Clearly, both consoles are big in Japan. Mostly because they're huge consoles.
[Via Kotaku]
Big in Japan: Xbox 360 cracks 1 million, PS3 just over 3 million
by David Hinkle 
on Mar 31st 2009 1:49PM
92
Clearly, both consoles are big in Japan. Mostly because they're huge consoles.
[Via Kotaku]
Reader Comments (92)
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 2:06PM (Unverified) said
7.8 million, really? I guess three million isn't so low then. Does anyone know what the largest handheld install base is? I'd assume the DS.
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 8:48PM Birth Canal said
Man, thanks for that pic David freaking Hinkle (never heard of the name Hinkle before...but I like it!). Now I'm going to be dreaming about giant consoles invading my neighborhood.
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 2:08PM spasewalkr said
dude that "grey" 360 looks awesome.
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 2:08PM NutMan said
First of all it hasn't been 4 years yet. Do some math my friend. If it was released in December 2005 then the 4 year mark would be December 2009.
Also, Anyone else notice that the sales here are exactly opposite of the US? As in, 360 is doing better in America and PS3 is doing better in japan. I think the ratio is about the same.
Also, Anyone else notice that the sales here are exactly opposite of the US? As in, 360 is doing better in America and PS3 is doing better in japan. I think the ratio is about the same.
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 5:39PM Korwyn said
if you want to call it the same ratio. don't forget 11 months ahead and how many more exclusive titles the 360 hold. if it's doing equally well, don't you think the 360 is kinda like a loser? think of it as a party, one guy came into a party 1 hours earlier than I did. He is richer and a lot more flashy stuffs including an expensive fancy car when I only have a car and decent bank account. if we get about the same amount of girls home that night, don't you think that I am a bettter looking than he is or at least better in bed? LOL
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Posted: Mar 31st 2009 7:58PM mynk said
Microsoft made those choices as a business to get that lead. you cant just take it as something that happened by circumstance. you have to take into account that sony could have created the same circumstance, but they chose not to.
they're here to make money, not friends.
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they're here to make money, not friends.
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 2:10PM NutMan said
Little fun fact here:
The 360 actually didn't even begin to take off until 2008. In 2008 the 360 passed up the original Xbox's lifetime sales in Japan of 470,000. I wonder if the 360 can have even more or equal success in 2009 and 2010. That'd be cool if it did.
The 360 actually didn't even begin to take off until 2008. In 2008 the 360 passed up the original Xbox's lifetime sales in Japan of 470,000. I wonder if the 360 can have even more or equal success in 2009 and 2010. That'd be cool if it did.
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 2:29PM (Unverified) said
Little fun fact:
360 sales in Japan started to take off after....games that actually catered to the Japanese audience were released...
For them to keep the sales they would have to keep pumping Japanese oriented games, otherwise the sales will go back down rapidly.
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360 sales in Japan started to take off after....games that actually catered to the Japanese audience were released...
For them to keep the sales they would have to keep pumping Japanese oriented games, otherwise the sales will go back down rapidly.
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 9:22PM Laser Sanchez said
Why downvote a guy for speaking truth? Japan didn't buy messes of 360s until last year.
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Posted: Mar 31st 2009 2:18PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said
The Japanese dont trust the 360 yet. They may get better sells with the Xbox 3 in Japan but MS will just have to settler for third there this round. One thing is certain. Japanese products will damn near always sell better than a foreign competitors product in Japan
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 2:18PM Negatron said
Its funny how times change, at one point Japan pretty much had a monopoly when it comes to console gaming*. Nintendo and Sega dominated the market and in turn somewhat molded and shaped our tastes in games.
Game developers in Europe, the US and elsewhere are self sufficient and successful when it comes to some of the newer, well to do IP's. Ubisoft, Lions Head, Epic, EA, 2K (Rockstar), Bungie etc...
With all that said, the Xbox(1) or (360) was never popular in Japan unless they release an RPG of some sort. I say if Sony really wants to ruffle some feathers, don't wait on 3rd party developers but drop some pretty RPG themselves for the fatal blow in JPN.
Game developers in Europe, the US and elsewhere are self sufficient and successful when it comes to some of the newer, well to do IP's. Ubisoft, Lions Head, Epic, EA, 2K (Rockstar), Bungie etc...
With all that said, the Xbox(1) or (360) was never popular in Japan unless they release an RPG of some sort. I say if Sony really wants to ruffle some feathers, don't wait on 3rd party developers but drop some pretty RPG themselves for the fatal blow in JPN.
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 2:33PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said
if I'm not mistaken White Knight Chronicles is doing pretty damn good.
I cant wait till it drops here
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I cant wait till it drops here
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 4:35PM Levi Partridge said
Wow, you're right Chris. It's sold better than MGS4 in it's first two weeks:
http://playstation.joystiq.com/2009/01/12/white-knight-chronicles-sells-more-japanese-ps3s-than-mgs4/
But it also recieved a 29 from Famitsu, which kinda gives me the creeps considering they always review JRPGs higher than 35.
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http://playstation.joystiq.com/2009/01/12/white-knight-chronicles-sells-more-japanese-ps3s-than-mgs4/
But it also recieved a 29 from Famitsu, which kinda gives me the creeps considering they always review JRPGs higher than 35.
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 2:30PM samfish said
Tom Waits is pretty awesome.
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 2:34PM Mr Khan said
Solid stats for both. It at least provides Japanese devs incentive to not abandon them
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 2:50PM (Unverified) said
Any way you spin it, 360 sales didnt match expectations in Japan. And its a failure of the enormously expensive assembly of japan-specific games. Remember how Lost Odyssey would be a FF-killer (at a time when FF13 was not coming to 360 in US), the other MW games, Ace Combat 6, Tales of Vesperia, Star OCean 4 - these are not small titles, each of these should be a system seller.
I suspect the reason is that these titles started landing from late 2007 (unlike the slow but steady trickle of good shooters we saw even in 2006). And by that time, the 360 was well publicised as a dodgy console in terms of quality. I would think that the Japanese arent stupidly nationalistic, but at the same time, they probably associate the US with low-quality junk products, such as cars - and the 360 fit the stereotype perfectly.
I suspect the reason is that these titles started landing from late 2007 (unlike the slow but steady trickle of good shooters we saw even in 2006). And by that time, the 360 was well publicised as a dodgy console in terms of quality. I would think that the Japanese arent stupidly nationalistic, but at the same time, they probably associate the US with low-quality junk products, such as cars - and the 360 fit the stereotype perfectly.
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 3:05PM maxpontiac said
Mr. Hinkle tried to do (spin) just that -- Most articles when featuring sales numbers always put the highest one first. This one? LOL
But hey everyone has a console of choice, right?
Plus, 1 million consoles sold for the 360 in over 3 years is not a good sales number, especially considering the titles you mentioned. For if games can't improve a consoles standing, nothing will.
Take a look at the PS3's numbers. Yes, they are triple that of the 360's in 12 months shorter time, but they are also less then half of the Wii's totals. All this tells me is that the PS3's price is still hindering sales over there as well.
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But hey everyone has a console of choice, right?
Plus, 1 million consoles sold for the 360 in over 3 years is not a good sales number, especially considering the titles you mentioned. For if games can't improve a consoles standing, nothing will.
Take a look at the PS3's numbers. Yes, they are triple that of the 360's in 12 months shorter time, but they are also less then half of the Wii's totals. All this tells me is that the PS3's price is still hindering sales over there as well.
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 3:14PM (Unverified) said
That's a lot, but not Wii worthy figures.
TBH I had no idea the 360 had that many sales. I guess I should stop listening to the anti-360 crowd on blogs huh.
TBH I had no idea the 360 had that many sales. I guess I should stop listening to the anti-360 crowd on blogs huh.
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 3:25PM lookhappy said
Good to know!
Competition is good - will keep everyone on their toes and mean us lowly consumers get better deals. Hopefully anyway
Any news on what Sony's "big anouncement" was today? Or am I jumping the gun a bit?
Competition is good - will keep everyone on their toes and mean us lowly consumers get better deals. Hopefully anyway
Any news on what Sony's "big anouncement" was today? Or am I jumping the gun a bit?
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 3:43PM Danjer047 said
Hey, at least it's doing better than the original Xbox... That's not hard to beat but I'm still proud of the console for its effort!!
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 5:11PM (Unverified) said
Very interesting post, I was reading everything and I liked a lot, Keep it!
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server no steam
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server no steam
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 5:17PM Overgauss said
"Actually the 360 passed the PS3 in Europe last year. The 360 is ahead by over a million units according to the latest available sales data."
@nutman
There's no denying that the xbox374 sold well in America and the UK. There is a vast difference between UK territories and European territories however. So where exactly is the 360 ahead? Europe or the UK? Most numbers indicate a significant ps3 lead in Europe so I'd be happy to see data that shows otherwise.
There may be a correlation between views of Americans and their products in Europe versus views of Americans and their products in say the UK. Our country still has some 'splaining to do. It is possible that this affects xbox sales overseas. Well that and quality control.
@nutman
There's no denying that the xbox374 sold well in America and the UK. There is a vast difference between UK territories and European territories however. So where exactly is the 360 ahead? Europe or the UK? Most numbers indicate a significant ps3 lead in Europe so I'd be happy to see data that shows otherwise.
There may be a correlation between views of Americans and their products in Europe versus views of Americans and their products in say the UK. Our country still has some 'splaining to do. It is possible that this affects xbox sales overseas. Well that and quality control.
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 5:45PM NutMan said
Xbox374? Did you steal that from BligMerk? :P
Oh and here is the article you want: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/xbox-360-leads-ps3-by-1m-in-europe
Unless the PS3 somehow sold over a million more units(and the 360 sold zero) between December 19th and today, the 360 should still be ahead.
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Oh and here is the article you want: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/xbox-360-leads-ps3-by-1m-in-europe
Unless the PS3 somehow sold over a million more units(and the 360 sold zero) between December 19th and today, the 360 should still be ahead.
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 6:17PM Cypher FDP said
Dear lord!
It's at these times I worry about how well Nintendo is doing.
Today, not so much in a positive way.
It's at these times I worry about how well Nintendo is doing.
Today, not so much in a positive way.
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 6:30PM shadowhowl1900 said
kinda the opposite here in US isnt it?
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 6:31PM MaxShrek said
Reading about Japanese sales you would have thought the PS3 sold 10 million and the 360 was fighting to sell 1 million. I'm surprised it's actually only a 2 million difference.
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 7:19PM Boomzilla said
I think MS is claiming 1 million. They referenced a third-party survey to support their claims, but who knows who paid said third-party. This is the most recent article I could find on the subject.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/xbox-360-definitely-leads-ps3-in-europe-says-microsoft
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/xbox-360-definitely-leads-ps3-in-europe-says-microsoft
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 8:41PM NutMan said
So you believe that Microsoft paid someone to make up numbers that show the 360 leading the PS3 in Europe?
Well ok then dude. The fact that Sony specifically said they were ahead in PAL by 300,000 and refused to comment on European numbers says a lot to me. Oh, and that the data of the 360 leading PS3 in europe came from multiple sources.
But hey, go ahead and cling to your video game sales numbers conspiracy theory.
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Well ok then dude. The fact that Sony specifically said they were ahead in PAL by 300,000 and refused to comment on European numbers says a lot to me. Oh, and that the data of the 360 leading PS3 in europe came from multiple sources.
But hey, go ahead and cling to your video game sales numbers conspiracy theory.
Posted: Mar 31st 2009 10:35PM (Unverified) said
I'm big in Japan.
Posted: Apr 1st 2009 10:02AM (Unverified) said
December 2005 to March 2009 is almost 4 years? Cool, I am almost a thousand years old.
Posted: Apr 1st 2009 10:55AM Overgauss said
Thanks nutman that link didn't help though. The info is suspect and doesn't show any real data and directly references numbers from a MS mouthpiece. I'd be happy to see these other sources of info as well.
Btw never heard of Bligmerk. It appears we think along certain similar lines.
Btw never heard of Bligmerk. It appears we think along certain similar lines.
Posted: Apr 1st 2009 10:56AM (Unverified) said
Charles-how much has Sony lost on PS3 and PSP? why are they still in the console market? b/c of their other products that turn a profit
