Reuters: PlayStation 3 catching up to Wii in Japan; Us: not really

While elsewhere in the world, the Wii has little trouble outpacing its competition – with nearly 25 million units sold worldwide, nearly double the PS3's 13 million and a solid 25% lead on the Xbox 360's 20 million in sales – in Japan, it's a two console race (sorry, Xbox). In a piece headlined "Sony PS3 catching up to Wii in Japanese sales," Reuters' Tokyo branch covers the horse race, writing that the Wii "once again outsold Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 in Japan in June, but its lead is fading." While technically accurate if referring to monthly sales – the Wii only outsold the PS3 by a margin of 1.7 to 1 last month, a dip from the 6 to 1 margin of the previous month – the bigger picture isn't so clear.

So, spurred on by sales of Metal Gear Solid 4, the PS3 did better last month, okay (you already know that, of course, from reading our Japanese hardware sales series). But with nearly 6 million Wii units sold in Japan, versus just 2 million PlayStation 3 units sold (source: Wii, PS3), it looks to us like the PlayStation 3 still has a lot of "catching up" to do and no more Metal Gear Solids.

Reader Comments (65)

Closing the gap would insinuate that it is lowering the lead the Wii has on it, when in fact the Wii still outsold the PS3 even during the release of one of its biggest titles to date. Lets see how well the PS3 fair this month, with no AAA title.

Well when everyone in Japan already owns 2-3 Wii's, it's no surprise that another system would start gaining ground at some point.

?

I think you mean 2-3 DS'.

The one thing I blame the most for Sony's and Microsoft not selling too well is their marketing.

I've seen maybe a ratio of 4:1 in terms of wii commercials compared to 360 and PS3. And when sonys ads were weird as hell and sucked major a$$ that you would think a 8yr old that is mentally unstable directed them.

They need to hire some REAL professional ad agencies and fire out some crazy and actually hot commercials to fuel a gamers appetite man. I hate companies that have retarded departments or ceos that sit on their ass not knowing how to do better in their business when its staring them right in their freaking face....

man. the PS3 can't win for Sony trying. the media has done a thorough job of painting the picture of the PS3 failing miserably in the US (despite it having outsold its nearest competitor by a fair margin so far this year), yet they seldom publicizes worldwide sales, and they give little reckoning of 360's numbers in Japan. on a per ratio basis, PS3 outsells 360 as much as Wii outsells PS3 in Japan. when you consider the latter three points, you get a surprising picture; that the PS3 is actually selling better than its nearest competition, which is hardly a miserable feat.

now, the quality of software is a different story, and as far as thats concerned determining which console is better becomes a subjective matter of preference. but by raw numbers, PS3 isn't doing as bad as the media paints it.

Sony has pretty much lost with the PS3 this generation in USA and Japan. The Wii has just creamed it. In USA it is getting killed by 360. 5m compared to 12m. Is Sony realisticly going to be able to make up that 7m difference within say the next 5 years? Not until it starts getting clear distance in the monthly sales and right now the PS3 sells about 10k max more a month then the 360. 10k a month times 12 months = 120k a year. You don't have to be good at maths to realise it will take a long long long time for Sony to claw back into the contest with those numbers.

The one good thing for Sony is europe. Excluding UK the PS3 has done ok compared to 360 but in UK 360 has it. So i think whoever said PS3 was catching up to the Wii was probably smoking on the Sony pipe. That is a pretty awful news piece.

times are getting rough for the most of us,
keep your money closer to home. And with the Trash thats on TV now adays theres is no reason video games are booming.

MGS4 and Monster Hunter ads have been all over the place in Tokyo for the last few months... Sony is definitely cranking out the marketing cash!

Nintendo's ads are around too, but they tend to come in much briefer batches. Interestingly, the last 3 nintendo ads I've seen have featured an Old Man, A Middle Aged mother, and a number of middle aged comedians. They are definitely aimed at a different market.
(the MGS4 ad, as far as i can make out, features a lot of girlfriends getting annoyed at 18-21 year old buys for ignoring them and playing MGS4).

PSPs really taken off since monster hunter tho...

If MGS4 cant sell the ps3, what can?..

Sony should just cut there loss and go third party.. Start making games for the 360 or wii.

if you think thank ps3 sales didn't increase by a huge ratio (worldwide) w/ the release of mgs4, then you probably have a severely underdeveloped brain. look at the numbers.

oh and by the way, 3-4 week sales bump in consoles is expected. if you're expecting console sales to maintain a high rate for 2-3 months after a games release, again...you have a couple marbles missing

So which game is giving the Wii its permanent "bump"? Whats helping the Wii keep "a high rate for 2-3 months after a games release" or years it seems?

Hey sony did thier best, they took a shot at the market, overshot it and now should just cut their losses and go third party, or make toasters, everyone likes toasters. Its for the best.

again...you have a deeply flawed arguement. Its one thing to say that you're console has had a bump due to software, but its another thing to say that you're console sales the same amount regardless of the season, the month, or even what games are released currently. That is the situation the wii is currently in. The thing is, as far as a software attachment ratio standpoint (which is VERY important), the wii is hands down the worst out of all three.

How many people do u know that actually have a wii have a library of games, or even anything other than wii sports. The overwhelmingly majority of the people that are buying wiis get it, play wii fit w/e their friends for weeks on end. Then put it away for weeks on end again. Then when something like wii fit comes out, they get that, play w/ it a bit...but do not get any other titles. Even though nintendo makes a boat load of money on the wii...this is one of the reasons you dont find a lot of games that come out on ps360 ported over to the wii. From a developers standpoint, if people just stick to the shovelware that came w/ the system, whats the point of putting out a game if not that many people are going to buy it...even if there are over 20 million consoles sold already.

i dont care about your anti sony/anti ps3 bias. just look at the attachment rate numbers, and how many games are out for the wii that are getting 8/10+ ratings. then check out how many of them dont have zelda, metroid, or mario in the title. nuff said

My argument is flawless SimbaDogg FLAWLESS, you know this! Thats why you resort to using straw men and talking points like a political pundit.

First off, attach ratio? Who cares about attach ratio? Nobody was talking about attach ratio during the ps2/gc/xbox generation or any of the others for that matter, why do people care now?

Microsoft started to yammer on and on about it when they started to realize that yes they are competing with the Wii and no they are not doing a good job of it.

The exact same thing Sony is trying to pull with thier 10 year life cycle, and Nintendo did during the N64 years with its "Dream Team" crap. Its all pr bull shit.

Besides doesn't the Wii have the second best attach ratio out of the current consoles anyway, ahead of Sony? Not that it matters.

Every person I know who owns a wii (and theres a lot of them) has a library of games for it, contrast that with the one person I know who bought a PS3 who only bothered to buy one game and you see how useful anecdotal evidence is, and a lot of your "wii games arnt selling" argument is based off anecdotal evidence.

Its hard to argue with anecdotal evidence SimbaDogg.

You seem really confused by why the Wii is doing so well and why the PS3 has failed to live up to everybody's expectations, but take comfort in the fact that you are in the majority.

Just wanna say the Wii looks like it has a good future ahead of it.

The Conduit
Monster Hunter 3
FFCC(Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles)
New Franchise Staples(Mario,Yoshi,Paper Mario,Kirby,Zelda and the rest)

lol @ the Sony fanbois bawwin'

Reuters: PlayStation 3 catching up to Wii in Japan; Us: not really

Reader Comments (65)

Posted: Jul 3rd 2008 12:28PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 3rd 2008 11:10AM FredFredrickson said

Posted: Jul 3rd 2008 12:02PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 3rd 2008 11:21AM puerrican85 said

Posted: Jul 3rd 2008 12:32PM atrimus said

Posted: Jul 3rd 2008 1:12PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 3rd 2008 1:13PM juju187 said

Posted: Jul 3rd 2008 1:20PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 3rd 2008 2:05PM TwEE said

Posted: Jul 4th 2008 1:21AM simbadogg said

Posted: Jul 4th 2008 3:09AM TwEE said

Posted: Jul 4th 2008 6:20AM simbadogg said

Posted: Jul 4th 2008 6:34PM TwEE said

Posted: Jul 3rd 2008 6:53PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 5th 2008 3:55PM xGearSecondx said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Silver Lining: I Am Alive's unfeeling world

Game Of Thrones and the paradoxes of adaptation

Super Joystiq Podcast 004: 38 Studios meltdown, Gravity Rush, Civilization 5: Gods & Kings, Dragon's Dogma

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW