Retailers praise "biggest-ever" PS3 launch

Now the dust has settled on the PlayStation 3 launch, UK retailers are beginning to report on what they've seen as the "biggest-ever" launch for a home console.

Retailers are expecting to continue selling the luxury console over the busy Easter sales period, but some have warned that reducing prices to lower stock levels could harm long-term sales.

"Given the relatively plentiful supply, it's fair to say this was our biggest-ever console launch in unit and value terms," HMV's head of games Tim Ellis told GamesIndustry.biz.

"We still have some consoles in stock around the chain, as we were able to order plenty, but we expect these to sell these through over the coming days and weeks, especially as new games titles are released," he said.

"It's been a remarkable week for us here at GAME following the successful launch of the PlayStation 3," revealed Anna Macario, marketing director at GAME.

"We have seen huge demand and seen fantastic sales throughout our 400 stores around the country."

With all pre-orders taken care of, retailers are in the unusual but desirable position of having enough stock in store to sell to customers walking in off the street.

"We've managed to fulfill every one of our pre-orders and continue to see strong interest in the console into this week as well," said Macario.

While sales are good, managing director of Chips Don McCabe called for the retail community not to panic if stores still have plenty of stock left from their launch allocation.

"In many respects it was an exceptional launch, Sony put an awful lot of product in the channel when we're used to previous launches where we have to manage customers expectations," he commented.

"Day one sales were very good, but since then it's not been so good. There seems to be a lot of discounts going around on the machine and on games."

"The market needs to stabilise because there's some retailers that have got a few too many units. They're trying to bring down their stock levels too quickly," he said.