PlayStation 2 Beats PlayStation 3 Sales in Japan

The Sony PlayStation 2 sold 20,995 units while the PlayStation 3 sold 19,996 units from Jan. 22 to 28, according to numbers from Media Create. This marks the first time that the PS2 outsold the PS3, though the PS3 has only been available for a couple of months.

The digital entertainment analyst uses the sales data from 3,000 stores to estimate nationwide sales of all Japanese retailers. Sony plans on shipping more than 6 million PlayStation 3 game consoles worldwide before April.

The PlayStation 2 offers a lower price tag, more variety in video games, and higher availability to consumers, which contributed why it was able to sell more units than the PS3. The Nintendo Wii sold 83,000 units in the same time frame -- the Microsoft Xbox 360 sold 7,365 models. Analysts still believe the PS3's superior technology over its competitors will make it the viable console in the long-run.

Reports claim Sony's games divison could see losses as high as $2.57 billion USD for its fiscal year, which ends in March.

“Gears of War” Juggernaut Continues With More Than 3 Million Units Sold

Gears of War®” has gone triple platinum, reaching the 3 million-units-sold milestone in just 10 weeks on store shelves, ending 2006 as the top-selling game among all platforms during the month of December.

Expanding upon its reign as the fastest-selling title of 2006 and the fastest-selling original exclusive Xbox® game of all time, “Gears of War” has captivated gamers across the globe with its action-packed single-player campaign.

“Like blockbuster titles from Microsoft's ‘Halo®’ franchise and the ‘Grand Theft Auto’ and ‘Zelda’ franchises, ‘Gears of War’ is tracking to be one of the best-selling video games of all time and has established itself as the most successful new IP of the next generation,” said Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of Global Marketing, Interactive Entertainment Business Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft Corp.”

“Gears of War” continues to wow consumers and critics alike, garnering more than 20 nominations for game of the year. The game is a truly global phenomenon: prestigious Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu recently gave “Gears of War” the coveted Platinum award; “Gears of War” joins “Blue Dragon” as the second Microsoft Game Studios title in the past two months to receive this high honor.

Not just a gaming sensation, the acclaimed “Gears of War: Mad World” cinematic trailer was featured in Advertising Age’s Book of Tens as one of the top creative concepts of 2006. With more than 2.4 million views of the trailer online, the campaign has inspired not only tremendous sales, but also a number of hilarious parody videos currently circulating around the Internet.

5 Reasons Why the PS3 Isn’t Selling

Families want to play together.

All my friends have a 360.

Nobody cares about Blu-ray.

PS2 is too strong.

$600 for a DVD player?


Read the details behind the thinking here...

Next Generation Gaming Wars

So which gaming console will be the dominant one when the FIFA World Cup comes to South Africa? A website is asking for your opinion AND is showing which console is being sold the most. NextGen Wars is tracking, real-time, the sales of the Wii, the Xbox 360 and the PS3. So far, the XBox is way in the lead with sales but more than half of the votes for the winner are going to the Wii. Put up your vote and see the sales at NextGen Wars.

Wii- No. 1, PS3- No. 2, Xbox 360- No.3 in Pre-Christmas Sales

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.