusual competitor: its predecessor, the Playstation 2.

A 50% leap in Playstation 2 sales accounts for the surprising change, an increase likely prompted by the system's price cut on April 1, a move which apparently electrified interest in the nine-year old platform.

The PS2's success was probably the only nugget of April sales news to put smiles on the faces of Sony execs. Nintendo platforms continued their lockdown of the top spots, with the Wii coming second and the DS coming both first and third, courtesy of the just-launched DSi: the DS's two hardware variations accounted for an astonishing million sales during April.Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 was down slightly over last April, but still managed a solid fourth place and remains on course for a record-breaking year.

But both the Playstation 3 and PSP posted disappointing results, with the PS3 placing sixth with its worst performance in over 18 months, and the PSP limping in seventh with a total of 116,000 sales -- down over 30% on March's numbers.

The news has revitalized persistent rumors of price cuts for Sony's PS3. The system's base model is between $150 and $200 more expensive than its competitors, the Wii and Xbox 360. Industry news site Gamasutra predicts we'll see a $100 cut in the $400 Playstation 3 announced at the E3 video games trade show in Los Angeles in early June.

So if you're contemplating taking the Playstation plunge -- and with top exclusive superhero thriller Infamous just a week away, we're betting some of you are -- you might well want to hold off and wait to see what June has in store.

[thunder_alley1984]

I still love my PS2 and since Sony isn't phasing out the system as much as they wanted I can still get some good games for it.

[tazmania2329]

the problem with the ps3 is that only the 60 gig is compatible with the ps2.so the 40 and 80 gigs are worthless.

[taterracing]

That's if you want to play PS2 games. The biggest selling point for the PS2 for me when I was looking to upgrade from my PS1 was the fact that you could use the old games on the PS2... you know how many time's I've actually done that? Once. Everyone's different, I suppose.

[MTruex56]

i still want a 360, but am waiting for a price drop since the only games i will play will be Halo, and NASCAR 09

[wallbanger]

i have a very old ps2 that gets used everyday. it still works flawlessly. i keep everygame i buy and now my grandson plays it and uses my old ps1 games too. i have way too many games to switch . as taz says unless you can find and afford a 60gb you cant back play older games. the online for ps2 is free and works very good on some games and sucks on others. cod big red one servers are a pain in the ass. way to many issues as game session no longer available....cant connect to host...cant connect to other players. and i have road runner. black hawk down, toca 2 and 3 and nascar are almost flawless. the real down side for ps2 could be how many new games wont be online such as cod world at war. now that sucks. thanks for the article racer.

[kspool]

The first 80gb PS3's WERE backwards compatible, but they were phased out quickly to save money. I got one of them when they were first released, and I was initially pissed when the price dropped, until I found out that the reason the price dropped was because they took away the backwards compatibility.

[minicup]

We got the ps3 60 gb version when it came out now a bunch of my friends are getting the 80gb version and they dont have near the extras and capapilities.

[tazmania2329]

they need to make all of them compatible with the ps2.thats the reason we never got one.the ones that are compatible are harder to find.