AfterDawn: News

PS3 outsells Wii in Japan for first time in 16 months

According to the latest figures by Enterbrain, the Sony PlayStation 3 has outsold the Nintendo Wii in Japan for the month of March, marking the first time in 16 months that the Wii isn't the top seller in the region.

Most analysts say the spike in sales for the PS3 can be attributed to the the games Ryu Ga Gotoku 3 and Resident Evil 5 which both sold very well for the console.



Sony sold 146,948 units for the month, compared to 99,335 Wii consoles.

Many believe the numbers will be back to "normal" next month however. "PS3 hardware sales picked up due to brisk-selling software. But I don't see any drastic change in the industry landscape," added Okasan Securities analyst Masashi Morita.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 7 Apr 2009 11:31

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• 11 comments

• xblade132

  Awesome. =)

  7.4.2009 11:39 #1

• Stu_dent

  I heard it had been top for February AND March and was also due to the title Yakuza 3 which sold 500,000+ copies!

  7.4.2009 11:44 #2

• nervuli

  Oh Whoopie Doo

  7.4.2009 14:00 #3

• kikzm33z

  Very nice, didn't see it coming.
  
  Well done I guess.

  7.4.2009 15:39 #4

• Oner

  Probably a slight ramp up due to the upcoming release of FF Advent Children that includes a demo for FF13. Question is ~ will it sustain? Probably not......but on the other hand there's really nothing in the near future of real interest on the Wii or 360 (in Japan especially). Just more shovelware for the Wii and no new JRPG's (that I am aware of) that might help the 360 over there.
  

  
  
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  7.4.2009 17:10 #5

• imnomyth

  I had a Wii for almost a year. I really enjoyed it and I don't mean to imply that it's all hype, but people are realizing that the 360 and PS3 are much better systems. I hope sony and ms learns from wii's success, and I also REALLY hope that Nintendo's next system will be every bit as innovative but a lot more powerful and with more memory...and hopefully Mario 64-2!!!!!(Sunshine sucked, and honestly Galaxy was sub-par for Nintendo) Great platform games are a dying breed.

  7.4.2009 17:23 #6

• grkblood

  Originally posted by imnomyth: I had a Wii for almost a year. I really enjoyed it and I don't mean to imply that it's all hype, but people are realizing that the 360 and PS3 are much better systems. I hope sony and ms learns from wii's success, and I also REALLY hope that Nintendo's next system will be every bit as innovative but a lot more powerful and with more memory...and hopefully Mario 64-2!!!!!(Sunshine sucked, and honestly Galaxy was sub-par for Nintendo) Great platform games are a dying breed.
  no they're not, lol. you can only sell so many consoles until you run out of customers to sell to. put that logic to games, if that was the case first week top sellers would remain top sellers. they dont b/c the people that want the games buy them. nobody is going to keep buyign the same game/console when they already own it. especially when the wii is the only console that hasnt had breaking issues.

  7.4.2009 21:33 #7

• imnomyth

  Yes they are, why do you think RE5 didn't go to Wii after RE4's huge success?? BECAUSE WII CAN'T HANDLE THE GRAPHICS ENGINE (I know it's coming later, but with reduced graphic quality). I'm not bashing the wii, I really liked playing it, but after a while I realized my 360 was the only system delivering the games I wanted to play such as halo, re5, a better looking COD, etc. Your point is well taken and I do believe Wii will absolutely dominate system sells at the end of this "system era", but it won't be because it's a "better" system. It's a better marketed system geared towards families, adults and kids alike. I know all of this is just a matter of opinion, but it is mine.

  7.4.2009 23:20 #8

• Oner

  Originally posted by grkblood: no they're not, lol. you can only sell so many consoles until you run out of customers to sell to. put that logic to games, if that was the case first week top sellers would remain top sellers. they dont b/c the people that want the games buy them. nobody is going to keep buyign the same game/console when they already own it. especially when the wii is the only console that hasnt had breaking issues.Exactly. Once you get to a certain point your market penetration/saturation is just about maxed and then people want something else, more or just different. This is even more prevalent when you don't have the top notch titles that your fanbase expects. That is where in house devs/first party game makers comes into play...but that is a different discussion.
  
  As for the Wii and it's failure rate it has the same industry standard percentage for breakage as the PS3. The Wii has the same similar issues with bad lasers, bad software upgrades and even overheating issues. But it's definitely not fool proof.
  
  
  Originally posted by imnomyth: ...I do believe Wii will absolutely dominate system sells at the end of this "system era", but it won't be because it's a "better" system. It's a better marketed system geared towards families, adults and kids alike. I know all of this is just a matter of opinion, but it is mine.It also depends on how long this "era" is and if the "era" coincides with competitors. Example: MS will undoubtedly somehow say they "won" this era if they drop the 360 in a year or two, whereas we all know that title would be for the Wii BUT 2 things come to mind.... What if the Wii stays around for 3-4 more years and additionally what if the PS3 is around for 10 years (as planned) just as the PS2 almost has? Then the overall sales for that gen (or competitors) would go to the PS3.
  
  Does that make it the winner? I don't know, and honestly I don't think it matters really. Because the bottom line is, if Sony's able to profit Billions of dollars at the end of the day (gen/era whatever) then they probably don't care if they come in first, second or third. just that they have a "dominant" hold on our living rooms.
  
  Lastly, inline with your "but it won't be because it's a "better" system. It's a better marketed system geared towards families, adults and kids alike." comment, I have to also add the price point factor of which the Wii came out at that made a HUGE impact on it's sales & dominance.
  

  
  
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  8.4.2009 08:58 #9

• emugamer

  The whole "era" thing is messy IMO. Personally, I believe that you can't have a new era or gen until at least 2 consoles are competing. Otherwise it's just a niche. One scenario may be MS drops the 360 after 5 years and brings us a new, more powerful console while Sony keeps the PS3 going for another 5-6 years and Nintendo introduces a new console that is up to par with the PS3 to grab some of the market share from Sony (and that MS dropped) for the remaining 5-6 years of the PS3 life. I wouldn't consider the new MS console as defining a new gaming era.
  
  Is that even on topic? lol

  8.4.2009 11:58 #10

• Oner

  Originally posted by emugamer: The whole "era" thing is messy IMO. Personally, I believe that you can't have a new era or gen until at least 2 consoles are competing. Otherwise it's just a niche. One scenario may be MS drops the 360 after 5 years and brings us a new, more powerful console while Sony keeps the PS3 going for another 5-6 years and Nintendo introduces a new console that is up to par with the PS3 to grab some of the market share from Sony (and that MS dropped) for the remaining 5-6 years of the PS3 life. I wouldn't consider the new MS console as defining a new gaming era.
  
  Is that even on topic? lolI definitely agree in your explanation/assessment (especially since yours a clearer description to my convoluted post of the same thing :) lol).
  
  And don't worry so much about being off the topic, since we are all still talking in a general sense of a console nature. To be more specific ~ when you talk about sales of PS3, Wii or the 360 then the era of which they lie in and the way the competition affects certain & other factors are well within the boundaries for being "on topic" in this kind of discussion. It's when you start talking about baseball or something like that of which is totally unrelated to the subject at hand is when you are really off topic...
  

  
  
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  8.4.2009 14:03 #11