Saturday, June 23, 2007

Xbox360 closing in on PS3 in Japan



The Xbox360 has come within 2.000 units of the PlayStation3 in terms of weekly hardware sales in Japan. This is owing to both the phenomenal success of Namco´s ´Eternal Sonata´ for the Microsoft console (selling 49.334 units last week), as well as the failure of the PS3´s ´Ninja Gaiden Sigma´ to top that (the game selling 46.307).

Here are the hardware sales figures for the three big consoles. All numbers are courtesy of Media Create.

Wii: 65.521
PS3: 9.481
Xbox 360: 7.583


First of all, I apologize for the lack of updates recently. I was on holiday for a couple of weeks.

The news in hand is, of course, a momentary blip in the sales figures, spurred by the release of a single game and the fact that Sony is considering a price drop (which would cause wiser buyers to hold off on that purchase).

However, this must nevertheless be seen as more bad news for Sony. Investors and studios alike will see the Xbox360 closing the gap so significantly in Japan as another landmark in Sony´s fall from grace.

Source: Media Create
Thanks to: Joystiq

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey hope your vacation went well. I haven't checked the blog in a few weeks, and I was wondering whether you ever posted that music video you were working on for so long. I really would like to see it.

Metaldave said...

Wow, welcome back stranger.

Unknown said...

Wow, looks like you got some really nice vacation!

Welcome back, just in time to fill us with E3 goodnes right??

Anonymous said...

Excellent news, Welcome Back! :)

Anonymous said...

oooh noo and I was positive that you had thrown in the towel once and for all after suffering reams of defeats against IALS..meeeh..the die hard stubborn Falafelmän won't give up..

ladies and gentlerman welcome to the next episode of:

"Falafel's Sony trauma rehabilitation show"

;)))))


-IALS

RGB said...

Yes check out my last comment on the previous news listing in relation to this news.

Sony are not travelling well at all. They better pick up because I dont want it to be just Nintendo and MS in 5 years time.

Plus I like what Sony have to offer but mainly software wise, I think they have a decent selection of 2nd parties and their 1st party software is good (although they do copy a bit).

Anonymous said...

is that the best update you can muster shiiiiiiiiii

why not a artical on the fact nintendo now revals sony on the stock market THATS GREAT NEWS AS A TWIDLE MY THUMBS THINKING TOLD U SO SONY FANBOYS

RGB said...

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=166192

Anonymous said...

EGM #218, August 2007: - Sony will repackage the PS2 to compete with the Wii by including a waggle-wand (their wording, not mine) for $99 this holiday season. (Rumor)

J_Sheridan :-\

Anonymous said...

I just got to say that I have been with this blog from the beginning and I am sick of it. It is supposed to be about speculation about the Wii, instead you post every single negative fact about Sony. Oh wait, according to you that has to do with the Wii. And then you try to get people back to your blog by talking about interviews for a few months that when they finally show up they are about four lines look like an eight year old just quickly typed them. For shame Fal, I remember the days when you came up with ideas about displacement mapping that were actually interesting. Now all we get is a 15 part serise about why Metal Gear is going to be on the XBOX 360. Now I sure your going to make up some story about how I’m wrong and your right and that everything you write about relates to Nintendo and your girlfriends finds all these comments funny, but whatever. I certainly don’t care.

Anonymous said...

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huhuhuhuhuhuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu


best comment ever--hit the nail on the head!!

finally someone with brains in here.....don't bother..apparently, this is falafels personal sony trauma rehabilitation center....

Ken Kutaragi molested him when he was younger....you know he did bad things to him...falafel was his inspiration for eye toy....


****waits for grandmaster biiaaaaatch to step up and defeat his flafel queen as always******

you funny guys ;))))

I'm lovin it....keep it up

best wishes...the voice of reality you NIntendo servants love to hate :

extra special greets to mrs. falafel for having so much patience...I feel your pain mrs.falafel...you shall find peace eventually

;)

geeeeeeeil.....was fürn geiler tag


:)))
-IALS

Anonymous said...

zerorules44s hits the nail on the head....I couldn't have said it better..I couldn't agree more with him..I bet you even Mr Falafel couldn't agree more, privily...it just sums falafels behaviour up perfectly...


-IALS

Falafelkid said...

zerorules44.

It is supposed to be about speculation about the Wii, instead you post every single negative fact about Sony. Oh wait, according to you that has to do with the Wii.

Fact 1: There are only two hard indicators of how profitable it is to develop a game for a certain console platform. Sales figures and data is one, tie ratio is the other.

Fact 2: These indicators are the only major basis for publishers to allocate resources to each one of the three consoles.

If you don´t follow this logic and don´t see how this is relevant to Wii (just check the the link Grandmaster posted), then you don´t know much about videogames or don´t really care about the industry. Either way, please feel free to leave this blog.

As far as Sony-bashing is concerned (which you accuse me of), it´s not my fault that the PlayStation3 has had an abysmal start and is not moving units. But I am not going to pretend this isn´t the case only for your benefit. Also, you might want to accuse other media outlets of Sony-bashing.

And then you try to get people back to your blog by talking about interviews for a few months that when they finally show up they are about four lines look like an eight year old just quickly typed them.

I really think you must have me confused with someone else. What the hell are you talking about there?

Anonymous said...

@ zerorules44

"For shame Fal"??? What are you talking about, Falafelkid talks about Nintendo and how the industry effects Nintendo's business! This is an important factor to look at within this industry. If you! want Nintendo-only news, then am afraid your in the wrong place...

But heres some news for you zerorules44, Sony's and MS failures within this industry is Nintendo's gain!!! A fact that I believe will be more aparent at the newly revised E3! Nintendo is once again is on-top of the entire industry which means Nintendo is forcing a change. A change to be creative once again!!! This has to be the most exciting era in gaming since the N64 generation!

Anonymous said...

I’m a little confused by your interpretation of the Japanese sales chart. The PS3 sold more software and hardware then the 360 during the week yet you draw the conclusion that it is some sort of failure for Sony. (Granted the sales gap is much smaller but they but they still don’t give the gold for a close second. )

Also; publishers use quarterly sales reports for their software tie ratio and sales figures, not weekly snap shots. Then again if Microsoft can actually surpass PS3 in software/hardware sales for an extended period of time this could draw Japanese developers that have been avoiding the 360 to develop for the platform. (I’m looking at you Squar-Enix)

If anything this just shows how much the Nintendo DS dominates in Japan; considering DS observation training held the number one position during its third week.

Let me also note that I feel this whole argument is mute considering the only real winner in the console race in Japan is the Nintendo Wii which sales triple that of the 360 and PS3 combined.

This is all just my opinion I could be wrong…

Blizz419 said...

wow IALS is still at it, i think him and zerorules44 are just upset that there console of choice the PS3 has been doing horrible and nobody wants to waste $600 on that POS.


@ Some Guy it's very easy to understand Falafel's point the Xbox and Xbox 360 have always done horribly in Japan and Sony historically has always been extremely successful with the Playstations in Japan so for the 360 to have "almost" caught up to sales of the PS3 is a bad sign for Sony and a good Sign for microsoft if you can't understand that logic then you need to go backto like 1st grade and keep your comments of the internet cuz your just making a fool of yourself.

Anonymous said...

Hi Doug,

Thanks for the response; not to mention the personal attacks and name calling.

As I read through the grammatically challenged run-on sentence of a reply you posted; it has become apparent that you did not even read my entire post or more likely understand it. I was not questioning the logic of regional popularity of a particular platform but merely the conclusion that it reached. Long term quarterly sales are the proven methodology to determine whether a platform (360 in this case) is worth the investment of publishing software on. Using a snapshot of a weekly sales chart is an extremely poor methodology to use when determining to make such an investment.

Now if you actually read/comprehended my first post you would have known that I personally would like to see Japanese publishers (namely Squar-Enix) give 360 a chance and in doing so would dramatically increase sales of the consol in that region.

Well, that’s all I really wanted to point out in this post.

Don’t worry Doug, I will not reply to anymore of your flam bait; due to the fact it would not be fair to Falafekid to populate his professional blog with your personal attacks. I may disagree with him on this particular issue but I still respect him as a gaming journalist.

Take care

Blizz419 said...

whatever some guy i understood exactly were falafel was going with that post and so didnt most people and i dont know what was up with that post showing up as Doug it should of said Blizz419 but this google blogspot merge thing mixed it all up

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