Sony Playstation 3 sales improving: user base still strong

It has been impossible to have missed the recent Sony Playstation Network problems. If you have, then follow the story from the start with this search term. Many people had assumed that Sony would lose a huge portion of their user base, but evidentally this might not be the case.'

Some reports in the UK have indicated that Playstation 3 sales dropped in recent weeks, due to the online downtime and high profile security issues which hit the mainstream press. Once a story like this hits the mainstream press such as SKY NEWS, you can be sure that people will panic. GameStop president Tony Bartel told Dow Jones Newswires that while sales were lower in recent weeks, that they have improved this week since Sony restored the network. Playstation 3 editions of L.A. Noire are apparently flying off the shelves. Speaking with UK retailers, the same game was a high preorder and as it goes on sale today, results should be filtering in over the next week.

Embarrassingly for Sony the network was down again on Wednesday morning with a ‘The server is currently down for maintenance' message highlighted for anyone attempting to enter the SONY store. Big Vern, a well known Techland commenter said “I nearly bought a second hand 360 this week – so i could play BOPS online. I only bought a PS3 to play online, so it's like a brick to me at the moment. If it continues much longer, with no definitive timeline, i probably will just trade it in and get a new (Xbox) 360… It's not the length of time that its taking that is the most annoying thing, it's the vague (non)update every 4 days or so.”

Others are more forgiving, saying that Sony have been the target of a very skilled group of hackers (or a lone individual) intent on causing as much destruction and mayhem as possible. Clearly sales this week are an indication that Sony's user base haven't jumped ship, just yet.

PCWorld commenter MikeDePewnbsa however has a more damning view of the situation “This is amazing…I think that Sony will never be the same again. Now I'm sure that there are the few people that will stick with them no matter what. And Sony is playing it off as being just a simple problem. But with all the reports that PS3 sales are down and they are seeing an influx of trade-ins seems pretty big deal to me.”

How much has this all hurt Sony? Initial reports were a staggering $1billion loss, when factoring in down time, and other costs, but Reuters latest reports have recently doubled to $2 billion, which if accurate is going to seriously hurt the electronics giant.

KitGuru says: Are you still a proud owner of a Playstation 3?

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