It’s the middle of 2009, and the PlayStation 2 is still chugging along. In fact, thanks in part to a recent price cut, it’s actually outselling both the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Portable.
Sony recently released its results for the first quarter of fiscal 2009, which saw PlayStation 2 sales jump from 1.5 million to 1.6 million. As sales spikes go, it’s not huge, but the PS2 appears to be faring better than Sony’s other two consoles.
PlayStation Portable sales were the hardest hit this quarter, dropping from 3.7 million this time last year to 1.3 million. With the PSPgo looming this holiday season, it seems that prospective customers may be holding out for the new machine. Regardless, the decline has been painful for Sony, which singled it out as a key contributor to the 38.7 billion yen loss suffered by Sony’s Networked Products & Services Group.
The PlayStation 3 also saw a year-on-year drop, going from 1.6 million in 2008 to 1.1 million this year. Sony blamed the overall drop in hardware sales on the high appreciation of the yen.
Both analysts and major publishers continue to call for a PlayStation 3 price cut, but so far Sony has remained quiet on the subject, With GamesCom 2009 coming in August though, Sony may take the opportunity to jumpstart sales ahead of the holiday season.
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In the preview program for the new dashboard update to the Xbox 360, Microsoft has explained the DRM policy for their upcoming Games on Demand service.
“Games on Demand titles follow the same licensing rights as all other forms of downloadable content. Users are granted a user license that will allow the purchasing Gamertag to play the game on any console, and a console license that will allow anyone to play on the console that the content was originally downloaded to. No physical disc is required to play these games,” a statement on the Xbox 360 console read.
If you have access to the preview program, scroll to the “Xbox Preview” tab, go to “New Features”, “Games on Demand” and “Digital Rights Management (DRM)” to read for yourself.
The policy seems reasonable enough — it has worked on Xbox Live Arcade games just fine and without too many headaches, so it should work the same with Games on Demand.
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Lionsgate’s president of digital media has said that he is confident that Nintendo will launch the Wii’s movie store worldwide.
Speaking to Casualgaming, Curt Marvis revealed that the entertainment company is looking to sell more of its film and television property through video game consoles.
“I imagine the Wii’s movie store will launch worldwide soon,” he said. “The essential point is that the game machine is already connected into the TV, and we see it as a major conduit inside the home to bring movies via the internet into the television.
“Our horror and action movies are ideal for the Xbox and PlayStation’s hardcore audience, while the broader audience of the Wii are likely to enjoy our more mass-market properties.”
The Wii’s movie download service is currently only available in Japan, with Nintendo yet to make an official announcement about a global launch.
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