PlayStation 3 and Wii have enjoyed the biggest sales last week end in Japan since their launch in November, due to heavy stocks provided by their respective manufacturers.
According to figures from Media Create Co. Ltd, Nintendo’s Wii was the best-selling gaming console for the week 10-17 December, at 108,237 units. The console was previously known by its project code name of Revolution, and is the successor to the Nintendo GameCube. Although Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3, as part of the seventh generation of gaming consoles it competes with the other two on some levels.
The retail market data provider ranked Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s PlayStation 3 in second place among consoles at 70,942 units and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 in third at 17,168 units. The PlayStation 3 is Sony's seventh generation era video game console, third in the PlayStation series. It is the successor to PlayStation and PlayStation 2 and competes primarily against Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii. According to Media Create, 81,639 PS3 systems were sold in the 24-hours of its introduction in Japan. The production cost is estimated to be US$805.85 for the 20GB model and US$840.35 for the 60GB model, so Sony loses a lot of money with every piece of PS3 sold.
The figures mean both the new consoles recorded their best week of sales in Japan in the pre-Christmas shopping season, with the exception of the launch weeks.
Among software sales games for the Wii easily outranked those for the PlayStation 3. Two games, "Wii Sports" and "Pokemon Battle Revolution" made it into the top-ten with sales of 69,923 units and 67,607 units, respectively, for the week. The best-selling PlayStation 3 title was ranked at number 35 in the chart, which is dominated by games for the Nintendo DS handheld and PlayStation 2.
Microsoft's Xbox 360 saw sales drop during the week but they were still relatively good for the year-old machine. During the week, sales of the machine totaled 17,168, Media Create said. That's about half the amount sold the week earlier but well above sales recorded in November. Over 35,000 Xbox 360 consoles were sold in the week from Dec. 4 to 10 thanks to the launch of the Blue Dragon video game.
The game was created by a famous Japanese games developer and had been eagerly awaited in Japan. To push sales of the console Microsoft created a special edition with Blue Dragon face plate and copy of the game bundled with the core edition console for the same price as the console usually sells.
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