Sony Corp, after replenishing its inventory of PlayStation 4 video game consoles, retook the lead in US retail sales from Microsoft Corp’s Xbox One last month as the two vied for industry dominance.
PlayStation 4 sales were almost double those of its nearest next-generation competitor, Tokyo-based Sony said on Thursday in an e-mailed statement, citing NPD Group Inc.
Combined sales of the PS4 and its predecessor, the PlayStation 3, surpassed all other platforms last month, Sony also said.
The video game industry is monitoring demand for the new consoles to see whether they spur a broader retail comeback, or if play for many consumers has shifted permanently to smartphones and tablets. US spending on video game hardware increased 17 percent to US$241 million last month from a year earlier, Port Washington, New York-based NPD said in an e-mail.
In December last year, customers purchased 908,000 Xbox Ones, beating out the PS4, Microsoft said in a statement on Jan. 15. It sold 643,000 Xbox 360s for third place, the company said.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft did not say how many of the consoles it sold last month.
Last month, software sales fell 41 percent to US$232 million, in part because few titles were available for the newer machines. Microsoft’s Xbox One on March 25 gets the exclusive Electronic Arts Inc shooter Titanfall.
January last year included an extra week, making comparisons difficult. Normalized sales removing that week show total hardware revenue rose 47 percent, NPD said.
The PS4 and Xbox One, both released in November last year, compete with Nintendo Co’s Wii U, on the market for more than a year.
Nintendo, based in Kyoto, Japan, saw sales of games made for its 3DS handheld rise 6 percent on a normalized basis, and 26 percent for the Wii U, NPD reported.
Total video game sales, including accessories, fell 21 percent to US$664 million.
They would be down only 1 percent on a four-week comparison basis, NPD said.
Factoring in sales made through digital downloads, used games, social games and rentals, consumers probably spent US$1.05 billion last month, NPD said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last