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AMAZING PS2 SALES CRUSH COMPETITION IN UK!
Price cut causes astonishing demand as Sony's console soars clear at retail - your move, Microsoft
17:05 Following a £30 price cut effective since October 1, sales of PlayStation 2 hardware in the UK have confounded expectations, going through the roof to achieve the console's biggest sales by a mile for the best part of a year.
Since last Christmas, Microsoft's Xbox has done well to gain ground on PS2 while pushing GameCube aside, but, if there was ever any serious doubt as to the power of Sony's irrepressible juggernaut, this has now been shattered as a £30 price drop is all it takes to achieve sales over five times that of the weekly norm.
One other factor that will have helped sales to achieve this amazing figure would have been the addition of the highly desirable, limited edition Silver PS2, weighing in at £149. One retail source told us: "SCEE has 300,000 units of the Silver PS2 in this territory up to Christmas. As far as overall PS2 sales are concerned, retailers who may not have pushed the standard black model so much will be far more behind the Silver model, with its designer appeal - this will clearly broaden sales."
Speaking on Sony's latest sales success, Darren Carter, UK director of marketing for SCEE told us: "We work hard through R&D to make manufacturing savings. It's great to see that this new price point has already allowed so many more people to get into PlayStation 2."
Certainly, PS2's blistering sales have sent a sobering warning to Microsoft, which must now surely cut the price of Xbox if it's to compete in the run up to Christmas. However, when faced with the bare facts today, Microsoft issued a stock response of: "At an estimated retail price of £129.99/EUR199.99, Xbox offers tremendous value - we have a large and growing portfolio of quality games, the award-winning Xbox Live service, online gaming capability built in to the console, and the most powerful hardware available. We're very comfortable with our price point and will continue to offer value by bringing outstanding gaming experiences to gamers in Europe."
If Microsoft considers the latest sales figures "comfortable," we' hate to see how much PS2 has to sell before we approach discomfort. Indeed, one suspects there may be a sense within Microsoft Europe of 'missing a trick', since with its price cut, PS2 must have snagged a number of floating voters.
With GameCube (which was outsold by PS2 at a rate of over 50-1 last week) slashed to an amazing £79, Nintendo will be expecting a surge in sales, so all eyes are now on Microsoft and it can only be a matter of time before Xbox drops to around £99 in Europe. We'll keep you fully up-to-date on all developments.