PS3 on the March, Wii slumps, Xbox 360 stagnates

GB:

"The Xbox 360 is doing OK but not great. Certainly, Microsoft is selling enough units of its second-gen console to warrant having made the effort to try and interest the Japanese in giving the hardware a chance. But this story isn't really about the Xbox 360.

The Playstation 3 has for the first time in 16 months outsold the Wii. That's quite an achievement. Most are putting the success down to the release of Ryu Ga Gotoku 3 and Resident Evil 5, which finished first and second in the software sales chart respectively. But is there more at work here? Are the Japanese public finally realizing they need more than a Wii and their DS or PSP?"

[SasanovaS777]

welcome to the true next gen. the playstation 3.

[earwax]

Who cares? do it in the USA/ North America and the UK

[infekt]

Canada is turning Sony, buddy boy.. it'll just be the UK and US eventually.

[KingKionic]

hope this goes well.

[Maddens Raiders]

What the World Plays.

[EXCLUSIVEGAMER]

tears*

/humor

[EXCLUSIVEGAMER]

In this long console race, it seems the wii is running out of steam to get to the finish line WHILE the 360 keeps tripping on its own shoelaces.

KUTARAGI owns teh console engineering.

All haters, grab some tissues its gonna get ugly for ya

[y0haN]

'stagnates' has such a negative connotations for a word that means 'does not move'.

[lloyd_wonder]

Truth is, Microsoft or the xbox won't ever be relevant in Japan. It's the cheapest console there, has all the major JRPG's up until this point, and it still can't compete there. Japan is a big market most Japanese publishers won't just abandon. That's why you have Namco jumping ship, Final Fantasy XIII exclusive in Japan, and Resident Evil 5 on the PS3 outselling the 360 version 4:1.

You have stories like this....

http://www.edge-online.com/...

And people always say that Japan isn't relevant. The 360 sold 1mil consoles there in a 3-4 year time span, but the PS2 sold "980k" consoles the day it launched and went on to sale 21mil units. Why do you think Sony had all the Final Fantasy's, Resident Evil's, and Metal Gears? Because the PlayStation business is a global business. With a foot in every region.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Also, after seeing RE5's PS3 numbers, Lost Planet 2 is as good as multiplatform

http://www.gamezine.co.uk/n...

[maxcer]

can't anyone see that the Xbox brand will most likely never do as good as domestic products in Japan? the fact is that they buy their own stuff and shy away from foreign ideas and products, even if that means they wont be able to play new JRPGS that are currently out on an american platform. i guess you could call it patriotism

[jlemdon]

That the U.S. runs this generation by far, I know some of you are upset.

but just think about it, what if you(the american) were selling stuff in Japan and no one would support because your an american.

That's how I see it, I bet if Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey came to PS3 we would've seen triple the sales on those games.:(

I'm glad to be an American supporting american products, even though I do own a PS3.:)

[Sayai jin]

Japan is very important, but where do you live?

[-EvoAnubis-]

That's pretty damned impressive! I wonder if that'll last?

The 360 also did pretty well; I've seen months when they struggled to get 20,000 units sold in that region. Yeah, the Wii dropped a bit, but that's probably because damn near everyone has one already; that thing already sold an ungodly amount of units.

[nycredude]

Anyone who says or thinks that everyone in Japan has a Wii either hasn't a clue or are just plain ignorant, and judging by your agrees there are a few. The wii was at just over 7M in Japan at the end of last year where as the ps2 is at around 20M. NOT everyone in Japan owns a Wii, Ps2, Ps3, or an xbox!

[San Frandisco]

ONCE YOU GO BLACK YOU DONT GO BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tudors]

just asking.

[Ps_alm3k]

FF13 , tales are coming to ps3 in japan, follow by So4.
Its over ps3 will dominate japan period.
Europe next....ps3 ftw!!!!!

[nightelfmohawk]

http://www.reuters.com/arti...

Domestic sales of the PS3 came to 146,948 units in the five weeks through March 29, compared with 99,335 units of the Wii and 43,172 units of Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) Xbox 360, Enterbrain said on Monday.

[Neo604]

ps3 picking up speed.

[SonyRulz]

I love how the contributor CONVENIENTLY left "Japan" out of the title, as it was in the ORIGINAL STORY.

Spin it, baby, spin it!

[LoVeRSaMa]

Its funny because most Stories leave AMERICA out of the title when they talk about 360 outselling the PS3 no?

[ChilliDemon]

Excellent come back. Most of these kind of articles leave out the qualifiers from the headline, just to grab our attention.

[SL1M DADDY]

LoVeRSaMa: +1

SonyRulz: 0

Awesome comeback. Bubbles to you LoVeRSaMa.

[ultimolu]

Toasty!

[commodore64]

actually, no.

Most articles that talk about american sales have npd or america in the title.

Sorry to break the truth to ya guys...

sizzlin'!

[Too_Hyped]

@commo : no they don't, check the articles.

[Bucky Sligo]

yawn! I'll be impressed as soon as the PS3 is beating the Xbox360 where it matters -> world wide

[devilhunterx]

its already defeating it world wide.

[Bucky Sligo]

proof?

[PimpDaddy]

It's called spreading FUD. Then logging in with multiple accounts to agree with himself and disagree with you. Anyways. It's called a sales spike. Due to certain games. I dont expect the trend to continue. Pretty soon the Wii will be crushing the 360 and PS3 combined in Japan again...

[Too_Hyped]

It was killing the 360 before the september MS desperate price cut worldwide, and now is sells the same. Any ps3 price cut would kill the 360 now.

PS3 sold more than 360 on the same period from launch anyway, so yeah it's already in the first place.

[Bucky Sligo]

Thanks for confirming that there is no proof.

[DJ]

When the PS3 launched in November 2006, Xbox 360 had an 8.5 million unit lead. As of December 2008, Xbox 360's lead has been reduced to 6.6 million units.

27.9 Million Xbox 360s vs 21.3 Million PS3s.

Microsoft's lead was cut to about 5 million units, but the price cut in September 2008 boosted sales towards the end of the year. Either way, PS3's been able to cut down the 360's lead, despite being priced $200 more. Pretty impressive, if you ask me. If it surpasses the 360's install base though, I'll be shocked.

[shawnsl65]

where's your proof buck? or do you consider unit shipped = unit sold? Software profits comes from primary user base count. Are you going to buy 3 street fighter IV for your 3 xbox's? Which would profit the gaming company more?

[JOEdANGEL]

America counts as part of the world no? Has the ps3 surpassed the total sales of xbox360? I don't think so.

[b777conehead]

to pimp daddy wheres your proof to what you say

[commodore64]

*reads article*

ooooh!

they are talking about Japan!
Perhaps that should have been put in the title before it got posted to N4g.

[LTC]

It also beats it in Europe.

[Why dis]

Thats how they roll...

Three Days Grace: Never Too Late...

PM me and I'll tell you which submitters to avoid.

[SL1M DADDY]

This has been done on both sides of the fanboy fence. Too bad both of you fanboy types can't stop this silly bickering.

http://www.n4g.com/industry... - No mention of "NPD" for North American numbers only in that title...

[Bumpmapping]

Sony just begun M$ watch and learn

[ultimolu]

Sony, Sony, Sony...*cheers them on*

[ELite_Ghost]

well... time to announce xbox 1080! :O!

[Shaka2K6]

..

[torreyjs]

lol japan news

whocares since i dont live in that country and other ps3 fanboys have already said sales dontmatter

[Etseix]

if the ps3 keeps like this year.. outselling the other consoles... i just wonder how many consoles will sell at 2010 when final fantasy XIII n Versus arrive o_O'' ( BOTH EXCLUSIVES ON JAPAN ON PS3)
lol like ..
PS3: 12489071298749
Wii: 86.134
Xbox: 30.167

im jk im jk still ps3 will sell A LOT more than any console at that date :P

[ironmonkey]

japanese people are hardcore gamers they expect quality and im sure they've done thier research on the rrod. if they a few bad things on it, they wont buy it. its a strict country and they wont throw money away

[Shnazzyone]

These numbers are totally representative of the worldwide game market. Despite the fact6 that japan is a small nation if a console is doing great there. Then we must immediately assume that worldwide the same trends are taking place. These japan numbers mean the ps3 is now and forever the most successful system of all time. Now with these numbers all the lack of game sales and consoles sales throughout the rest of the world are now null and void. The only numbers in the world that matter is japans. Because they are the equivalent to sales throughout the world. Stand up and cheer because only nations where PS3 has good numbers are the only numbers worth paying attention to.

Post the same numbers 12 times and now ps3 is a huge sucess rather then a system hanging on the crutch of it's last gen console. It's a win for sony fans everywhere... now and forever.

/sarcasm

[infekt]

What happens in Japan, follows in the west. I don't care how patriotic you are, they are way ahead of us in a lot of industries, including gaming consoles.

Second, games sales do not equal quality of games. Remember that. We as gamers are in it for the games. I pay my 60 bucks for pure enjoyment. If it wasn't games, it'd be something else. Sales is that last thing that comes into my head.

[celldomceen1]

better yet post lifetime sales of both systems over the same time so we can see who has sold more hmm. There is no sarcasm needed for that one now is there.

[boss_killa]

good news. i hope it continues. maybe the japanese devs will realize that games can and will sell on the ps3. they just have to make good games.

its crazy to think that the most expensive console is outselling the cheapest.

[boss_killa]

=)

[celldomceen1]

I always thought it was best to compare lifetime sales over the same amount of time. I thought that was the best way to compare sales, guess i was wrong.

[aaronisbla]

i agree with you 100%. The fact that sony was able to sell more units in the same amount of time than MS is amazing , at least to me. Thats the only way people should compare sells instead of looking at a year head start by MS and saying "that 6.6 million lead is awesome".

Both systems are selling decently but im more impressed with the ps3 as far as life to date sells are concerned. All that and it cost more and was able to cut down the lead? color me impressed.

I think a price cut will cut the lead down even more but it might not surpass MS unless they can get some damn good advertising done.

[celldomceen1]

i thought that was the only way you could compare things. That way just makes more sense.

[Campy da Camper]

I have this grey looking square thingy that has a tray that pops out when i press on this little circle and I have this black football thingy that sucks dics up when i put them in this little slot. I have found if I hook my tv up to them, I get to play these really sweet looking games. Couldn't really say which thingy I prefer. They both do cool stuff and I keep spending all my money on these dics things to feed them...all lot.

[earwax]

Really? ONLY the largest video game market in the world and the largest in Europe will be the ONLY ones who want the 360? hahahahahaha what a tool. PS show numbers that Canada is going PS3......what a zero! get hit in the head by a Hockey puck?

[infekt]

Nobody cares dim-wit. "Get hit in the head by a Hockey Puck?" Erm. Did you fall out of your cousin's a$$?