Sony's PS3 outsells Wii fivefold in Japan: survey

Sunday 27th September, 04:22 AM JST

TOKYO —

Sony’s PlayStation 3 video game console outsold Nintendo’s Wii nearly fivefold in Japan in the three weeks to Sept 20, helped by the launch of a new cheaper, slim version, a survey shows. Sony sold 257,254 PS3s in its home market in the three-week period, while Nintendo sold 52,229 Wii consoles, the research by video game publisher Ascii Media Works showed.

The new PS3 went on sale on Sept 1 in North America, Europe and Asia, except for Japan, where it debuted in stores two days later. It is priced at 29,980 yen in Japan and at 299 dollars in North America. Like its predecessors, it allows users to play games and movies on Blu-ray discs, but is slimmer and uses less power.

Soon after Sony slashed the price of its PS3, Microsoft cut the price of its Xbox 360 console, followed by Nintendo which on Thursday reduced the price of its Wii for the first time since its 2006 launch.

Nintendo has trounced Sony and Microsoft in recent years with the Wii, which aims to appeal to people who do not normally play video games. But the console’s worldwide appeal has faded recently: Wii sales more than halved to 2.23 million units in April-June from 5.17 million a year earlier.

Microsoft sold 17,716 Xbox 360 consoles in Japan in the three weeks to Sept 20, Ascii said. The U.S. company has struggled to capture a large share of the Japanese market.

Wire reports

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Latest 15 of 18 Total Comments Show All

RandomTask at 10:20 AM JST - 27th September

Good for them? Its gonna be short lived and we'll get back to the norm after the buzz about the price drop / slim model is over.

Still haven't seen anything of interest on the machine.
johnshiomi at 11:39 AM JST - 27th September

I love sony products! I am glad to see that they are doing a little better in sales recently. I hope that they can continue doing well with sales in all of their other products as well. Go Sony!
noborito at 12:24 PM JST - 27th September

Shii outsold both. YouTube Shii... you'll understand why
Loganinippon at 03:03 PM JST - 27th September

"I love sony products! I am glad to see that they are doing a little better in sales recently. I hope that they can continue doing well with sales in all of their other products as well. Go Sony!"

Um, have you ever heard of "Sony Time"? Sony products stop working at a pre-determined time. I had a Sony Cybershot digital camera. I harldy used it. After 5 years it was like-new, and with 5 megapixels it would have been quite handy for me since I just used it for point-and-shoot. At exactly the 5-year mark the device just suddenly stopped working. Same happend to my VAIO laptop that I had. Oh, and while I was typing this I just remembered the Sony headphones I had that suddenly stopped working, too. I avoid Sony products as much as I can. One of my girlfriends worked for Dentsu, the big advertising company. She was in the department that handled advertising for Sony. She avoided Sony products like they were the plague. (because of crappy quality, not Sony Time)
Weasel at 03:33 PM JST - 27th September

I wished my original PS3 had "Sony Time". Had to send it back within 4 months, as the fan constantly roared whenever it was turned it. Haven't had "sony time" - yet - on the replacement (knock on wood as the warranty has expired).
The758 at 04:03 PM JST - 27th September

So the PS3 has (briefly) outsold an almost three-year-old product. That doesn't sound all that impressive to me. A few gamers I've talked to said the new PS3 has finally come into the affordable range ... yet the selection of games is still rather anorexic.
gogogo at 04:11 PM JST - 27th September

wow considering Wii has sold like 20-30 million units and PS3 like 5 or something three weeks is seriously nothing.
geronimo2006 at 05:21 PM JST - 27th September

Wonder if it had anything to do with people holding off for the expected price drop. See in the next three weeks.
nemoflow at 08:24 PM JST - 27th September

Sony products are without exception, crap. Nothing I have ever used by Sony has been any good, or lasted longer than the competition.
Hotbox08 at 10:23 PM JST - 27th September

Um, have you ever heard of "Sony Time"? Sony products stop working at a pre-determined time. I had a Sony Cybershot digital camera. I harldy used it.

I guess my Sony CD walkman which I've been having and using since 1998 is not a real Sony then. It's amazing that it still works after 11 years in use.
Hotbox08 at 10:26 PM JST - 27th September

But then again, overall, I do prefer products from Hitachi and Panasonic a lot better.
Badsey at 10:53 PM JST - 27th September

-cheap blue-ray player + some network f(x). =Value buyers and ex-gamers upgrading to the newer systems.
IchyaWarFare at 10:39 AM JST - 28th September

Again, nothing great on the PS3 that makes people go out there and buy it. They should have stats for how many are turned into Hard Off or any other second hand electronics store. Now those stats, I would like to see.
Klein2 at 01:41 AM JST - 29th September

Oh. I love Sony products. Great quality. I think I have never had one of their products break on me. Walkman, diskman, trinitron monitors, computers, game machines, DVD players. I think I have never had one break. I know it happens, but it just seems like urban legend talk to me.

But that is beside the point. I saw a chart at a certain retailer this weekend comparing new PS3 features with old features. I think I yawned. Larger hard drive. Color change.... and I cannot remember the other three things, but they impressed me less than the color change. I thought to myself... I wonder if the games play or look better. Then I shrugged and walked away. Hard to imagine that the PS3 will be some world beater, as this survey implies.
kokorocloud at 02:31 PM JST - 29th September

It's still not enough for me. I'm a cheapskate, but goodness knows it'll have to drop a little more before I'll bite. The games aren't worth the price they're asking.