Sony last week announced that their month old motion control device has shipped a million units since launch and many people have quickly jumped to take sides; either applauding this or ridiculing it. Strangely both points are valid.
With PlayStation Move reviews being relatively good including the Just Push Start review, the Move selling a million units in the first month does sound rather low: considering both the number of PlayStation 3 owners and the console hardware sales that have occurred over the last month. This alongside the fact, some people that purchased the Move brought two controllers makes the number seem even smaller. One reason for this relatively low sales number could be due to the lack of massive launch titles, rather than just the Move itself.
Sony can also take this first million as a massive achievement, rather than a fail, when you consider the range of games it currently has. The range isn’t great but with a million units sold without massive titles such as SOCOM 4 and PlayStation Move Heroes even out yet, sales for the Move can obviously only get better and already has a decent sized user base to expand from.
Overall taken as a single figure one million units sold is great for the Move, only when taken in context with the amount of PlayStation 3 users does it seem low. Personally I see this figure as a great thing for Sony with few new titles to truly interest potential buyers. When games start to be released such as SOCOM and PlayStation Move Heroes I can see the Move actually becoming the must have device it can potentially be. The tech is there, the range for games just needs to be released for it to majorly boost sales and this is why a million shipped without a large range is an impressive figure.
Update: The 1 million shipped / sold figure is from the Americas only total sales have reached 2.5 million.
Link01
October 25, 2010 at 3:50 PM1 million in AMERICA alone isn’t a bad number at all. That is a highly successful number for ONE country. Overall, if you’ve been reading the announcements, Move has sold OVER 2.5 million within the first 30 days. 1.5 million + units were sold in Europe. Good job though * thumbs up * .
Max
October 25, 2010 at 3:57 PMMove sales aren’t record-breaking, or INCREDIBLE, or anything… but they don’t have to be. Sony isn’t expecting and marketing the Move like it’s the “PS4” like how Microsoft is treating the Kinect like “Xbox 720,” as though it’s a console being launched.
Sony basically is treating the Move as a nice addition to the PS3 line-up, which will boost profits via three ways: increased software sales, increased accessory sales, and even increased exposure and sales for the PS3 console itself. Basically, every Move sold is extra money in the bank.
It seems to me that people who think the Move is a failure or disappointment for not selling a gazillion units are expecting too much from the device, even more so than Sony expects the Move to be. Sony is treating the Move as a new accessory launch, whereas Microsoft is treating the Kinect as a “new CONSOLE” launch (that’s according to their quotes). Along w/ a $500 million advertising budget to market the Kinect as such.
Gordon Shumway
October 25, 2010 at 4:01 PMI completely agree. The launch lineup is good, but not great.
Having Resident Evil and Heavy Rain Move support probably helped sales too, but I think we’ll have to wait for the big games before Move really takes off. It’s just launched in Japan too, and Time Crisis will definitely sell well in Asia. Games like Killzone and Socom might be what push it to 5-10 million internationally, which would be a great number for an accessory.
As Sony said, Move is a slow-burner. I prefer that strategy to Microsoft’s “Yeah this is gonna be the biggest launch ever… Like, bigger than iPad” launch.
I guess Sony know they don’t have the resources to do a mega-launch, so they’re playing it safe.
Mitchikins
October 25, 2010 at 5:05 PM1 million in the US.
2.5 million worldwide.