PS3 Outsells Wii in Japan; Dragon Quest IV DS, Winning Eleven 2008 Top Japanese Sales Charts

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A tally of the past four weeks of Japanese hardware sales shows that Sony's PlayStation 3 outsold Nintendo's Wii for the first time, according to magazine publisher and marketing data provider Enterbrain.

The figures, as reported by Reuters, show that the PS3 sold 183,217 units throughout November, whereas the Wii only sold 159,193.

The strong sales of the PlayStation 3 are attributed to this month's releases of Konami's soccer title Winning Eleven 2008 (PS2, PS3, X360) and Omega Force's slash 'em up Dynasty Warriors 6 (PS3). Both series are extremely popular in Japan, and tracking firm Media Create states they were the two best-selling PS3 games between November 19 and 25.

In terms of overall software sales, Winning Eleven 2008 was the third best-selling title of that time, topped only by the PS2 edition of the game and Square Enix's DS remake of Dragon Quest IV. Dynasty Warriors 6, which debuted earlier this month, came in at #13, with only two Wii games--Nintendo's Super Mario Galaxy and Sega's Mario & Sonic at the Olympics--outselling it.

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    November 30, 2007 8:40 AM

    I think eventually the ps3 will become like the ps2 and beat everything.

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      November 30, 2007 8:46 AM

      I doubt it. Wait until NPD posts the US console figures for November -- the Wii is going to nuke the PS3's numbers from orbit. In one week, 350k Wii's were sold in the US alone...

      • Mok legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        November 30, 2007 9:56 AM

        Really?

        1.8m Wii produced per month worldwide, and the US sold 350,000 in 1 week? We know there is a shortage in the US because demand it so high (my parents bought 3, one for my sisters family, one for them when the grandkids visit (and dad loves Wii Sports Bowling), and one for my family). There are many reports of units sitting on shelves in Japan in most stores.

        Do we have those hard numbers about 350,000 in one week sold in the US? Since in Japan they sold just over 159k in a month according to this article.

        But, if 350k per week sold, that's what 1.4m in a month (if you only count a month as 4 weeks) - so that's what, the US is getting 77% of all Wii shipments?

        *note, this math is all based on if only 1.8m Wii's being made per month for planet earth, not just US*

        *note 2, doesn't November end today? Maybe someone will go out and buy a few thousand Wii's today, to get those numbers closer together...... Of course, they could just be saying the first 4 weeks of November, which would be okay I suppose*

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          November 30, 2007 10:03 AM

          The Wii numbers were all over the news during Thanksgiving ( http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=&q=wii+thanksgiving&btnG=Search+News ). And yeah, I was a bit puzzled about those numbers as well, since I knew they only had 1.8m to go around worldwide. Then again, with Thanksgiving being a predominantly American holiday, maybe Nintendo jacked up our allocation so that they could meet the holiday-time demand. And I'd be surprised if those weekly numbers fell much between Thanksgiving and Christmas...

          • Mok legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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            November 30, 2007 12:43 PM

            Yeah, so the only way it was possible would be:
            a) Stores horded/stockpiled Wii's until the week of Thanksgiving (unlikely, because they were going to sell no matter what)
            b) The big "N" was hording them in warehouses waiting to ship to stores? (also unlikely for the same reason)
            c)The big "N" front-load shipments to the US a much greater portion of the 1.8m BECAUSE of the holiday (a much more likely scenario)

            Could be what lead to the rumors of N creating shortages on purpose? Meh, oh well, either way. I have one (or will when Christmas comes around, and really it isn't "mine" it is my kids, but we ALL know how that works... :) )

    • reply
      November 30, 2007 8:53 AM

      Based on what reasoning?

    • reply
      November 30, 2007 9:48 AM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        November 30, 2007 10:07 AM

        Wasn't the PS2 priced at ~$250 at launch, as well? The PS3 has a ways to go before they can get sub-$300...

        • reply
          November 30, 2007 10:46 AM

          [deleted]

          • reply
            November 30, 2007 12:32 PM

            Yeah, that's what I was getting at. I really doubt Sony will be able to halve the MSRP of the PS3 anytime before 2010, and I'm wondering how long this generation of consoles will last, given that there's so much competition now.

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      November 30, 2007 11:47 AM

      I sure as hell hope not and don't see how that would be possible anymore with how awesome Xbox Live is. Plus the Wii is just selling like crazy

    • reply
      November 30, 2007 12:13 PM

      I actually think this it is possible the PS3 will come out on top, but it's not going to enjoy a dominating first this time around. The 2008 line-up is looking really good for the PS3 and this past month in Japan shows that good software will sell PS3 hardware. At the same time nothing much is being shown for the Wii in 2008, though understandably this can change though software sales for the machine have been questionable.

      I also believe the PS3 has been outselling the Xbox 360 worldwide through this month and is expected to continue to do so through the holidays thanks to strong Japanese and European sales on the PS3 side. Regardless, next year will be interesting.

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