We have seen reports from Japan and Europe showing that Playstation 3 sales are up, even thrashing the Wii in Japan three weeks running. Yesterday saw Sony boast a 300% sales increase in America since the beginning of November. But are things really that rosy for the Japanese giant?

Most signs point to a Playstation 3 recovery after a price cut and a solid advertisement campaign. Moreover, the all important quality titles are starting to hit, from Ratchet and Clank to Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Even Assassin’s Creed ads only sport the Playstation 3 logo, showing Sony has got something right at last.

Yet there are other signs to suggest that perhaps this increase in sales is not as large as we and Sony think it is. We know Sony is very good at getting enough stock to retailers, but Playstation 3’s are in abundance after Black Friday. That needn’t be of too much significance though, since the hard to find Wii is severely understocked, and Sony can take advantage of the hungry buyers who can’t get hold of Nintendo’s offering.

Nevertheless, a 300% increase in the US may not be that much if both the Wii and the Xbox360 saw similar gains during the holidays. Just a little look at Amazon.com’s best sellers list we can find the Xbox360 at Number 12, the Wii at Number 24 and the Playstation 3 all the way down at place 44.

The Playstation 3’s price cut and new 40GB model also saw big gains in the United Kingdom, with the console being in the top 10 of Amazon.co.uk’s best sellers list week after week. However, looking at this list now, sees the Wii at an impressive Number 5, the Xbox360 at a respectable 19, the Playstation 2 at a surprising Number 29 and the Playstation 3 at the shocking Number 71.

Looking at Amazon charts of course does not necessarily reflect on the reality of things, but it can hint at an underlying trend. Take it all with a pinch of salt, but the Playstation 3 has rarely been at those extreme lows on Amazon. It could of course be a sign that people are out shopping for Christmas, rather than shopping online, but then you’d expect that to be the same for competing consoles.

So what are we asking here? Of course more evidence is needed. But is the increase in Playstation 3 sales really that impressive if the competing consoles have also increased in sales. Furthermore, could the increase be a short lived side effect after the price cut? Online sales suggest this, but more official numbers for each of the three consoles will be needed to discover the real story.

To lighten the mood, there is a second-hand Playstation 3 on sale at Amazon.co.uk for only £200! The catch can be seen in this comment: “Has been kicked a few times!!! Don’t think it’s working anymore.” Haha, O.K.

How is the Playstation 3 really doing?

Update: 11/28/07
Lets look at some more numbers to perhaps support this scepticism. There’s no doubt that the PS3 is selling better than it used to, if not much better. Therefore, if we take a cross section of recent PS3 sales we can have a better understanding of things. We can use recent Famitsu numbers and predictions from VGChartz (the accuracy of VGChartz is known to be up to 15% out of more official numbers from NPD, so they too must be taken with a pinch of salt).

Looking at the worldwide numbers from the week ending November 18th, in Japan the PS3 sold a whopping 53,000 units, compared to the Wii at 36,000 and the Xbox360 at a dismal 6,000. In Europe, the Wii leads with 132,000 units, followed by the PS3 at 84,000 and the Xbox360 at 58,000 units sold. In the United States, the PS3 is last at 95,000 units, followed by the Xbox360 at 163,000 and the Wii at 254,000.

Totting up these numbers we get an approximate world total of 422,000 for the Wii, 232,000 for the PS3, and 227,000 for the Xbox360. So here it can be seen that although the Playstation 3 leads in two major sections of world sales, it comes in almost equal with the Xbox360. This of course is impressive, considering the past numbers the PS3 was doing, but in comparison to increases from competing consoles, the PS3 is selling well but not that well.

Where does Sony’s reported 300% sales increase come from? Without official numbers it is difficult to hazard a guess, but once again looking at the estimates from VGChartz we can perhaps see. Sony said there was a 300% increase since the 2nd of November. Well on the week ending the 3rd November, VGChartz lists the PS3 as selling 55,000 in the US. Comparing to their forecast of this weeks sales (week ending 25th November), a staggering 174,000 PS3’s were sold. You can now see an approximate three fold increase. Sony could have made their increase sound even more impressive by using sales numbers from the week ending 20th October, where the PS3 sold only 28,000 meaning they could have reported an insane 600% increase in sales!

However, although this increase is impressive for the previously lagging console, looking at US numbers for the other consoles in the week ending 25th November, the Xbox360 has an increase to 254,000 and the Wii an increase to over 350,000 as reported by Nintendo themselves. In conclusion, the Playstation3 is certainly making a come back, but when compared to the increases made by other consoles in this Holiday period, it’s not selling as magnificently as we may have thought after Sony’s press release.