If a console's feelings can be hurt, you might want to look in the corner for a rocking, sobbing PS3. Not even a month after being dubbed a "sinking ship" by Silicon Alley Insider, the Wall Street Journal has published an ouch-inducing article titled "Hope Fades for PS3 as a Comeback Player."
In the wake of NPD numbers for November showing the console solidly in third place and Black Friday sales of Xbox 360 pegged at 3-to-1 over PS3, the WSJ points out that holiday sales of PS3 are down 19% over the same period last year; Wii and Xbox 360, on the other hand, were up – 100% and 8%, respectively.
The Journal quotes Wedbush Morgan analyst, Michael Patcher, as predicting a price drop on PS3 hardware in April 2009, the beginning of Sony's new fiscal year. The paper says that if the sales gap can't be closed by such measures, "[Sony] could risk making the PS3 an afterthought to game publishers." Gloomy much?