Slow PS3 sales in Japan still outsell Xbox 360 but the Wii-ner is Wii

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Saturday, 20 January 2007

Japanese games analyst firm ‘Media Create’ have released figures showing Xbox 360 sales were nearly half those of the PS3 in Japan, while Wii sales have whizzed up the charts in what is normally the quietest month of the year.

If you thought that January is supposed to be a quiet month, with massive credit card bills from Christmas excesses to deal with, tell that to Japanese Wii owners – they just purchased 93,708 consoles for the week ending January 14.

Reasons why could simply be that the Wii is the most affordable console of the three, has the most unique control mechanism, and is as Japanese as Sony.

Sales of the PS3 in the same period totaled 25,531 units, while the Xbox 360 managed to clock up nearly half that number at 9,035 units – not too bad considering the Xbox 360 is supposed to be a non-event in Japan.

The Xbox 360 was helped in December by the launch of ‘Blue Dragon’, offered as part of a bundle, giving the 360 a sales boost which has subsequently subsided. Still, it goes to show that if Microsoft can create games that appeal to Japanese buyers, they can sell Xbox 360’s in the land of the rising sun.

Media Create’s figures aren’t actual sales numbers, but relatively accurate projections based on the sales data of 3,000 stores across Japan, with Media Create saying that they are confident their figures are an accurate extrapolation of the true figures.

Interestingly, the software title ‘Wii Sports’, which seems to be bundled with every Nintendo Wii across the world – except in Japan – took the No.1 spot in sales, with an estimated 61,399 copies sold, with ‘Wii Play’, a title that comes bundled with an extra ‘Wii-mote’ controller, was the number three title. The remaining top ten titles were all for the Nintendo DS, showing that handheld gaming is extremely popular in Japan, aside from number 8 in the top-ten list which was a game for the Sony PSP called ‘Metal Gear Solid Ops’, which shows the PSP is still doing well despite the Nintendo DS onslaught.

Although no Xbox 360 games were in the list of top 50 games sold in Japan, the most popular game for the PS3 clocked in at number 40 – ‘Resistance: Fall of Man’.

So while these figures must surely be worrying for Sony, they still have plenty of surprises up their sleeves, with Sony CEO Howard Stringer claiming that the first round of PS3 games only used 20-25% of the PS3’s power.

And it must be said, despite the Wii’s towering success in what should be a very quiet time of the year, one week of slow sales figures does not make the PS3 a failure. It is, after all, the most expensive console, with the promise of cheaper prices and better games still to come in the PS3's future.
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