PlayStation Move, as many of you may know, is Sony’s entry into the massive world of motion control gaming. Having been released in North America on September 17Th 2010, the PlayStation Move continues to be a part of PlayStation community. PlayStation Move has sold 8 million units worldwide as of April 2011 with games supporting the device such as Killzone 3, Tumble, Resistance 3, Sports Champions and SOCOM 4. The Move had a great library of games to sell onto and started out pretty well with great sales, support, and critical response. However as time has gone by so has an excitement about anything “Move” related. Over a year since launch, how has the Move done? Has this been a successful venture by PlayStation? Or does the saying “Half as Long, Twice as Bright” sum up the history of the Move?
First let’s talk about the successes of the Move. 8 million units being sold within the first year for a controller is pretty good, not to mention the big name title support at launch. The Move Sharpshooter accessory is also a big plus. With three big shooters having been released, the sharpshooter was not only the logical device to release, and entertainment packs for SOCOM and Resistance also pushed Move Sales. Additionally, when the Move was released, it did demonstrate a great use of motion technology allowing players to achieve a great amount of depth with their game control on all 3 dimensions.
However we are not here to measure the use of the technology but where the Move stands now, Since the Move’s stellar release, there have been fewer and fewer games released with full Move support. Big upcoming games to use the PlayStation Move include Bioshock Infinite, Beyond: Two Souls, and Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two. These are some great titles but the excitement about Move for them has been dwindling. For example, Sorcery only sold about 50,000 units within its first two weeks of release, and that was a highly talked about game at E3 2010. Despite average review scores and a Metacritic score of about 69, these sales were still pretty poor. Even “Start The Party!”, the game which lacks replay ability with only (close to) 20 repetitive mini games, sold 470,000 copies while Sorcery was a six hour long campaign and sold far less. Start the Party may be a good game for some readers out there but other than Sports Champions which I am discounting due to its Move Bundle, there has not been a Move only title on the PS3 to sell more than one million units.
IGN recently revealed that as of March this year, 10.5 million Move units were shipped. This includes both the PlayStation Move and the Move Navigation controller. If we consider that since March the shipped units were actually sold, that means the Move sales have dwindled dramatically. If in the first 7 months the Move can sell 8 million copies but in the full year after that can only ship 2.5 million more, than the PlayStation Move is in a strong downturn. Remember that this does not mean 10.5 million people have the Move or a Navigation Controller, this does not account for households that have more than one controller. With no breakout, must-have, AAA title for the PlayStation Move, this downturn may be permanent. Unless the Wonder Book and Book of Spells, as shown off during this year’s E3, bring the Move a lot more in the way of sales, we might not be seeing more of Move’s success anytime soon.
How would you gauge the success of the PlayStation Move? Is it a great accessory that just has ups and downs based on releasing games? Or do people still care about motion control gaming on the PS3? I don’t need a crystal ball to tell me that the PlayStation Move is going nowhere fast. If I were to grade the PlayStation Move I would have to give it a “C-“ due to its strong downward spiral and the uphill battle it has ahead of itself.
I would like to ask readers who own the PlayStation Move when the last time they played with it is?
Sources: IGN, Joystiq, PlayStation Euphoria, VGChartz, Amazon
Jordan Slo
I'm the host of the Euphoria Cast for PlayStation Euphoria. Being an avid PlayStation Gamer since I was a child, PlayStation Euphoria allows me to express my opinions and ask the right questions about everything and anything PlayStation. Check out our Podcast sometime and be sure to leave comments!
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