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PlayStation has 50% market share in South Africa

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During my discussions with Michael Bender from Ster Kinekor last week it was mentioned that SK are now proud to announce that the PlayStation brand has secured 50% of the local gaming market.

After a brief yet bizarre miscommunication over who distributes what it was clarified that the 50% share includes the PS3, PS2 and PSP. Unfortunately exact market share details are virtually impossible to get in South Africa but seeing as we have previously been told that the Wii is the number one next gen console and the Xbox 360 was second I am left to believe the PS2 is the puppy that is still pushing the Playstation brand in South Africa.

While a 50% market share is always a good thing to shout about I would personally be worried if the PS2 sales were still the strongest in the family as it is obviously a console on it’s last legs now.

The new PS3 Slim with that awesome price cut however should breathe more than a little life into the PS3’s sales and the local release of the PSPGo should be followed quite quickly by a surge in sales.

The Wii and DS are still steamrolling the casual gaming market and with very little in the way of excitement being announced by Microsoft at the moment I am starting to think that they are happy to rest on their laurels for now.

I guess it’s all riding on Project Natal at the moment?

Last Updated: August 31, 2009

17 Comments

  1. Q121

    August 31, 2009 at 12:13

    These facts are definitely inclusing the PS2…. no way that the PS3 beat the Wii in SA

    :pirate:

    Reply

  2. easy

    August 31, 2009 at 12:37

    50% market share is impressive, even with the ps2 being included.

    Reply

  3. Flint

    August 31, 2009 at 12:48

    I would think 50% would be rather disappointing for a brand that just 3 years ago held almost 100% of the market share with PS2 owning the previous console generation market and PSP the handheld market in this territory.
    Had SK done a decent job of leveraging brand recognition and loyalty in this country and been more aggressive with pricing earlier on they wouldn’t have handed so much market share to MS and Nintendo

    Reply

  4. easy

    August 31, 2009 at 12:58

    how do you figure that? there are now three consoles and all things being fair, you’d expect each console brand to have 33.33% market share.
    so with advent of two very strong consoles (the 360 & wii) in the market place, sony/sk has done a good job locally to retain 50%, even if it has more value from a brand awareness point of view.

    Reply

  5. ClericZA

    August 31, 2009 at 13:47

    Yeah, PS2 holds a massive presence. I recon the Wii probably has the largest share, and the Xbox is probably the most played.

    Nevermind that just about every house with a PS3 already has a PS2, so including those PS2s leads to double counting. There is NO way that they can work out local market share. All they can do is show sales, which they don’t do.

    Reply

  6. janrik

    August 31, 2009 at 14:01

    No way the PS3 is in 50% of homes of PS2 owners.

    I would love to see the math they used here.

    Reply

  7. easy

    August 31, 2009 at 14:16

    so whats your point? :wassat:

    the article is about sony’s local market share, not the amount of ps3’s in each home.

    Reply

  8. Ozzy

    August 31, 2009 at 14:22

    where did they say that the ps3 is in 50% of homes of ps2 owners? did you even bother to read the article? clearly not. idiot.

    it doesnt suprise me that sony has 50% of the market as their portfolio is bigger, as bigger portfolios usually translate to wider base of customers. good for them.

    Reply

  9. TinyTimmy

    August 31, 2009 at 14:34

    reading comprehension seems to be an issue here.

    Reply

  10. janrik

    August 31, 2009 at 14:44

    Point being this: How do they work out that the PS3 has now secure 50% of the gaming market in SA?

    Is that SK stats? Or stats across the board?

    How did they get Nintendo and MS stats?

    I would like to see the maths used to get to it.

    What is 100% of market share?

    Does is account for PC?

    Reply

  11. janrik

    August 31, 2009 at 14:48

    Um, the article is about 50% of the Gaming market.

    Sony has been loosing Market on the TV front to Samsung at a hella of a rate, but that is another story.

    Reply

  12. easy

    August 31, 2009 at 14:58

    this is where assumptions and a certain amount of common sense come into play.

    1. you have to assume sk are telling the truth, and until there are contradictory facts, one has to take it at face value.
    2. again you have to assume that this is based solely on the console/hand held market, due the pc gaming market not being referred to.
    3. common sense dictates that with the sony/ps brand encompassing three different platforms and the wii with two and xbox with essentially one (the original xbox wasn’t big in terms of numbers), that the sony/ps would garner greater market share.

    the article wasn’t entirely comprehensive with the facts, so therefore not to be taken as a matter of fact. interesting none-the-less :biggrin:

    Reply

  13. janrik

    August 31, 2009 at 15:30

    Indeed, but?:
    During my discussions with Michael Bender from Ster Kinekor last week it was mentioned that SK are now proud to announce that the PlayStation brand has secured 50% of the local gaming market.

    LOCAL GAMING MARKET.

    Again, maybe add the math used, so it is clear….

    Reply

  14. doobiwan

    August 31, 2009 at 18:24

    I have to agree with Flint, to go from 100% marketshare 4 years ago to 50% now, which is further split between 2 products, versus one each from Nintendo and MS, it’s a complete disaster.

    Credit to Sony though the slim might put them back in the game, but if the market perceives them as irrelevant already it might be too late.

    Reply

  15. LazySAGamer

    August 31, 2009 at 21:20

    yes unfortunately he was a little vague on numbers and facts so I can only work with what I have.

    I should have specified however that it’s 50% of the console gaming market as I don’t think it’s humanly possible to compare against the PC market in SA.

    Reply

  16. roger

    September 11, 2009 at 14:15

    The figures mentioned by Michael Bender refer to console sales not software, therefore the comparison to the PC is irrelevant. The figures mentioned are correct and representative of the market stats audited in South Africa.

    The install base is very different as nobody knows how many older consoles are still active and how many households have multiple ownership. If one excludes portable units then by the middle of this year slightly over a million consoles have been sold into SA thus giving a fairly low household penetration of under 9%.

    Reply

  17. janrik

    September 11, 2009 at 14:22

    So the 50% includes PS2 then.

    That makes sense, everybody and his dog have a ps2.

    Reply

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