The number of PlayStation 3 consoles being traded in or part-exchanged at retailers has risen 200 per cent since PlayStation Network was hacked and taken offline. What’s more worrying for Sony is that 50 per cent of those trading in opt to get an Xbox 360.
“In the first week of downtime we did not really see any major change in sales or trades,” a store manager at a major UK retailer told EDGE. “However from the second week onwards we have seen an increase of over 200 per cent on PS3 consoles being traded in, split almost 50/50 between those trading for cash and those taking a 360 instead.”
It seems a major reason for the trade in surge is the popularity of online games such as Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops.
“What’s different this time around is that that they are bringing in PS3s together with all their games and they don’t want money, they want an Xbox 360,” Tom Mestdagh, of Belgian indie Gameswap told EDGE. “In every case it is because of Black Ops and or Modern Warfare 2.”
The ongoing service outage is also affecting pre-orders, with online shooter Brink suffering as a result.
“People are cancelling their order of Brink for PS3. People that have an Xbox 360 have switched their pre-orders – others are just cancelling entirely,” said Mestdagh.
There’s currently no firm date for PSN’s return.
While this report from EDGE is by no means conclusive, with the sample data likely being very small, it’s certainly an indication of what’s happening at retail. However you look at it, things aren’t looking good for Sony – and it seems publishers are suffering as a result.
