PS3 Sales Fly Past Xbox 360 in Japan
Total sales of the PS3 in Japan have surpassed those of the Xbox360 in just four weeks! Wii outsells everything else combined!
Wii will rock you!
In a staggering show of strength from the home fans, Sony has managed to achieve in just four weeks what it's taken Microsoft 52 to achieve, with Japanese sales of the PS3 sprinting past those of Xbox 360.
SPOnG wonders what Bill Gates is making of the following quote, which we reported on November 22nd this year:
At least you were right about Sony selling lots in Japan, eh, Bill.
Figures confirming this sales slaughter have been confirmed by Media Create, the Japanese sales tracking organisation. Its just-published hardware sales figures for the week of 27th November to 3rd December show PS3 hardware sales reach 187,836 units for the period, taking it beyond the Xbox 360's lifetime total of 178,070 units.
If anybody was in any doubt about how much of an uphill struggle Microsoft has on its hands in Japan, that fact alone should hammer it home. It will be interesting to see how Friday's launch of Hironobu Sakaguchi's highly anticipated Blue Dragon RPG affects the sales of the Xbox 360 next week.
In other ‘next-gen’ news, the week ending 3rd December featured the Japanese launch of Nintendo's Wii. As you would expect, the Wii sold more hardware units than anything else. In fact, it sold more hardware units than everything else ... combined! And that includes the mighty DS Lite. In fact, the Wii has almost equalled the combined total sales of the Xbox 360 and PS3 in its opening week.
The actual figures make interesting reading, with the Wii selling 350,358 units on its first two days on sale. The Second Place rosette went to stablemate DS Lite with 176,901 units followed by the PS3 at 31,436. The PSP and PS2 followed in 4th and 5th places with 23,917 and 23,115 units respectively. The Xbox 360 sold an above-average 7,007 units and nothing else sold over 2,000 units. The Wii ended up with just over 57% of the total sales for the week.
The Wii launch figures make it the second most popular Japanese hardware launch in history, losing out only to the DS' astounding 468,883 unit launch weekend just over two years ago. Apparently, Nintendo knows just when and how to launch its consoles.
SPOnG wonders what Bill Gates is making of the following quote, which we reported on November 22nd this year:
I wouldn't change positions with them in a million years. I mean, we know what it's like to be a year late. We feel great about the position that we're in. And, of course, they're going to sell a lot in Japan. You know, Sony can make 80,000 bricks, and people would buy them.
At least you were right about Sony selling lots in Japan, eh, Bill.
Figures confirming this sales slaughter have been confirmed by Media Create, the Japanese sales tracking organisation. Its just-published hardware sales figures for the week of 27th November to 3rd December show PS3 hardware sales reach 187,836 units for the period, taking it beyond the Xbox 360's lifetime total of 178,070 units.
If anybody was in any doubt about how much of an uphill struggle Microsoft has on its hands in Japan, that fact alone should hammer it home. It will be interesting to see how Friday's launch of Hironobu Sakaguchi's highly anticipated Blue Dragon RPG affects the sales of the Xbox 360 next week.
In other ‘next-gen’ news, the week ending 3rd December featured the Japanese launch of Nintendo's Wii. As you would expect, the Wii sold more hardware units than anything else. In fact, it sold more hardware units than everything else ... combined! And that includes the mighty DS Lite. In fact, the Wii has almost equalled the combined total sales of the Xbox 360 and PS3 in its opening week.
The actual figures make interesting reading, with the Wii selling 350,358 units on its first two days on sale. The Second Place rosette went to stablemate DS Lite with 176,901 units followed by the PS3 at 31,436. The PSP and PS2 followed in 4th and 5th places with 23,917 and 23,115 units respectively. The Xbox 360 sold an above-average 7,007 units and nothing else sold over 2,000 units. The Wii ended up with just over 57% of the total sales for the week.
The Wii launch figures make it the second most popular Japanese hardware launch in history, losing out only to the DS' astounding 468,883 unit launch weekend just over two years ago. Apparently, Nintendo knows just when and how to launch its consoles.
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Comments
Showing the 20 most recent comments. Read all 21.
hollywooda 8 Dec 2006 11:16
2/21
Why doesn't your headline read "Wii outsells PS3 & 360!"
or are u afraid u'll upset your boyfriends @ Sony?...
or are u afraid u'll upset your boyfriends @ Sony?...
king skins 8 Dec 2006 12:17
3/21
kid_77 wrote:
SPOnG wrote:
Its just-published hardware sales figures for the week of 27th November to 3rd December show PS3 hardware sales reach 187,836 units for the period, taking it beyond the Xbox 360's lifetime total of 178,070 units
Hmmm, MS announced 200,000 units of Blue Dragon were sold... obviously some people like it so much they bought two!
;)
I'm not sure if they sold 200,000 or expected to sell 200,000. Is the game out yet? I'm sure that 200,00 would be pre-orders.
Also not sure if the 200,000 where the bundled xbox360's with the game... I might look this up in my lunch break if i get a chance.
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DoctorDee 8 Dec 2006 12:33
4/21
hollywooda wrote:
Why doesn't your headline read "Wii outsells PS3 & 360!"
Because that's not really the news is it? Everyone expected that to happen. I don't think everyone expected PS3 to outsell 360 in 4 weeks.
or are u afraid u'll upset your boyfriends @ Sony?...
Yeah, cause Sony loves us. Right!
tyrion 8 Dec 2006 12:35
5/21
king skins wrote:
Is the game out yet? I'm sure that 200,00 would be pre-orders.
The game came out today, Dec 8th, the figures in the article only go as far as the 3rd and are hardware only.
I'd heard that there were only a thousand of the bundles, so they won't make much of an impact on 360 sales, but knock-on sales from people wanting to play Blue Dragon could be large.
RiseFromYourGrave 8 Dec 2006 16:50
6/21
DoctorDee wrote:
I don't think everyone expected PS3 to outsell 360 in 4 weeks.
it was hardly a stretch of the imagination
SCiARA 8 Dec 2006 16:53
7/21
I'm surprised it took 4 weeks and not sooner...
vault 13 8 Dec 2006 17:48
8/21
It's like you folks are saying the japanese are brainless zombies with a switch set to "suck on Sony's knob". They're smart consumers, they know what they're doing. Sure there's not many good games out for it, but neither did any launch except for the Nintendo ones and the Dreamcast. There's a reason Microsoft is failing over there. Microsoft is still doing well, they still have a good lineup. We'll all just have to buy a PS3 for all that Japanese gaming goodness.
RiseFromYourGrave 8 Dec 2006 18:01
9/21
give over, whatever stereotypes about the japanese exist and whether theyre true or not, it wouldnt have taken einstein to tell you that the ps3 would sell more than a relatively paltry 180,000 ps3's in 4 weeks in japan. the fanboy's (that every country has) havent even all got one yet!
tyrion 8 Dec 2006 18:28
10/21
SCiARA wrote:
I'm surprised it took 4 weeks and not sooner...
The Japanese weekly sales for the PS3 are interesting;
Wk1: 81,639
Wk2: 42,099
Wk3: 32,662
Wk4: 31,436
The sales seem to be levelling off at around 30K per week, which suggests that Sony are getting about that number of units into retail each week. For comparison, the 360 has average weekly sales of about 3.5K over its lifetime.
TwoADay 8 Dec 2006 22:48
11/21
tyrion wrote:
The Japanese weekly sales for the PS3 are interesting;
Wk1: 81,639
Wk2: 42,099
Wk3: 32,662
Wk4: 31,436
The sales seem to be levelling off at around 30K per week, which suggests that Sony are getting about that number of units into retail each week. For comparison, the 360 has average weekly sales of about 3.5K over its lifetime.
I don't get what's interesting. The first week should logically have the most units - they would theoretically have stocked up for a few weeks before sending them out for sale, and now it's a "sell them when they get to stores" mentality. Only when Sony gets to full out manufacturing can that number begin to approach, then surpass, the initial launch.
But then again, I'm a history-type, so maybe my number crunching skills are weak.
SCiARA 9 Dec 2006 09:45
12/21
I think its interesting that Sony is only punting out 30k units a week!
Forgive my arrogance but is that normal shipping unit numbers for a new console in demand?
Forgive my arrogance but is that normal shipping unit numbers for a new console in demand?
DoctorDee 9 Dec 2006 11:52
13/21
SCiARA wrote:
Forgive my arrogance but is that normal shipping unit numbers for a new console in demand?
It seems low-ish, but not drastically so. You generally count on them being able to make about 1,000,000 a month once they get up to speed (hence 10M Xbox 360s just over a year after launch).
They will not be up to speed with PS3 yet.
The launch was 80/20 Americas/Asia - so if they are shipping 30K a week into japan, they are prolly shipping 120K into USA - so that indicates they are producing 150K a week - pretty typical.
tyrion 9 Dec 2006 13:17
14/21
TwoADay wrote:
I don't get what's interesting. The first week should logically have the most units - they would theoretically have stocked up for a few weeks before sending them out for sale, and now it's a "sell them when they get to stores" mentality.
Sorry, I was rushed and didn't make my point very well. As DoctorDee pointed out, the interesting bit is the amount Sony are getting into retail on a weekly basis.
Sony claimed that when they were up to speed, they would be putting 1M per month into retail worldwide. Now they are doing 600K per month by DoctorDee's estimates.
I'd point out that the resupply numbers could be weighted, percentage wise, more in Japan's favour to make up for the poor launch figures there. Sony could be shipping 30K per week to Japan and maybe as little as 70K to the US, for example. That would give only 300K units per month worldwide.
Without solid weekly hardware sales for the US, of course, this is all just conjecture.
Of course, some stock my be being allocated for the European launch, but I wouldn't bet on it. That will probably start happening in late January, early February, if we are even going to get the launch in March that is.
So Sony currently have at least a 400K per month shortfall on their estimated production figures, with a major launch still to go. I find that interesting because it means they don't just have a hill to climb, they are doing it without any walking boots!
headcasephil 10 Dec 2006 00:13
15/21
we all now that sony will do better than microsoft in japan this is because sony is from japan and microsoft is from usa but i think that every gamer on the planet is going to get two consoles in this war and itis gonig to be
ether a 360 and a wii or a ps3 and a wii so in the long run nintendo is going to win this time so how gives a s"*t
ether a 360 and a wii or a ps3 and a wii so in the long run nintendo is going to win this time so how gives a s"*t
SPInGSPOnG 10 Dec 2006 21:43
16/21
philneedshelp wrote:
i think that every gamer on the planet is going to get two consoles in this war and itis gonig to be
ether a 360 and a wii or a ps3 and a wii
ether a 360 and a wii or a ps3 and a wii
I think you are right. I really believe on Hardware numbers, Nintendo will win this round... but there's a bigger battle being fought, for the home Media hub. Without a hard drive - Nintendo is not in that battle... But with 8, then 16 and 32GB SD cards a possibility they could be in a year or so...
vault 13 11 Dec 2006 00:40
17/21
Just like it was last generation, PS2 and Gamecube or X-Box and Gamecube if people owned two. I, myself, had all three, which I plan to do again.
tyrion 11 Dec 2006 13:58
18/21
philneedshelp wrote:
we all now that sony will do better than microsoft in japan this is because sony is from japan and microsoft is from usa
Which of course explains why the iPod outsells every Japanese MP3 player on the market in Japan.
vault 13 11 Dec 2006 18:50
19/21
tyrion wrote:
philneedshelp wrote:
we all now that sony will do better than microsoft in japan this is because sony is from japan and microsoft is from usa
Which of course explains why the iPod outsells every Japanese MP3 player on the market in Japan.
Haha! Tyrion pointed out your fault and your gross generalization of the japansese culture. Japan likes sleek, new, and small things. All things the X-Box is not. Well it was new at one point but I never looked new. US products can do very well in Japan, i.e. the iPod if it is super futuristic. Which it is. Just admit the original X-Box was really just a cinder block inside a green box and we'll all be happier.
warbaby 11 Dec 2006 23:30
20/21
vault 13 wrote:
tyrion wrote:
philneedshelp wrote:
we all now that sony will do better than microsoft in japan this is because sony is from japan and microsoft is from usa
Which of course explains why the iPod outsells every Japanese MP3 player on the market in Japan.
Haha! Tyrion pointed out your fault and your gross generalization of the japansese culture. Japan likes sleek, new, and small things. All things the X-Box is not. Well it was new at one point but I never looked new. US products can do very well in Japan, i.e. the iPod if it is super futuristic. Which it is. Just admit the original X-Box was really just a cinder block inside a green box and we'll all be happier.
And the Playstation just screams small and streamlined. The closest thing the Playstation ever came to sleek was the PS one. PS2 looks like a mashing of various rectangular prisms. The PS3 is like a bloated toaster from the 70's, it just screams Japanese sophistication.
If your gonna blast a console for not being up to "Japanese aesthetic standards", don't just single out the X-brick.
vault 13 12 Dec 2006 04:03
21/21
warbaby wrote:
And the Playstation just screams small and streamlined. The closest thing the Playstation ever came to sleek was the PS one. PS2 looks like a mashing of various rectangular prisms. The PS3 is like a bloated toaster from the 70's, it just screams Japanese sophistication.
I commend your defense against the lowly X-Box One, but it sucked as a design. It made my 1987 Mitsushibi VCR look anorexic by design. The PS3 has curves and sophistication, no matter what you say. A futuristic design. Also having games the Japanese play also helps.