Sony sold more Playstation 3 consoles during the week of Black Friday this year than Nintendo sold of its newly released Wii U, according to the latest data.
In another blow for Nintendo, in a year of bad results, the company’s brand new console was eclipsed by its arch-rival’s six year old offering. The news will be warmly greeted by Sony, which has been criticised for not releasing its next generation Playstation 4 sooner.
Sony says it sold over 525,000 Playstation 3s the week ending Black Friday, Nintendo reports that it sold over 400,000 Wii Us. Microsoft will also be celebrating, with 750,000 Xbox 360s sold in the same period. Together Sony and Microsoft sold over three times as many devices as Nintendo.
Poor promotion, issues with stock, and, perhaps, a bit of bad timing all damaged Nintendo’s next generation console release. Coming just five days before Black Friday, with little chance for users to learn about the console, Nintendo selected the wrong time to launch the device.
The launch was further set back by some mixed reviews and software/firmware complaints with the new console. Reports that the new console is less powerful than the current generation of devices offered by Microsoft and Sony certainly don’t help.
Nintendo says that the console sold out within 24 hours of launch.
One element that might be putting users off is the 1GB download required when the console is unboxed; Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has already apologised for this. This isn’t likely to help users in the UK and Ireland, who will still be required to make the same download when they get their hands on the device tonight (that’ll be one frustrating Christmas Day for kids and parents).
The Wii U goes on sale at midnight in the British Isles.
Nintendo’s missteps might have cost the company dear – this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday both recorded sales of over $1 billion, with Cyber Monday setting historic records as the largest single day for online sales.
