Wii outsells PS3 4 to 1 in Japan

Nintendo´s Wii console has outsold the PlayStation3 by a margin of almost four to one in the four weeks leading up to February 24th.

Japanese publisher Enterbrain released the following figures today, Reuters reports (via Yahoo News).

Wii: 331.627

PlayStation3: 89.131

Xbox360: 14.079

Of course, the Wii´s current lead is partly due to some key software releases, but Reuters see an underlying trend nevertheless.

The Wii's lead on the PS3 appears to be widening: In January, Nintendo's game console outsold Sony's by almost 3-to-1.

Nintendo's own "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" for the Wii became the best-selling software for the month in Japan, with 1.33 million units sold, followed by the "Wii Fit" home fitness game, which sold 309,311 units in the four weeks, Enterbrain said.

Last month in North America the PS3 almost caught up with Wii sales. Overall figures, though, (as estimated by both NexGen Wars and VGChartz) still clearly suggest the Wii as market leader worldwide with an advantage of three to four million units on the Xbox360 and roughly twice as many consoles as the PS3.

Source: Reuters (via Yahoo News)

Phil Harrison quits Sony

Phil Harrison, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, is leaving the corporation, a press release confirmed yesterday. SCEI president Kaz Hirai will assume his responsibilities.

Harrison had been with Sony since 1992 and saw the launch of the original PlayStation, as well as its division, Sony Computer Entertainment. He is the latest in a series of high-profile departures and restructuring measures.

In September, SCEA´s PR director called it quits. And who could forget ´Krazy´ Ken Kutaragi´s departure last April? In September 2006, Sony had reshuffled SCEI management and promoted Kutaragi away from daily business.




Harrison may not have had much reason to leave voluntarily, since PS3 sales are finally picking up. So was he perhaps fired?

Let us not forget that Harrison´s public track record was stained. In December 2006, Harrison said that the PlayStation3 is so powerful that "nobody will ever use 100 percent of its capability."

In August 2005, he criticized Microsoft for bringing two Xbox360 models to market, saying: "I think it just confuses the audience. They don't know which one to buy, developers don't know which one to create for, and retailers don't know which one to stock. (...) I think we wouldn't take that strategy."

So Sony Japan may have had some reason to get rid of Harrison. And only days ago, Harrison supplied them with another reason:

I have been banging the drum about social gaming for a long time, with SingStar, EyeToy and Buzz. (...) And our Japanese colleagues said that there is no such thing as social gaming in Japan – people do not play games on the same sofa together in each other's homes. It will never happen. And then out comes the Wii.

Source: SCEI
Thanks to: Joystiq

Games Convention to relocate in 2009

The German ´Games Convention´, Europe´s largest computer and videogame expo, will relocate to Cologne. This August, the event will be held in Leipzig for the last time.

The event will be renamed to ´GAMESCom´, the German industry organization, the Bundesverband Interaktive Unterhaltungssoftware e.V. (BIU), confirmed in a press release today. The most likely reason for the new name is that the Leipzig expo company holds all the rights to the current name and logo.

The Cologne expo company, Koelnmesse, also issued a press release:

The decision on the new location of the leading trade fair in the interactive entertainment industry has been made. As of 2009, the new central sector platform GAMESCom will be held at the Cologne exhibition center. This was announced by Olaf Wolters, Executive Director of the Federal Association of Interactive Entertainment Software (BIU), and Oliver P. Kuhrt, Executive Vice President of Koelnmesse GmbH, today at a press conference in Berlin.

“We are hugely looking forward to staging the leading trade fair in the games industry at the Cologne exhibition center in future. It is our objective to establish the sector platform in cooperation with the BIU as a top European event“, explained Kuhrt. GAMESCom will take place for the first time at the Koelnmesse’s exhibition center from September 9 to 13, 2009, and subsequently on an annual basis.

Just to give you some idea of why the fair is to relocate: Like the American equivalent, the ESA, the BIU is composed of all the big industry players. Electronic Arts, still the world´s largest publisher, is likely to have been the driving force behind this change, since EA Germany is based in Cologne.

A contract between the BIU and the Leipzig expo company ends this year. So, as of 2009, the BIU will refuse to cooperate with the Games Convention in Leipzig and, instead, pledge its support to the Cologne-based GAMESCom.

Avid readers of this blog will not be surprised by today´s news. I exclusively revealed that the show was to relocate to either Frankfurt or Cologne last July. In fact, the fair was supposed to relocate already in 2008.

Sources: BIU, Koelnmesse
Thanks to: F.A.Z. (German)