Let’s take a moment to visit a peripheral theatre in the great global tussle for console supremacy, and see how each of the three machines is faring in the Australian market.
Sony pay69 Computer Entertainment sent us their 2008 sales numbers earlier in the week, to go along with those from Microsoft and Nintendo, who it must be noted were far more punctual. But late is better than never, so without ufa888 further ado, here’s how the three home consoles (and two handhelds) stacked up last year in the antipodes.
CONSOLES
Nintendo Wii – 685,000
Xbox 360 – 237,000
PlayStation 3 – 213,000
Clear win for the Wii, then. As riches777 for the other two, it should be noted in fairness that the PS3 numbers include an estimated 70,000 consoles that weren’t bought, and were instead given away as free gifts for purchasers of certain models of Sony Bravia televisions.
UPDATE – A footnote on the press release announcing these sales stated “Includes GfK data, plus 70,000 units of business to business promotions, including the highly successful Sony BRAVIA LCD TV promotion”.
That number applied to a total PlayStation brand (PS3, PS2 & PSP combined) sales figure of 460,000, not the 213,000 number quoted for the PlayStation 3. As such, 213,000 PlayStation 3 consoles were indeed purchased in 2008.
HANDHELDS
Nintendo DS – 800,000
PlayStation Portable – ??
The DS wins this one by default, as Sony elected not to disclose the number of PSPs they sold in Australia for the year. Which, when you consider they did disclose the number of PS3s, has us suspecting the handheld isn’t quite faring as well down under as it is elsewhere.