Over half of all boxed Portal 2 sales in the UK last week came on Microsoft's Xbox 360, according to GfK-ChartTrack data.
Just 35 percent of sales were of the PS3 version of the game - something of a surprise considering the cross-platform capability offered with the title's Steam features.
The news comes as PSN suffers a sixth day of downtime following an "external intrusion" of the service.
However, GfK-ChartTrack's figures do not take into account the number of sales made via Steam.
Portal 2 was sold early on Valve's digital distribution network as a reward for fans who purchased a 'Potato Sack' of indie titles.
Comments
40 comments so far...
wildhook2 on 26 Apr '11 said:
PSN being down and Xbox 360 bigger userbase - hardly surprising.
altitude2k on 26 Apr '11 said:
Wow, really?
I mean, I got the 360 version because of the people I'd be likely to play co-op with, but I really thought the PS3 version would sell the most when listening to the community.
MattyR95 on 26 Apr '11 said:
It's because PSN is down, an unfortunate week for it to be down.
theaface on 26 Apr '11 said:
Colour me surprised. The releases of Mortal Kombat (with Kratos exclusivity) and SOCOM could've been factors, and the PSN downtime will undoubtedly have put off some people who planned to pick it on the weekend and jump straight online.
I got my copy for PS3. Completed the single player, haven't yet delved into online for obvious reasons. So far, I've been absolutely delighted with it though. Valve have done a sterling job.
WHERESMYMONKEY on 26 Apr '11 said:
That's surprising seeing as the PS3 version will get all it's updates (read dlc) for free and has cross platform play with what is no doubt the biggesst available player base for portal 2. the PC.
StonecoldMC on 26 Apr '11 said:
This will probably be down to the fact of the PSN downtime, right?
I wouldnt be surprised to see if PS3 Game sales will be down due to the fact that people cant get online. Could be totally wrong though?
justforkicks101 on 26 Apr '11 said:
utter madness
boskersrevenge on 26 Apr '11 said:
http://www.mentalcrumble.com/storage/airplane.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1297725749256
ricflair on 26 Apr '11 said:
I'm surprised. I can't believe people would be so short sighted as to not get the PS3 version just because PSN is down for a few days, and forego the Steam copy and likely free updates and cross platform play. Plus the PS3 version looks much sharper than the 360 one (although the average guy on the street probably won't know this).
And lots of copies would have been preordered I'm sure, so I'd think the PSN outtage isn't that big a deal - it's not CoD etc. Well I suppose there are more 360s in the UK and maybe it's just one of those weird ones when what you expect to happen, doesn't happen.
I bet in reality the PC sales p**sed all over the 360 salesif they took Steam numbers into account.
voodoo341 on 26 Apr '11 said:
Or some people with a PS3 bought SOCOM instead.
altitude2k on 26 Apr '11 said:
I can't see that the downtime would have played any part in this. Is anyone really so impatient that they purchase one over the other because of a temporary outage to PSN?
StonecoldMC on 26 Apr '11 said:
What I meant was, would you buy a Game this week if you couldnt get online? For a lot of Games I buy, I know I would wait until the service went back online.
dangermou5e on 26 Apr '11 said:
It must be a kick in the teeth for valve though? seeing as they put all that extra effort into the PS3 version.
ricflair on 26 Apr '11 said:
I think if a game would suffer from the outtage, it would be SOCOM as it's primarily online. Although looking, that came in at no 28 on the all format chart so probably not shifted huge numbers anyway.
I'm sure the nice weather on a bank holiday weekendplayed more of a role than anything else. Of course it might mean that PS3 owners just haven't got it yet, and could pick it up this week when it gets colder and PSN comes back on. I wouldn't think the majority of people have both HD consoles to be honest to chose one version over another.
manky on 26 Apr '11 said:
FYI - You don't need an internet connection to play portal on PS3.
Miss_Wacy on 26 Apr '11 said:
i got it comming for ps3, wont be playing it yet, got some side stuff to do on RDR and few others games to play still
GTCzeero on 26 Apr '11 said:
I would buy a PS3 game this week (and did, Portal 2 of course), but then again my PS3 has never be connected to the net, so I haven't been inconvenienced any more than I have been in the past. Online gaming's never been my thing.
Black Mantis on 26 Apr '11 said:
Yeah, I doubt that it played a part in Portal's sales. I have no intention of buying this yet, but I'd still get it on 360 due to having friends on Live that would pick this up.
StokedUp on 26 Apr '11 said:
With Socom4 and Mortal Kombat with PS3 exclusivity it hardly suprising, it will be the same story all year becuase Xbox360 have only got GearofWar3 while the PS3 has got 10+ exclusives plus exclusive content for multiplat games. I can garantee elder scrolls skrim and mass effect 3 will massively outsell the ps3 version because its releasing so close to Uncharted 3.
a3HeadedMonkey on 26 Apr '11 said:
I don't think this has anything to do with PSN. It probably has more to do with The Orange Box being a poor port on PS3 & therefore there just aren't as many Portal fans to be found on PS3 than on the 360.
wrightandrewjame on 26 Apr '11 said:
The extra copy of Portal 2 was hardly advertised and Joe Public wouldn't really know about it. Add that to the fact that the install base of 360s is much larger than that of the PS3 in the UK and you've got your reasons.
voodoo341 on 26 Apr '11 said:
Don't know. There's just so many games about at the moment I'm not going to spend £40 on a game now just to have it sit around for weeks while I finish off an older game when I can pick it up heavily discounted in a few weeks time. Ironically I picked SOCOM up because I was playing the beta a lot and it has to sit around now until PSN comes back up. Them's the breaks. I'm 100% sure though I'll buy Portal 2 at some point on the PS3.
ricflair on 26 Apr '11 said:
Uncharted is a bit different as it's a huge release.
Why would people forego an arguably better multiplatform game, just to get a (seemingly) lower quality exclusive, or even worse, a game that's identical apart from one exclusive character?
Just to tell themselves they made the right choice in buying their console as the game isn't available on the 'rival' console? I never understand that mentality, and you just shoot yourself in the foot by missing out on excellent multi platform games at the expense of some mental loyality.
gamefreak666 on 26 Apr '11 said:
This doesn't really surprise me and I dont think it has anything to do with PSN being down.
The first game (via the Orange Box) was for a long time not available on the PS3, and even when it was released The Orange Box was far inferior on the PS3. So you already have a larger user base on the 360, plus it was released on Xbox Live for download but never on PSN. So many people are likely to purchase sequels on a system they already have the original on.
StonecoldMC on 26 Apr '11 said:
Thats kind of what I was getting at, I too am starting to be a bit more picky with regards to Games I pick up on Day 1 and Portal 2 just wasnt one of those.
I wasnt having a dig at the PS3 or PS3 owners, its pretty sh*tty that with a few days off the net is down, but maybe because of this Players just thought, feck im not buying a Game this week, Im having a BBQ or game of footy?
statix on 26 Apr '11 said:
Everyone keeps saying that there the 360 install base in the UK is "so much larger" than the PS3. Just exactly how big is this difference?
If it really is a big difference, then I'd find it pretty surprising, considering Sony's presence in the rest of Europe. Maybe Microsoft's marketing is just particularly strong in that one particular non-US region?
voodoo341 on 26 Apr '11 said:
I think you're reading a bit too much into a few days sales figures. Give it a few weeks and I'll bet they'll balance out.
ricflair on 26 Apr '11 said:
I'm sure they will. I just don't understand why someone would chose one game over another just because it's exclusive or has an exclusive character.
voodoo341 on 26 Apr '11 said:
Maybe some people bought SOCOM because they just liked the game. It does have a bit of fan base after all. It happens sometimes.
El Mag on 26 Apr '11 said:
I'm planning on getting the PS3 version in a couple weeks. I've held off because everything recently seems to be going on sale a few weeks after it's out, i'm sick of paying £40 then it goes to £25 pretty much everywhere.
360_Fan on 26 Apr '11 said:
f**k off with the 360 has a larger customer base. Only 2 weeks ago this site reported that there were more ps3's out there than 360's and there are some mums out there still scrubbing the jizz stains out of ps3 owners pants today.
ricflair on 26 Apr '11 said:
Read it, it's the UK. In which the 360 does have a larger user base.
gmcb007 on 26 Apr '11 said:
Don't see the PSN being down the reason for this.
Brainflowers on 26 Apr '11 said:
Am I the only one entirely unsurprised by this news..? And that's nothing to do with psn outage or other big new releases.. The fact is, for some reason I still don't understand, big multiplat game releases almost always sell more on 360 than PS3 in this country (excluding some obvious 'legacy titles' such as FFXIII). I think the diff in installbase is probably a bit too small to fully explain the often large differences in copies of a game sold between the 2 consoles.. Perhaps the average 360 user is that bit more trigger happy with his wallet? I don't know..
LordVonPS3 on 26 Apr '11 said:
Interesting UK statistic... Definitely unrelated to the package.
* Portal 2 looks better on PS3 than XBox 360.
http://www.lensoftruth.com/head2head-po ... omparison/
* The PS3 version of Portal 2 comes with Steam, multi-platform play, cross-platform chat.
* The PS3 version of Portal 2 comes with a Steam voucher to download the game on PC / Mac.
That's 3 pretty good reasons to buy the PS3 version - if you own a PS3... The XBox 360 version really is the worst version. Of course, if you own a 360 and nothing else then it's pretty obvious what you'll be buying...
wasted-again on 26 Apr '11 said:
Well, they have it priced cheaply enough on Steam, and they even had 10% off for pre-orders, so it's bound to have shipped a load more via download, probably the best one yet for Valve. But then again Valve own Steam, which gives them a very big advantage over everyone else. I am looking forward to dowloading my free copy next week, when the "Playstation Not-work" is back up and running(i heard there will be cake).
RandyChimp on 26 Apr '11 said:
Hmmm, same price for both games, one comes with steam support and a free pc copy, the other comes with a green game case....
Some people are f**king stupid!
hi0marc on 26 Apr '11 said:
I bet more than 50% of all copies were from steam online though
rogueybear on 27 Apr '11 said:
bit of a surprise since gabe literally stated the xbox version was the worst at e3
wasted-again on 27 Apr '11 said:
What, even those that don't have a PC or PS3? The ones that have been playing it online all weekend? Those people?