Report: UK retail sources seeing an increase in PS3 trade-ins for Xbox 360

Retail sources close to Edge have told the site shops are getting more PS3 trade-ins than usual, as Sony's PSN services continue to remain offline.

According to the sources, more PS3 consoles are being traded in for cash or switched out for Xbox 360 consoles. It was also reported that sales of PSN points cards are down, which is to be expected in all honesty, but one source went so far as to say pre-orders for titles for the Sony console were also slumping.

“In the first week of downtime we did not really see any major change in sales or trades,” said a store manager at a major UK retailer. "However, from the second week onwards we have seen an increase of over 200 percent on PS3 consoles being traded in, split almost 50/50 between those trading for cash and those taking a 360 instead.”

Belgian retailer Gameswap went on record with Edeg to state it has seen a rather large increase of PS3 trade-ins for 360, but "in every case" it was a hardcore, online Call of Duty player.

"At the end of each month people come to sell their consoles, people that need money [to pay bills]," said the store's Tom Mestdagh. "What’s different this time around is that that they are bringing in PS3s together with all their games and they don’t want money, they want an Xbox 360. In every case it is because of Black Ops and or Modern Warfare 2.

“We’re just ten days into the month and already we have an increase of 200 percent in PS3s coming into the store compared to all of March. Normally we sell them really fast, but not this time. We’ve only sold 30 to 40 percent of our inventory right now.”

Edge's high street source offered that “pre-orders have been cancelled and flipped over to 360 versions of games,” with Mestdagh stating: "People are cancelling their order of Brink for PS3. People that have an Xbox 360 have switched their pre-orders – others are just cancelling entirely."

Finally, a retailer in northern England told the site he has not seen an increase in PS3 consoles trade-ins; however, he did note the "incredible amount of disgruntled people annoyed that they can’t play online," coming to the shop.

Sony took down PSN on April 20, and so far, there isn't a confirmed date for the relaunch as the firm is making sure the network's new security measures are properly implemented.