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Xbox 360 Outsells Wii In Japan
by David Jenkins
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September 17, 2008
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For the first time ever the Xbox 360 has outsold both the PlayStation 3 and Wii this week in Japan, according to data provided by Famitsu publisher Enterbrain.
Although weekly data from regular chart provider Media Create will not be available until Friday, the Enterbrain figures show an expected sharp rise in Xbox 360 sales following new stock replenishments and a price cut for all models.
Usually languishing in last place behind even the PlayStation 2, Xbox 360 sales spiked in August following the release of Namco Bandai’s role-playing game Tales of Vesperia. Hardware stock was quickly exhausted though and has not been replenished until now.
According to Enterbrain’s figures, as translated by website Andriasang.com, the Xbox 360 sold 28,681 units for the seven days ending September 14th. By comparison the PlayStation 3 sold 8,050 units (a relatively normal figure for the last few weeks) and Wii sales were down to a recent low of 27,057 units.
Xbox 360 sales were also helped by the launch of Square Enix’s role-playing game Infinite Undiscovery, which sold 86,708 units on its debut. However, it was significantly outsold by the release of Pokemon Platinum on Nintendo DS, which managed 967,675 unit sales in just two days. This was the best opening performance ever for a single Nintendo DS game, and is expected to ensure that the hardware is again the best selling of the week.
Nevertheless, the Xbox 360’s triumph is likely to have a long lasting effect on Japanese consumer and retailer confidence in the format, which Enterbrain now calculates to have sold 717,275 units over its lifetime in Japan.
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Seriously, though... I think MS is finally on the right track to gaining a little ground in Japan. While I certainly don't think it's ever going to be a huge success... if they can continue landing Japan-friendly games such as Tales, Infinite Undiscovery, Ace Combat, etc. they'll be able to continue expanding the market there.
Wii looking as good as Xbox360? Jee, I did not know that. Thanks for enlightening me!!
But how about DS? Maybe with tweaking the Antialiasing and the textures and latest graphics technologies, DS will look as good as PS3! Wow, no wonder DS's on fire!
Impossible!
wii can never look as good as xbox 360, unless the team making the 360 game are a bunch of monkeys.
That said, the reason wii is doing so well is innovation, price and fun.
It has also been said, that the average player (non-hard-cor gamer) can't tell the difference between 640-res and 1080p (or doesn't really care) when playing games, as long as its fun. Which seems to have been proved with Wii.
For MS to get a foothold in japan, they need more Japanese developers making japanese games, and a console cheaper than other options. They can jack up the price on the next round of consoles once they have a good rep. Or just face it, they will lose cash selling the console, and make the cash back on hit games.
FF on 360 wouldn't hurt either ;)
Surprise!!
Even on the same console... Tales of Vesperia and Eternal Sonata seem to impress just by its graphics style - despite being technically not as advanced as, say, Gears of War.
I guess people are getting tired of the ever gray-brown HDR soup most "next-gen" games seem to have.