PS3 STOCK SHAME – PHOTO EVIDENCE MOUNTS
Here are your Argos stock count photos. This huge amount of vastly expensive unsold stock could bring Argos to its knees.
SAYS THE SENDER: “This was taken this morning at Argos in Bolton – near the Reebok stadium. It’s worth mentioning that while they had 46 PS3s in stock, they only had two Xbox 360 Premiums in stock.”
SAYS THE SAME SENDER: “This was also taken this morning but at Argos in Chorley. 44 available!! Chorley has a population of about 4.37 people. So, since the huge Tesco there still has original launch PS3s for sale and the local GAME and Gamestation stores are now proudly boasting their first ‘in-store’ stock – I can’t see many being shifted over the next few weeks.”
Coventry. Well done, brave citizens.
Colliers Woods, London. Same hilarious un-shifted box story.
Nottingham. Even the city of pikey mobile phone thieves hasn’t sold out of PS3s, which is pretty shocking as its Sony’s lowest-common-denominator heartland.
Another Argos. The sender either didn’t say what branch it was or we lost the email.
“Just” 25 left in Shepherd’s Bush! Better hurry down there in the next 18 months if you want one.
Camden – 31. That’ll do.
Camden again, from someone else two days later. It’s probably just a coincidence, eh?
This person didn’t say where it was. We didn’t ask as we’re sort of in a hurry to upload this and shame Sony to the world.
Maidenhead.
Malvern Argos. Sitting on a few.
Scunthorpe! Who would’ve thought they’d have fancy electronic displays in places like Scunthorpe?
Sheffield. Not exactly sold out. That’s your lot. Make of it what you will. Thanks for all your hard work. You have once again outperformed all other readers of all other ex-SEGA blogs.
filed in WAR ON PS3 on Apr.04, 2007
April 4th, 2007 on 1:00 pm
Are you really that stupid?
The reason there are so many consoles left in stock is due to the ammount of PS3’s Sony had shipped in!
Obviously there will be PS3’s in stock considering there was over 220 thousand in the country on launch day, and they are not all sold. We all know that. So what the hell are you trying to proove with these pictures?
This is almost as bad as your last article on the matter where you were trying to discredit the sales figures. Simple fact, an indepedant agency produced those figures and they are correct, and the PS3 is the fastest selling console on launch.
So what is your problem with Sony and the PS3? Your articles are pathetic!
April 4th, 2007 on 1:21 pm
Sony, you made at least 7 spelling and grammatical errors in that previous comment.
April 4th, 2007 on 1:36 pm
In response to The MeanMachine, it may be true that the PS3 was the fastest selling console at launch, but the Wii and 360 both sold out, so the figures don’t really mean anything. Had there been as many launch machines for both Nintendo’s and Microsoft’s offerings they may well have sold more.
Admittedly the numbers above don’t really mean anything either, other than Sony made sure everyone had more than enough stock. After all the bad feeling with Sony over the past 12 months, they damn well made sure they weren’t going to drop the ball by not having enough launch units like they typically do.
April 4th, 2007 on 2:02 pm
It’s half term. Go and play outside, there’s a good boy.
April 4th, 2007 on 2:35 pm
Oi! Stop ganging up on Kowloon.
:(
April 4th, 2007 on 6:46 pm
For people like meanmachine that need these things spelled out …
Sony claims that they sold 75% of their original stock of PS3s.
If Chorley now has 44 PS3s, one could assume that they started off with roughly 180 PS3s and sold 130+ units.
Of course, the pictures would mean more if we knew the numbers before the sale, but the implication is that Chorley did not start off with 180 units, but probably more like 50 units, and that the story is the same for every one of these pictures — did Coventry really have 180 units at launch?
Maybe the Sony fans here can back up their companies claims by providing us with the pre-launch stock numbers for each of these locations. On average, each one should orginally have had about 4 times the current stock levels. Let us all know what you find out…
April 4th, 2007 on 7:05 pm
can’t believe you continue this purile rant about sony and ps3..have you so little else in your life that you focus your very meager talents on sony bashing..really quite pathetic..if you don’t like it, don’t buy it…end of…i do hope your excuse is you are 12, anything older and i would reccomend electro shock treatment, brain drugs and therapy :( enjoy life you looser :(
April 4th, 2007 on 8:25 pm
says the looser that cant spell loser
April 4th, 2007 on 8:49 pm
Here’s a story from Devon for you, it’s not Argos but it’s a sobering thought.
One of our local shops sells mobile phones and accessories. When the Xbox 360 was low on stock he bought some and sold them speedily through his shop.
He has bought 50 PS3’s and now has signs up all over the outside of his shop saying “50 PS3’s left – Now only £379!”
When I was chatting to him about it, the man’s depressed and can’t believe they haven’t sold, he’s now talking about knocking another £20 off as he now has approx £15k tied up in his PS3 stock and seriously thinks his little shop may go under because of it.
Poor misguided bastard………….(Bet Chart Track don’t report that!)
April 4th, 2007 on 9:00 pm
What the hell, how did the illiterate fanboys get here so quickly?
I’d point out where they’re going wrong like we’ve had to do with the 8,000 useless fuckers we’ve had the past week but I just can’t be arsed.
My advice to the useless fanboys? Do some research on UK:R.
And then piss off.
April 4th, 2007 on 9:12 pm
sam said…
“if you don’t like it, don’t buy it…end of…”
If you don’t like the site, don’t read it… end of…
April 4th, 2007 on 9:45 pm
My problem with Sony is that they’re arrogant, misguided and guilty of corporate hubris on a grand scale. They seem to be hell bent on developing the ability to say and do exactly the wrong thing at the right time, and then make it worse whenever a corporate exec opens his mouth.
But anyway :)
I walked into the local Saturn, (German version of Dixons) which last I looked had 14 units, only to find what looked like a youngish bloke with one in his hand, resting it on a shelf. “Fuck me” I thought, “somebody is actually going to buy one” Later on I realised my mistake.
He simply had hold of the handle, seems Saturn has been restocked, where it once had 14, it now has 33, the one he was holding is sideways on as they cant fit any more on the shelf, sideways.
Verification word mkydxdx, Superman’s Irish nemesis :)
April 4th, 2007 on 10:03 pm
For fucks sake! Who left the door open and let the fan boys in? There’ll be beatings!
April 4th, 2007 on 10:07 pm
It’s nice to see my home town of Sheffield doing it’s bit, although a mate of mine did buy one on launch day, the mad fool. Oh and I’ve just got myself a 360 to go with my Wii, woohoo.
April 4th, 2007 on 11:00 pm
I know its not exactly scientific proof of how much the PS3 sucks balls but within weeks of the 360 coming out, at least half a dozen of the lads i work with had bought 360s.
I know nobody who owns a ps3. No-one whos brave enough to admit to it anyway.
April 5th, 2007 on 12:27 am
Same here, well one person in the office has one (out of the 100 people I know if our office – 90% of whom are overpaid gadget freaks with money to burn, they buy HD DVD drives for their 360’s even though they have nothing to play on them, for example). It’s the first console he has ever owned though, I’m pretty sure he’s only bought it because it was expensive and therefore he think it must be good.
I bought an Apple TV instead this month (and am thinking of opening it up and moving my 8 GB MAME ROM collection to it, installing a decent emulator and getting a bluetooth controller to use with it – which should keep me amused over the bank hol).
I’ve currently got 600 GBP sitting in the bank, and I’m the first idiot to buy any old overpriced pap with LED’s on it (see previous sentance) and I’m not even remotely tempted, and I don’t even vitriolicly hate the PS3, it’s just totally fails to spark any interest with me.
God knows what I’m going to spend it on now (I always do though, I’m useless like that). I’ll probably waste it on online games from somewhere like Steam or Direct2Drive or something.
It’s a total screw up by Sony if they can’t even sell stuff to someone like me as I’m really easily convinced to buy anything.
Hell I spend a couple of hundred quid on a *completely* pintless PCI PhysX card a while back, and I can use it with the exactly ONE single level alpha of a game (and I knew that when I bought it), it’s *that* easy to get me to buy stuff.
The lack of any form of desire for a PS3 makes me feel strangely impotent, as if the gamer in me has a broken wang because they just don’t find the PS3 hot.
I guess I’m just gay for Tails, or something.
April 5th, 2007 on 12:35 am
I am sure play and whsmiths aren’t in the same situation as argos. They just are cleraring space for the next 220k PS3’s
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/26428/Now-Play-drops-PS3-to-39999
April 5th, 2007 on 1:38 am
Lets look at the figures, shall we?
Sony Ship 220,000.
Sell 165,000 in the first weekend.
Sell 18% (82% drop) of that within the next week (29,700)
Charttrack/Sony are alledging that the PS3 has so far sold 194,700 consoles out of the initial shipment.
Now lets say Argos, on average, have 25 consoles (a VERY conservative estimate) for every one of their 680 branches. 17,000 PS3s unbought.
So, accounting for PS3s allegedly sold, and the ones Argos has in stock, that counts for (an “estimated”) 211,700 of the original shipment, leaving 8,300 being shared amongst every other shop in the UK, Which for some magic reason, all have their stock in the 20s/30s/40s, too, and far outnumber the amount of Argos branches.
Either:
a) The number shipped was a LIE, and far higher (incredibly unlikely)
b) The number sold was a LIE and far lower (extremely likely)
c) Sony have shipped another batch (anyone whose been monitoring stock knows they haven’t)
I think that covers it all nicely.
April 5th, 2007 on 2:01 am
Oh, and before I forget, I was told by someone I know in Virgin, who looked up the stock level on the computer, that they have somewhere around 3-4,000 in stock nationally out of their original shipment.
So that leaves around 5,000 PS3s for Game, Gamestation, WHSmiths, HMV, and every independant/online retailer to share.
… And if you believe that, I have a couple of bridges you might like to buy.
April 5th, 2007 on 2:24 am
Most amusing:
List of news stories about sales slump indexed by Google news.
I don’t think Sony are ‘feeling the love’.
April 5th, 2007 on 2:49 am
Can we start ignoring the fanboys and just post funny comments about sony being shit, please?
The replies to the fanboy rants are almost more painful to read than the rants themselves :(
April 5th, 2007 on 4:24 am
This shit is getting old. It started off funny now it’s becoming like the blog of some deviant Xbox fan boy.
I was especially dreading the return of the Argos displays.
April 5th, 2007 on 5:49 am
Excellent work together we can live in a future without silly spiderman typeface branded consoles
however the enemy is still out there
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25LceCPO1ys
The PS tripple indeed “sigh”
April 5th, 2007 on 6:15 am
Shepherds Bush machine….is that dried blood on the blue/green unit??!?!?
One of the losers in our office was desperately trying to foist his PS3 with the only two games on it, to anyone who would listen to his sob story about it being a big disappoint ment and how it wasn’t worth trying to put it on eBAY as he wouldn’t get enough back on it! Fucking tosspot loser!!!
I only know three people with one now, loser-boy and two people who bought Jap ones last year.
April 5th, 2007 on 7:52 am
Most of this fanboys probably don’t even remember what a Saturn was, most of them still grasping concepts like talking and eating with their mouth only slightly open.
And this is why they hate.
Pay attention fanboys, this has nothing to do with supporting either of the other next generation consoles. It’s not as simple as black and white.
Right now I’ve got my fingers crossed for a surprise launch of a revamped Dreamcast (with a 120gb HD and betamax video player built in)to bury all 3.
This is about Sony feeling the sting, the sting that broke my beautiful Dreamcast’s heart, and pushed the games forward into a music industry style corporate contest.
I hope it stings Sony, like your sharing a cell.
Word verification: Zutkwcu – a rare type of african bird capable of storing up to 7kg of cannabis for safe keeping in its stomach.
April 5th, 2007 on 10:03 am
When the thundering fuck did serious shit get posted up here? Since Sony found the site?
I find it hard to believe anyone could sayd “when will you stop posting these anti-sony articles” as if they’ve come out of nowhere.
If you don’t find it UK:R funny go fuck Sony up the poo pipe
April 5th, 2007 on 10:42 am
They may steal stuff all the time, but Kotaku has some very nice chart-related goodness.
http://kotaku.com/gaming/nintendo/charticle-the-first-four-months-249629.php
I’ll promise to leave the fanboys alone from now on too.
April 5th, 2007 on 11:08 am
Methinks summed it up nicely. That first Charttrack figure was bogus and there may well have been ‘inducements’ from Sony involved, especially seeing as it became a massive piece of PR given it was all over the mainstream news. Unfortunately, no mags/trade mags/big gaming sites will dare question it as they are all living in fear of Sony
April 5th, 2007 on 11:42 am
This is good… all good… but who here would like to do Cream the Rabbit up the bum-pipe?
Thats the important lesson to be learnt here.
April 5th, 2007 on 12:01 pm
I find your mighty argos green/blue box more entertaining than the PS3.
Where can I buy one? oh it sold out completely :(
April 5th, 2007 on 12:37 pm
I still don’t get the Equation of “Anti-Sony = Pro-Microsoft” where did this come from?
Yeah, I imagine loads of people that post here have a 360 but it is probably just one of MANY MANY consoles they own and in probably most cases won’t be their favourite.
As far as I knew people here are United by a love of Sega and hatred of Sony.
Microsoft doesn’t feature one way or another.
Zloth – The best character in the Goonies
April 5th, 2007 on 1:26 pm
I don’t like to set foot in places like Argos in case I get stabbed or covered in chewing gum.
So no stock-saturation photos from rural Berkshire I’m afraid, though I’m sure the officer classes are doing their bit.
April 5th, 2007 on 1:50 pm
Cannot stop laughing at the Sony heads trying to defend their beloved console, despite it being overpriced, very few games available and not technologically superior to the 360.
April 5th, 2007 on 2:04 pm
Argos just from the pictures have £293,812.90 of unsold stock (of sale price) for 17 stores, thats a average of 17,283.11 per store across 680 stores thats 11,752,516.80
I love maths, but is a good sucessful launch Ill stick to my 360, gamecube, (Wii when i can get my hands on one). dreamcast (Yea) and saturn (Im strange i just love daytona)
April 5th, 2007 on 2:49 pm
check this out
http://kotaku.com/gaming/ps3/ps3s-uk-82-sales-drop-meaningless-249716.php
Chart Track report PS3 sales of 165,000 in the opening weekend, and it’s all ‘infallible EPOS data accurately representing blah blah blah’. Now this 82% drop ‘leaks out’ and suddenly the director is describing their own figures as meaningless. Good effort.
April 5th, 2007 on 2:59 pm
At first these PS3 articles were funny but I’m getting tired of them really quickly.
I’m not sure anymore if this is a pro Sega site or an Anti PS3 site.
Bring back the gaming related articles that weren’t about slating Sony. This site is attracting too many twats!
April 5th, 2007 on 4:37 pm
Jimbo
Cannot stop laughing at the Sony heads trying to defend their beloved console, despite it being overpriced, very few games available and not technologically superior to the 360.
Well they were right about one thing: the Cell is proving good at flops.
April 5th, 2007 on 4:40 pm
ATTENTION CHAVS
Empire Direct are offering PS3 packs at £359, apparently.
http://www.hotukdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?p=460240
Now THAT’S funny.
ewqtnfy – having to quantify something that’s a bit disgusting
April 5th, 2007 on 5:25 pm
‘I’m not sure anymore if this is a pro Sega site or an Anti PS3 site.’
Hey SonicTattooRoss, I know what you mean but dont you think being anti PS is being Pro-Sega?, as they were responsible for the Dreamcasts demise. I wanna see these kids off the streets and in arcades, where they can see what real games are like.
I know we must all want to play VF5 but it comes at too higher cost, not of the machine, but to the general detriment of overall games quality, with the inevitable domino affect of PS3 sales. I’m sure Namco and Konami’s main titles would jump ship as soon as it stops making money for ‘em. With only Nintendo being the exception, its the arcade makers that make the best games. Halo pulls in the only remaining crowd, the PC FPS geeks which saves em £200 on a new gfx card.
My point is, it’s cool to remain objective, but its not often things go the right way for a format, and for once Betamax looks like its gaining over VHS, so I dont know about you, but i’m gonna laugh all the way to the bank, and enjoy this rare victory of good taste.
April 5th, 2007 on 7:11 pm
I bought one yesterday and I’m proud of it \o/ (It’s not as nice as my 360 though). Anyway I bought the very last one they had in stock at my local tiny Woolworths store. I just got round to registering it and got an email saying “Being one of the first to register you have qualified for a free Blu-ray Disc™ of Casino Royale™.” So how many have they really sold if I can buy one nearly two weeks after launch and be one of the first to register?
April 5th, 2007 on 7:42 pm
First 500,000 to register on the FREE (shit) PlayStation Network. I mean wouldn’t you at least borrow a friends network connection to get a free decent movie?
Word Verification: krdfx = Kurdistan’s newest movie CG company!
April 5th, 2007 on 8:15 pm
Andrew: I know you must be only teasing the staff to make them think they actually sold the piece of shite, and then taking it back to swap for both a 360 and Wii. Just dont leave it too long before you do it(10 day return is standard), otherwise you’re gonna be lumbered with one very expensive fucking door stop!
I’d like boycott Casino Royale because its another sony product, but Daniel Craig does’t deserve it.
Andrew you really should know better.. are’nt you a bit embarrased?
I still have’nt got over the embarrasment of buying a PS1 thinking it was cool and brand new, later of course I realised the Saturn kicked it’s ass in every way, but I live with the shame of that mistake every single goddamn day!
April 5th, 2007 on 9:15 pm
not a pro sony comment just a bit of reason – the argos units arn’t available to buy in store they are taking orders for delivery only – the stock figures are actually for regions not single stores – still quite a few left tho
April 5th, 2007 on 9:36 pm
Thats what happens with Argos Extra products. The PS3 isnt one. If it was, it wouldn’t tell you the stock amount at all, It just tells you to order at the counter.
Those stock numbers ARE reflecting the stock for that branch.
We have 2 Argos branches in the local area, I went to both one day to have a look. One had stock in the low 20’s, one in the mid 30’s.
April 5th, 2007 on 10:08 pm
OK after a day of owning one I can say the following. It’s as good at games as a 360 (not better, not worse) but worse at everything else including Blu-Ray which is not as nice as HD-DVD. The playstation network thing is OK and if it had some content would be nearly as good as XBox Live. The PS3 seems to have been made in 1950’s Vietnam from the same platic they make Tic-Tac containers from. The SIXAXIS controller feels so cheap that I’m scared I’ll snap it. It smells of heated plastic all the time. I still don’t regret buying it though as it’s cheap for a Blu-Ray player and that’s the main reason I got it and I bet Blu-Ray wins over HD-DVD for films as HD-DVD is nicer, just like Betamax.
April 6th, 2007 on 9:41 am
well its wierd that you can’t reserve for store pick up thru the argos website as you normally can for stock items – if they were sitting on a ps3 mountain you’d think they’d let you do whatever it takes as long as it shifts one.
I’m getting a bit cynical about both sides of the ps3 debate now, does zorg still work for official xbox mag? are his bosses pressuring him to run pro xbox stuff after he almost lost his job in that girly gamer site drama? is this site as funny as it used to be?
bring back blue skies and the employee of the month and the tatty old sega stuff please!!
April 6th, 2007 on 10:58 am
Quote “well its wierd that you can’t reserve for store pick up thru the argos website as you normally can for stock items – if they were sitting on a ps3 mountain you’d think they’d let you do whatever it takes as long as it shifts one.”
Well i think that the price slashing going on at the moment is a pretty good indication that stock isn’t shifting!
Just because MS is a weapon against the evil Sony empire doesn’t make any of us sycophantic MS fanboys.
I don’t even own a 360 or Wii, still enjoying my 3 beautiful white Sega Dreamcasts and 100+ games :)
Shenmue 3 on the 360 might sway me to get 1 though.
April 6th, 2007 on 12:40 pm
Andrew: in a few years time when all your favorite games play like ‘FIFA 2XXX (new shirt edition)’ you’re gonna really regret that decision, like I did. The fact tat you’ve bought it for Blu-ray puzzles me as you like HD-DVD better? huh?
Why not do what everyone else is gonna do, wait for a cheap hybrid Blu-ray and HD-DVD player??
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/07/lgs-bh100-hybrid-blu-ray-and-hd-dvd-player-1-199/
This way, you’ve got 360 and Wii with the best games, AND you don’t have to worry about which format wins, and buy what ever discs you want!
Leave it to Sony to battle for Blu-ray, they’re using people like you to do their battling for them!!
Take it back, take it back whilst you still can, and use the money to toward a hybrid player!! :D
If you don’t you must have money to burn lol
April 6th, 2007 on 2:06 pm
Andy: Answer me this one simple question. Why do PS3 people ALWAYS assume Microsoft is behind this panning. It’s more widespread than that. Zorg just hates Sony for ruining something he loves. Every Sega fan hates Sony! Every game lover hated Sony the second they started marketing the PSX by putting consoles in fucking nighclubs for pity’s sake. The resulting lowest common demoninator fanbase is something the rest of the industry is still dealing with.
I agree competition is a good thing blah-blah, but the death-throes of a massive corporation are an even bigger reason to celebrate.
Dear Sony. I’ll buy into either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray depending on which camp offers to upgrade my 1000+ DVD collection for me. If not, fuck off.
April 6th, 2007 on 7:00 pm
firstly i’m not a ps3 person – i own gamecube ps2 xbox and wii no intention of buying a ps3 or xbox 360 unless there is a game that i want. loved my dreamcast more than my ps1 but i don’t blame sony for killing that – sega pretty much did that themselves and sega games are still about so what the hey. if you ask me sony pretty much revitalisd the industry – yes theres plenty of shite (not a problem for someone who remebers the speccy days – now that was quantity over quality) about but loads of money in the biz so that quality like okami can get made. so what if sony are a big corp. sega wern’t that great when they were enjoying market dominance at least sony never pulled a stunt like the 32x
put sonic back at the top and i’ll be happy is all im saying
April 6th, 2007 on 8:25 pm
The trouble is, games like Okami get completely ignored by the PlayStation core audience – steaming chavs, so the sales are less than decent.
Also, due to the gargantuan cost of making games for the PS3, developers are less likely to take a chance on it than they did with the PS2, so you’re more likely to get unoriginal rubbish which are guaranteed to sell. (i.e, Fifa 20XX, or Need for Speed: Generic.)
April 6th, 2007 on 9:18 pm
sure thats a problem with rising devo costs across the board. however luckily the piles of cash the steaming chavs pile into the industry means that the softcos can afford to indulge the creatives once in a while so we get beyond good and evils and the like. I understand zorgs hate but the ps3 hyperbole is just boring me now on both sides is all. we should have at least had an amusing update about sonic’s secret ring(s)
April 6th, 2007 on 10:25 pm
Good to sCUNTthorpe getting a mention. Home to that famous phrase; “who put the **** in Scunthorpe” :)
Cheers Zorg!
I could link any number of headlines, fro the 82% sales drop, to the fact that Aria, WH Smiths and Play are having a price war to sell the “remaining” stock a week after it went on sale. Or the amusing fact that Tretton thinks that cutting the price of the PSP will mean “We can start to reach down to that younger consumer”, (Yes, I know)
Instead I’ll just link to this, which is old but funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljZOHnZNaBc
The PS3, “large and in charge” [smirk]
Btw, “Guitar Hero II” on the 360 does indeed Rock, that used to be an exclusive didn’t it? :)
April 7th, 2007 on 2:34 am
sony sux…..but i repeat myself.
that said, sega is dead. Get over it. Or better yet: make up for it by supporting Nintendo, just like Sega is doing.