Japan charts: Xbox 360 catching PS3 Comments by Robert Purchese

I think "Xbox 360 catching PS3" as a headline is a little bit of a stretch ;)

This litle surge must have something to do with Sega Vintage Collection, by looking at Comix Zone and Phantasy Star II leaderboards, most of the dudes are Japanese who only have these "new" games.

Particularly poor week for the PS3. I thought it was picking up steam over there? Seems like quite a dull week for software too - nothing appears to be selling particularly well, given how much they usually do.

Gotta marvel at the staying power of Wii Fit though. It must have made Ninty a fucking fortune.

Both 360 and PS3 are doing really badly. I have said this many times before, but Japan has moved to mobile only. Next gen mobile systems should have a "play-on-TV" mode build in IMHO. That should go down well in Japan.

How the hell is Wii Fit still up there? Is EA Sports Active not out in Japan yet? I agree with Trigger, Wii Fit must have made a ridiculous amount of money by now.

8015 up on 6625 is quite a bit percentage leap for the 360, though. Strange. Still, it is quite obvious that not only is Japan going completely mobile, perhaps due to the long hours and commutes in Japanese everyday life, but that Nintendo has resoundingly won. When the Wii outsells the 360 and PS3 combined, well . . .

I don't think 360 will ever completley grasp the Japanese market, they all seem to be ultra-nationalist consumers when it comes to video games. However I think this is progress and thats something

Well, the PSP2000 onwards have play on TV which is nice. Be good to see if the Go! allows play on TV AND DS3 control method.

"I think "Xbox 360 catching PS3" as a headline is a little bit of a stretch"

For once they're technically right. The 360 improved more than the PS3 dropped. Usually when they say it it's because the higher selling console dropped by a massive amount.

They could certainly do with the qualifier of "in weekly sales" though. :D

Time for next gen yet? ;p

Wii fit is its own console.... awesome :D

With the Japanese market shrinking, it's amazing that they still make so many Japan-only and Japan-centric games.

The UK market has expanded and is now as big as (if not bigger) than the JP market and yet we don't make games just for the UK market. Just an observation.

Still a bit strange though - usually 360 sales spikes in Japan happen when there is a major release, Blue Dragon and Ace Combat being most memorable.

Not sure why the surge this month though, no 360 titles in the charts at all - is this maybe a hang-over from E3 announcements?

Probably got excited about Natal.

Actually, no, probably isn't that.

@woodnotes: UK+Europe+US = Western culture; Japan+"The Golden Triangle" = Asian culture.
Japanese do not make games only for themselfs, you can see many Koreans; Thais; Hong Kong gamers playing that sort of stuff.

Fair point miiiiiiiguel. Although I suppose we don't get sales figures for those countries so it's difficult to guage, but likely a larger market than I thought when you add it all together.

"we don't make games just for the UK market. Just an observation. "

Cricket? Darts? ;)

@ Dizzy:

"Cricket? Darts? ;)"

You might be surprised to learn that EA's Cricket (and Rugby) games are made by HB Studios in... Canada :p

EDIT: Pretty sure by our performance that Cricket is actually bigger in other markets! Darts on the other hand.... I'll give you that one :)

8 9 Wii Fit Wii Fit 9534 3,454,000

When did Wii Fit become its own platform and no longer on the Wii?


@ Stevetuck - great minds... and all that jazz

NATAL is probably the video gaming revolution Japan needs.

aye, I don't rate anything coming out of Japan at the moment, the metal gear games are pants IMO, capcom have disappointed of late (SFIV aside), I'm hoping dead rising 2 bucks the trend.

Judging from the lifetime sales, it doesn't sound too implausible that the Wii will surpass the PSP in total sales in Japan someday.

scratch that, The Last Guardian looks pretty japanese to me and that looks ace.

seems like the usual summer dip in sales to me, as soon as any half decent game comes out it jumps up the charts due to lack of competition.

"who gives a fuck about japan anymore, anyway? Their games are caught in a time warp."

Strangely that's one of the things I love about Japanese games.

Western developers tend to suffer from quite a lot of followmyleaderitis and sometimes cramming the latest craze into games breaks them, whereas you can usually rely on Japanese offerings to provide unusual ideas, uncluttered by what is flavor of the month.

I also quite like the arcade vibe about most Jap games, and the fact they are almost exclusively as mad as an Otter dancing the Charleston.

Apart from that I just love JRPG's and probably wouldn't be able to breathe without them.

A lot of posts are below the viewing threshold wtf is this new feature?

Title means nothing in the grand scheme of things it's more PS3 sales dropping to Xbox 360 levels, rather than the other way round, I didn't realise that the Wii and PS3 sales over the year so far were so close, Japan truly is a handheld nation these days.

Psychotext - "For once they're technically right. The 360 improved more than the PS3 dropped. Usually when they say it it's because the higher selling console dropped by a massive amount."

Erm, no. The PS3's lifetime sales are 3,190,736. It sold 10,009, making a total of 3,200,745. The 360's lifetime sales are 1,046,545, and it sold less than the PS3 this week at 8015, giving a total of 1,054,560. All that's happened is the 360 is losing ground this week at a slower rate than it was last week - but the sales are still lower therefor the gap is still widening.

You see?

Only another 2 million sales to go!!!! and thats if the PS3 doesn't shift another console.......yipee.......fetch my finest wine and let us celebrate ; )

it seems the speculation by sony fans that the ps3 was on the up and the wii in decline in japan wasnt true.the ps3 sales beat the wii for a few months only because yakuza3 and wkc were released nothing to do with sony reclaiming their homeland.also nice to see the 360 doing so well as there wasnt a rpg released there recentlly that i know off.ms have to be very pleased with the regularly decent sales they have been getting deservedly so as 360 is home to the jrpg this gen and like ps2 before it has by far the best all round library.

@Triggerhappytel: Did you purposefully ignore the second part of my post?

"They could certainly do with the qualifier of "in weekly sales" though. :D "

@ "A lot of posts are below the viewing threshold wtf is this new feature?"
Just clean your threshold, as comments are obviously rated acording to personal vibes rather than in its content. It might sound narcisistic to use my own comment as an example, but it kinda ilustrates what I'm saying: I answered woodnotes, based on my experienvce, from fellow gamers I found while playing Asian games like KUF or peeking at Sega's Vintage Collection leaderboards, and I got 3 negative remarks. It was as innocuous as a comment can be.

Gotcha, Psycho. I think my brain is starting to hurt with all these figures ;)

Although I think to proclaim the 360 is catching the PS3 in weekly sales would be a bit superfluous since they seem to fluctuate so wildly depending on what software is coming out.

Aye farticus, you can count on Japanese games being uncluttered by what is flavour of the month because most of them are still built around the flavour of a decade ago :)

"coolbritannia, I'm a 360 owner, dick head."

I see this comment went over well with the community! :D

wow... donnie.... you are a man of stereotypes.

japan likes more than just rpg's.
Sony is a japanese company, surprise: Nintendo is as well.
360 is the console of jrpg's.
360 has the best all-round lib.
and so on...

i would agree with you that ps3 has sold better over the last months, because of some specific releases. i also believe Japan sales will pick up for ps3 once the price drops. something which has not worked for MS's console - Japan was the first region where 360's price was lowered if I remember well. It still has sold abysimally and I strongly think it will continue to do so (in Japan). This week's "upsurge" proves nill. I am sure you agree...

MR BRAINS ms are laying the grounwork in japan for the futureof the xbox brand.plus compared to last gen they are doing well and japan isnt all about hardware sales as this gen MS have got all the japanese devs on their side with releases that were traditionally sonys and sucess in the west with lost planet dead rising etc..ONLY ON 360(at the time).also your comment i said about japan only likes rpg not a stereotype as the software and hardware jumps allways show it is their main genre

The 360 has definitely sold better since the last price drop. It's still not pushing anywhere close to Wii-like numbers, but it has definitely done "better".

hey ronuds, where did foxhounds comments go? they vanished?

Seems they have vanished. Maybe they were deleted for having such a low threshold? Maybe it was the swearing?!?

Either way, he's a Sony fanboy through and through. Cool guy, though. :)

seems even his comments are stealth.

@ SFG_Clan ''I don't think 360 will ever completley grasp the Japanese market, they all seem to be ultra-nationalist consumers when it comes to video games. However I think this is progress and thats something ''

BS. That argument goes for the USA if anything. Japanese people don't buy Xbox because the majority on it are western games, fpses etc, which surprise surprise mostly get played in western countries, not in Japan. Just like 90% of the jap games wouldnt be succesful here. (and no, just because you would buy jap games doesnt mean everyone else would, trust me, they would be here if it were so. Companies tend to like money you see).

How has the 360 picked up... what game has cause this... poor news eurogamer...

Its not in touching distance, both sales for the PS3 and 360 were quite low compared to the rest of the world... 360 sold 80% of that of the PS3 an extra 20% is still a lot

Up from the previous week is good new for MS... however it still hasn't even sold half of what the PS3 has sold so far this year...

Let alone lifetime sales with PS3 selling three times that of the 360...

Frankly this title is misleading and incorrect, it's no where near catching up... the sales are terrible for the 360 no matter how good this weeks sales are they are irrelivent in the long run unless the 360 takes of the PS3 in weekly sales and remains there for several months, in that case feel free to use this title... but otherwise this news is bollocks based on the title.

Have a nice day reporting crap =)

Wow, a comment from Farticus that doesn't mention how dreadful he thinks the PS3 is...

Keep it up, it makes a welcome change!

haha Shotgun... im too busy laughing at people giving me negative feedback on my post for stateing the obvious, and the truth in the article.

I love fan boys

Following the same logic, Eurogamer could also report about PS3 hw sales catching X360 sales in the US this week (see vgchartz).
But, it would be a rediculous statement, just like this statement is rediculous too. It's called suggestive journalism.

The X360 isn't catching PS3 sales in japan, the (big) gap is still widening, just not as fast as before.

"we don't make games just for the UK market. Just an observation. "

Cricket? Darts? ;)

Actually, darts is massively popular in bars over here (Japan), although I've never seen it on tv or anything. But everytime I got to the local game centre to play pool, the pool tables are empty, but there is NEVER a spare darts board.