Sony's remodelled PlayStation console, the PS One, is saving the company's bacon this Christmas, as gaming punters snap it up because they can't get PlayStation 2s.
According to US market researcher PC Data, which monitors the retail sales channel, the PS One topped the console sales chart for the week ending 25 November. It took 42 per cent of sales. Sega's Dreamcast took 27 per cent, while the Nintendo N64 accounted for 26 per cent of sales.
The PlayStation 2 took just six per cent of the market by sales.
Sega hoped that problems with the supply of the next-generation Sony console would boost its own sales, and that seems to be the case. No one expected the PS One to top the charts, however, based as it is on old technology.
Clearly, the wide availability of PlayStation games - and some hefty marketing - is turning gamers to the PS One, many of whom presumably expect to upgrade to the PlayStation 2 later and take their PS One games with them.
Whatever buyers' reasons, Sony is doing very nicely out of it - and if that's not an indication of the supreme confidence of its marketing machine, nothing is. PS One sells by the shedload, nicely covering the company's arse while PS Two is so hard to come by - early indications suggest it's shipping in even lower quantities than expected - while demand for the PS Two is kept bubbling along nicely. When, presumably, many of those new PS One owners will upgrade. Nice work if you can get it... ®
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