PS3 gains on Wii in Japan

I'm really worried about the Japanese console industry. I've never seen demand for consoles so miniscle before. Usually in Japan the demand for game console is much much higher than 78 or 80,000 units. Most of the time Sony sold about 500,000 PS2's a month in Japan and SEGA sold about 420,00o Saturns a month. I think I see why demand is poor. Japanese gamers want thier old generes back. They want arcade ports,DS games, and RPG and are starting to chaffe on the Wii-mote idea. Before long this famine for console demand will end once Sega releases another console.

Compared to earlier in the year the PS3 has gained considerably and is now relatively close to the Wii in sales. This week they lost 1% to the Wii but that doesnt mean that the past few weeks it hasnt been gaining, the market fluctuates, you cant base things on just one week. Yes the PS3 is gaining on the Wii, if it wasnt then it would still be getting crushed instead of only being a few thousand away from matching sales.

hehehe and so it begins.. and btw zander no1 gives a crap about US its all about the winner of japan, for the console who hold japan...holds the world

WII] Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo) - 130k << LINK REMOVED >> first day sell BOMB << LINK REMOVED >> Wow Z&W at 29. And it did 6k first day

The truth is "Everyone" wants a PS3, its just that its too damn expensive, if it wasnt for the price "which Sony is now lowering", PS3 would be #1 or at least slightly behind WII as #2 "At least until the fever of the WII weakens", which will happen as games demand more power the WII cannot give. Also More games for PS3. which didnt happen for XBOX until 1 year later after publishers got tired of waiting for the WII and PS3 to come out.

To be gaining on the wii, it would have to sell at a faster rate than the wii. i.e. weekly sales greater than the wii's

I really am tired of hearing about this market and its aversion to quality games based on nothing more than country of origin.

Good logic Popadophalis.

The XBox 360 sales in the U.S. is STILL outselling the PS3 in all 3 markets combined. In Europe the PS3 sold like 70,000, in the U.S. it surged to about 40,000 and in Japan it was at 19,000. The XBox 360 sold over 140,000 in the U.S. alone. I can't wait to see next week sales as XBox 360's bundle will have been released. The Wii is going to stay on top for awhile.

Lol Gamespot need to check it's shoddy maths. Lets have a look at at the Wii and PS3 sales over the last 2 weeks. LAST WEEK: PS3-17,130 consoles sold Wii- 24,932 xonsoles sold The difference =7,802 more Wii consoles sold THIS WEEK: PS3- 18,785 consoles sold Wii- 27,502 consoles sold The difference =8,717 more wii consoles sold So as you can see the Wii actually increased it's lead over the PS3 in the past week which is the opposite of this news article.

wow already and it cost more,dam nintendo is in trouble...

Yay, 3,718 360's! Oh wait... that sucks.

Finally, PS2 is slowing down and PS3 is drawing some real sales. We might have a real competition before the year is out.

metc123, Is there a reason you feel compelled to perpetually post on this particular forum? We have all heard your thoughts on this matter. Repetition is not necessary.

Man, the 360 is doing terrible over there. I STILL stand by the system, I just think that when they bring games over here they should be ported to PS3 and 360 as well. I mean it can only benefit the gamers (more great games to play) and more available systems mean more game sales! Regardless, it's a good time to be a gamer! ^_^

Just trying to understand this. So the PS3 sold 17,130 the week before, and 18,785 for the most recent week. Wii sold 24,932 the week before, and 27,502 for the most recent week. That means the PS3 had an increase of 1655 units, which is about 9.66%. Meanwhile the Wii had a 2570 unit increase, which is about 10.30% of an increase. Huh….

You guys may want to check your math/logic on this story. You're saying last week the Wii sold 7,802 more than the PS3, and this week the Wii sold 8,717 more. Not sure how that qualifies for a "PS3 gains on Wii in Japan" headline, since the Wii actually pulled ahead even farther...by your own numbers...

The PS3 and the 360 even, will not catch up with the Wii. My argument is not fan based before any gets mad. The reason for this is that the PS3 and 360 will sell to all us gamers, which is great. That's something like 30 million each by the end of their cycle. The problem is that sales wont go beyond gamers. The PS2 did it. It went beyond gamers and it has the 120 million sales to prove it. The Wii is being bought by gamers, but it is following the PS2 in going beyond that, and selling to everybody else too.

Why does Microsoft make 360s to be sold in Japan again?

People in Japan have to own about 6 of every console out there.

"metc123 @ dragonseer439 Dude..... have you even played Melee? how can you say its not serious?? loool, Were all gamers here, Ive lost friends over that game lol (temporarily) If their a more " SERIOUS" fighting game on the horison, Please please please tel me, and i will drive to where ever it is and buy it!!!" The fact you take a game overly serious does not make the game it's self serious. And the fact you've lost friends over it... hm... well... I've said enough.

DS lite pwns everything anyway. lol..........argument over!!!!

go PS3!

ya the ps3 aint catching up to the wii at all =( if they reallly lowered their price from $399 to say like $250 with a 10gb hd with wireless etc still in then maybe it will catch up to the wii.. And they need to make more games for the ps3 and make some ps1 games free for download i bet ya that get more people to buy a ps3. Which after I get my pc next year I may go ahead and buy a ps3 and hook it up next to my Nintendo Wii hehe.

@enoslives7 I've had the pleasure of reading your comments a number of times and every time, you badmouth the Wii. I have a challenge for you. Make those comments in front of a few Nintendo fans, in person. I have a feeling you wont be quite as brave.

Ok Wii fans, you've convinced me. Super Smash Brothers is a serious fighter. So now where will I be able to get my special edition SSBB arcade stick, so I can pull off those tough mario combos?

I imagine a near perfect world, one where I could buy a console and enjoy it. Perhaps by one or two after that. Then go onto Gamespot and seeing the consoles doing well, not one console doing badly or one sweeping the rest, because every console has flaws, but every console has something that the competition does out. I would like to see sucess on every venue, instead of being so closed minded to only want one level of innovation.

I'm really suprised at the Wii's success, but im really interested at how it will perform during the release of SSBM with the use of a daily updated site having a huge payoff. With plenty of hype and word of mouth by the internet, there is bound to be a huge increase in sales for both the game and console. Nintendo should actually get off its butt and do some more "promotion" for their other games.

I have always had the feeling that Gamespot never liked Nintendo, so it is not surprising for them to put such a blatantly false attack against them in their title.

This title is misleading .... the Ps3 isn't catching up on the Wii .... last week the Wii sold almost 25,000 and the Ps3 around 17,000. This week the Wii sold ~27,500 and the PS3 ~18,700 ... the Wii increased it's total sales compared to last weeks by almost double that of the PS3's ...

I'm surprised people still are interested in the gamecube 2. I tried it once, and the novelty wore off in about 5 minutes. The graphics were laughable also.

PS3 is doing preety good!

go wii and ps3.hey wait a minute whats that way back in the line.3,011 xbox360 well people are starting to realise the truth.

kevy619 Only a matter of time before the ps3 destroys the wii. Time? No, games. PS3 has no heavy hitters for Japan. Once MGS4, GT5, FFXIII and such are released, the PS3 will really get closer to the Wii, but I don't think it will beat it. Maybe for a month, but not in total.

SIKE!!!!!!!

poor 360 in japan, oh well, good for sony since now they're having more sales

Nice.

Only a matter of time before the ps3 destroys the wii.

I like news like this. It's good to see Sony finally getting a break.

@FunKrusher - Super Smash Bros. series has been out eight, going on nine years now

@chelosera91 THE TITLE OF THE ARTICLE DOES NOT MAKE ANY SENSE. The Wii sold 27,052 and the ps3 18,785. Gamespot, let me do the math, 27,052>18,785 >__> what are you, some kind of doofus? when they wrote "gain", it means to increase, close the gap or get closer. It's like when two people are running and then the person behind says, "I'm gaining on him." seriously, learn a bit of vocabulary before you make some pretentious comments.

@fauljosh "I'm surprised that both the Wii and PS3 are being outsold by portables. Seems kind of strange to me." Not really all that surprising when you need to get one console per home, but one portable per gamer.

dragonseer439, Smash is no different. It may not have an arcade background, but Smash is taken just as seriously, if not more so. SmashWiki has a great deal of information in that regard. I'm not saying Street Fighter, Tekken, SC, VF, etc. aren't serious fighters, but I'm not seeing any difference in how serious fighting game players approach them and how Smash is approached. deadkingdg "One thing that is often forgotten is that gameplay is not only about controls, it is also about AI, physics, stabilized online play, number of opponents on screen, number of particles on screen..." It won't matter how many characters can be on screen at once if the game play isn't fundamentally any different than it was 10 years ago. A boring race against 10 other cars isn't any better with 100 other cars. In fact, that added complexity might actually make things even more tedious and convoluted. I for one never liked first person shooters, and no matter how often I give them a chance, I always walk away knowing they're just not my kind of game. No amount of features will change that. I'm not a PC gamer, but I found Resistance and Halo seriously wanting in the control department, however Metroid Prime 3 was incredibly engaging to me. But that's just me. All I'm saying is even with the added advantages of higher graphical prowess, it doesn't necessarily make for a better gameplay experience, not for everyone. Adding more turds to a small pile of turds only makes it stink worse. I'd just like to add that I actually like the PS3 and I intend to get one. I'm just also very glad for Nintendo's success and it's such a good thing that this current generation of consoles features innovation (with the Wii) and enhancement of familiar gaming concepts and features (with the 360/PS3).

The bottom line is that Sony with a year later release date and a price tag of 699.00 for 9 months has sold 5.39 millions PS3, Microsoft with the Halo3 frenzy of the last few months has sold 2.36 times more units with the 360, with a total worldwide sale of 12.74 millions units. Well with just over twice the amount of units sold for the 360 and one year ahead, I don't really think Microsoft has won anything yet. The PS3 is already outselling the 360 in the rest of the world and with the recent price drop and the fact that Blue-ray is only a few months away from winning the High-def war, Sony (by Christmas next year) will have sold more PS3 worldwide than Microsoft with it's console. The Halo 3 fireworks is gone, Microsoft simply won’t have anymore tittles that can push people to buy the 360. I agree that some titles specially the ones from EA have not been that good on the PS3 ( EA only invested time and money where they could sell more) but it's only a question of time before developers master the PS3 kit and really take advantage of the cells processors of the console. With motion sensitive controller, soon dual shock, large capacity blue ray disc, free online playing, and exclusive titles coming on PS3 in 2008 I have no doubts that 360 owners should finish playing Halo 3 and sell their consoles while it's still has some values..................

The title of this story is factually false. The Wii gained on the PS3 this week, yet again. It gained by a lower margin than usual, but it still sold more, and therefore extended it's lead further, not the other way around, which is what the title states.

No, It's not wrong.. This is what happens when people tune into only 1 website. << LINK REMOVED >>

@ Dualmask - I'm a fighting game fan first and foremost, check out my profile and have a look at some of my reviews. To answer your question, "Serious" fighters ALL have an arcade background, and people play them at tournaments at a high level. I've played in Japanese arcades where you still see games like Street Fighter Alpha 3 being played more than 10 years after they came out, and games like this take years of practice to become advanced, and they feature at events like SBO in Japan and EVO in America. I don't think Super Smash brothers will show up at those tournaments any time soon. It has nothing to do with character design, Street Fighter Alpha has no blood and cartoonish characters, but is a SERIOUS fighter that people still learn advanced strategies for.

"metc123 @ deadkingdg...................... Wii output = 480 progressive Sony output upto 1080 p When has power ever Won a Gen??? ps2 was least powerful of last gen 120m in sales, PS3. 5.+ million Wii 13+ million same with NDS and PSP PSP 20 + million, NDS + DS lite 54 million.......... learn your lesson, Software sells hardware..... what have sony done this gen? Upped a resolution and FORCED BLUERAY on customers WoW fantastic...... i'll jus stick with 480p corruption me with unique 1st person controls......!!!! " Apples are stronger than monkeys! See? I too can come up with responses that have NOTHING to do with your post. I talk about gameplay, and you come back agaisnt me with resolution and blu-ray, wow.