justchris

Just to add clarification to a few issues:

Gears of War sold 32,500 units it's first week, which was IT'S ENTIRE SHIPMENT. The reason it's not on the charts this week (or at least one of the reasons) is that there are no more copies available. Not being a style of game that is usually popular in Japan, retailers didn't order that many copies, and they sold out completely.

And it is a fact that even though the PS3 has sold more hardware than the 360, the 360 has sold more software, both in total units sold, and units sold per piece of hardware. The PS3 STILL doesn't have an attach rate of 1:1.

None of this changes the fact that the 360 isn't doing that well in Japan, and at this point is behind the original Xbox for the same time period in it's lifespan. Gears of War sold out, but didn't increase hardware sales for that week, meaning it wasn't a system seller, but it sold well to the hardcore Xbox fans in Japan.

However, the PS3 is still in trouble. How well the 360 does or does not do has no bearing on this. The original Xbox only sold ~500k units in Japan in it's entire lifetime. At no point can 360 sales in Japan be considered relevant to discussing the state of the PS3, unless the PS3 somehow dips below the 360. If that occurs, then you can probably offically declare the PS3 dead. Until then, the PS3 should be discussed in relation to the PS2, GC & Wii.

Interestingly, and entirely separately, not only is the PS3 selling less than the PS2 now, it's selling less than the PS2 did at the same point in it's lifetime. Most of this is probably a direct result of it being more expensive.

@Jounin, actually, Gears sold out. Microsoft pretty much undershipped it (or to be more accurate, retailers understocked it). That pretty much guarantees it won't even be in the top 30 next week, as there aren't enough copies to be sold.

As for VF5, it's debatable whether it will spike hardware at all. It's a pretty big game sales wise (although it's been steadily decreasing for years), but it's never been a system seller. It will sell to everyone who already has a PS3, but I can't see many people dropping the yen for a PS3 and VF5 if they don't already have one.

I still don't know why Joystiq doesn't post the software sales. If they want comments, that would be a good way to do it.

For instance, even though it didn't push 360 hardware, Gears of War is in the top 10 for software sales this past week. There are no PS3 games in the top 50 at all. Excite Truck which also debuted last week, just barely missed out on the top 10.

@Zaius, no, it probably will come here. Rocket Slime didn't sell too well, but if they're bringing over Chocobo & the Magic Picture Book, then I can't see any good reason they'd hold back DQM: Joker.

And there are several 3rd party games that are nearing the million mark, crawling up slowly. FFIII should have been there already, but they severely undershipped it. It will make it before March probably. Same for Love & Berry by Sega (not the severely undershipped part, the million sold in Japan by March part).

Also, I guarantee you DQIX will sell better. The DQM spinoff series has generally only sold about 1/4 - 1/5 as many units as the main DQ series (again, this is in Japan).

I thought everyone already knew about TOSE. No one objects to work being subcontracted to them, because they're a prety awesome dev studio. When a company subcontracts a game to TOSE, it actually increases interest in the title.

First of all, NPD numbers do include Wal-Mart. They do not specifically TRACK Wal-Mart numbers, because Wal-Mart refuses to report to them. Instead they use statistical sampling to account for all orders they do not track specifically. I guarantee you, NPD's numbers are as accurate as you can possibly get, and any discrepancy will be about the same for all consoles.

360 has sold about 8.5 million worldwide, that includes untracked markets, and is based on known numbers and assumptions. 4.5 milliion for US, .5 million for Japan, 3 million for Europe (that's a generous estimation, but we don't get numbers for every European territory) and .5 million for all other territories (which is also an estimation that may or may not be generous).

So, 360 8.5 million, Wii 3.19 million, PS3 1.3 million. Those are sold, not shipped. Shipped should be 360 10.4 million, Wii 4 million, PS3 2 million.

Those of you complaining about a Wii drought, go out and buy Baten Kaitos & Baten Kaitos Origins (GC) RIGHT NOW. Don't argue, don't complain, go buy them and play them. Once you've played/beat them both, you can complain about a drought. If you have not yet played these games, then you are part of the problem and deserve no better than you get.

@Figboy, I completely disagree.

I want Sony to fail. I want Sony to fail HARD. The PS1, piece of crap. The PS2, piece of crap. The PSP, piece of crap. I've yet to get ahold of a PS3, so I can't say, but experience does not encourage me.

SONY DOES MAKE GOOD HARDWARE. AT ALL.

Now, I'll admit, what they did for gaming was good, but they can't make a decent system to save their company. The sooner they give up making hardware, the better off we'll all be. Yes, competition is good, but the only reason no one else will try to enter the market is because it's completely dominated by Sony, Nintendo & Microsoft, there's no room for anyone else. Now, do you really think, if Sony stops making consoles, no one is going to try to pick up the remaining third of a business that produces something in the realm of $20 billion in the US alone?

I don't even care who replaces them, as long as they can make decent hardware.

This doesn't mean I won't buy a PS3 if it has the games I want, because in the end games are what really matter. But that doesn't make me hate Sony hardware any less.

Otherwise, I have nothing against Sony as a company.

Oh, since Joystiq doesn't post software numbers, here are the ones for last week in Japan (same week as these hardware numbers):
1. (DS) Pokemon Diamond 209,379 / 2,329,227
2. (PSP) MGS Portable Ops 178,370
3. (DS) Pokemon Pearl 164,670 / 1,931,445
4. (DS) New SMB 154,107 / 3,771,128
5. (Wii) Wii Sports 152,756 / 471,229
6. (PS2) Mana 4 152,062
7. (DS) Kirby Squeak Squad 149,350 / 706,984
8. (DS) Love & Berry 139,382 / 747,926
9. (Wii) Wii Play 137,495 / 439,323
10. (DS) Jump Ultimate Stars 134,551 / 484,529
11. (PSP) Tales of the World 122,889

(Games without a second number launched that week.)

As of this week's sales, the DS (phat+lite total) has sold about 13.3 million units. There are 127 million people in Japan, so no, not everyone has one.

And actually, the DS has been supply constrained since June. It isn't selling that high because of the upcoming holiday, it's selling that high because that is all that Nintendo has managed to ship for that week. The DS has been pretty much sold out since June.

Also, this chart is for last week, which is not the biggest sales week in Japan. The big holiday in Japan is New Year's, so that means this week's sales (next week's chart) stand to be even bigger (although not for the DS, in fact DS will probably go down as Nintendo has nearly sold out of their entire allocation for the month according to most reports).

Also, if you want to judge the other systems, PSP sold 160k this same week last year. Whereas this is the 3rd highest week the 360 has ever had (right behind launch week and the week Blue Dragon was released) and blows what they did last year out of the water...comparatively speaking. Assuming the PS3 sells whatever it ships, it's sales have been steadily going up every week, so it seems like they were telling the truth about having cleared up their production issues. The Wii is also selling more each succeeding week, but like the PS3 has never sold more a week than it sold the week it launched.

Oh, also, this week last year, the DS sold 601k.