Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Can We Panic Now?

Those who have insisted all along that Sony's PS3 was an unstoppable juggernaut (I'm looking at you, S.B.) have maintaned that Japan was the Sony's Alamo, a territory where their advantage would be so complete that it would make up for flagging sales elsewhere. Well, it's the Alamo all right:


Enterbrain's Hirokazu Hamamura has predicted a price cut for

PlayStation 3 after new figures revealed that the console is being outsold by both Nintendo Wii and PS2 in Japan. According to Media Create, more than 80,000 Wii units were sold in the territory between January 22 and 28. During the same period Sony sold 21,000 PS2 consoles and 20,000 PS3s. Just 7000 Xbox 360 units were shifted as Microsoft continues

its struggle to secure a foothold in the Japanese market.

Wii sales for the entire month of January stood at 400,000 units, while 150,000 PlayStation 3 consoles were sold.

The PS3 launched in Japan on November 11, followed by the Wii on December 2. Since then Sony has sold 614,000 consoles while Wii sales have topped 1.4 million.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The advertising campaign for Wii has been very well done. Even the small panic caused by reports (enemy fire really) that the control thingy couldn't take the vigorous movement as depicted in some of the original ads was deftly overcome. On a deeper level Wii appeals to a long held Japanese sense of sociability and fun. Think Karaoke. Sony's stuff is almost always, on the other hand, darker, more lonely. Anti-social. Think Walkman. Nintendo is a Kyoto company. This is Heian versus the post-moderns. The battle for Japan's soul continues. Go Nintendo!!

Tokumei