Nintendo not worried by PS3's Japan surge

By Robert Purchese Published 7 April, 2009

Has a whole year to regain lead, it says.

Nintendo is "not particularly concerned" about PlayStation 3 being the best-selling console in Japan during March, actually.

"It is still the first few months of the year when sales are slow for the industry," the Mario-maker told the Financial Times, "so we are not particularly concerned."

And, Nintendo added: "We hope to line up strong software to support hardware sales in the second half of the year."

The PlayStation 3 sold 146,948 units last month in Japan while the Wii shifted 99,335 units, according to yesterday's Enterbrain figures. The success of the Sony console is attributed to the arrival of Yakuza 3 and Resident Evil 5.

The Wii, however, has soundly thrashed console competition in Japan for some time. Nintendo's flagship console has an installed base of 8 million across the region compared to the PS3's reach of 3 million.

Nintendo also continues to dominate on a global scale: Wii sales were well over double those for PS3 during February in the US.

As of 31st December 2008, the Wii leads the seventh generation of consoles with 44.96 million worldwide sales, with shipments at 50 million. Microsoft's Xbox 360 is next with 28.5 million sales, followed by PlayStation 3 with 21.3 million sales.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DutchDemons #1 3 years ago

    i wouldn't worry too much either with 45M sold compared to 21M PS3...lol..a one month lead of 100K is nothing special. Even if they keep this lead up for 2 years(!!) then the gap would still be 20M+. nuff said? i think so

    Edited by 1 at 07/04/09 @ 08:49

  • Vistrix #2 3 years ago

    @farticusmaximus In terms of a "decent machine", I'd say Sony has the best one by far...if you're talking stability, features, compatibility, value etc.

    But you're right about Sony's arrogance.

  • Doctor_What #3 3 years ago

    It is a decent machine, it just costs a fortune. Blah blah blah.

    If I were Nintendo, I wouldn't be worried either. If I were MS I'd be a bit more concerned about the about of cash I'm going to have to spend to continue to have their support for my platform - those JRPGs do shift units, in the US and Europe, and if they all stray and stay with Sony then that's an issue for MS.

  • Widge #4 3 years ago

    Nintendo W1N!

  • Dave52 #5 3 years ago

    Sony are only 7.2m behind MS, that's pretty good going considering the high price tag and the 360s head start. Nintendo won't be beaten, but the race for second place is pretty interesting...

  • NotSoSlim #6 3 years ago

    They may change there tune whe FF demo bundle hits this month. Nintendo know theythat Sony have some major console sellers in Japan alone...drop GT5 and Final Fantasy.

    Wii does have Monster Hunter tho

  • Widge #7 3 years ago

    I'm having a surge right now

  • spazmo #8 3 years ago

    Don't forget Nintendo's ace up their sleeve. New Wii colours.

  • HiredMan #9 3 years ago

    I wish I was an arrogance fucker!

  • Vistrix #10 3 years ago

    @Dave52 Exactly, people need to put this into perspective.

    Worldwide, the PS3 isnt looking bad in terms of sales compared to the 360. They've consistently sold more than the 360 month by month if you align their launch dates despite it being double the price at some points.

    I would be amazed if the 360 doesnt finish in last place.

  • AliRay #11 3 years ago

    @ Dave52 and Vistrix:

    But what happens when M$ release the next Xbox in (2 years?) time, and the PS3 still has to (theoretically) hang around for another 5 years, competing as an older, somewhat outdated peice of hardware?

  • GamesConnoisseur #12 3 years ago

    What with the mantra of MS should throwing in the towel in Asia?!

    Any format holder cannot afford to ignore Japan, or lose a great segment of world market and games devs, MS is actually doing better than last gen and they want to improve brand awareness and loyalty of fans. If it takes them until third or fourth gen then efforts from previous gens all counts!

    Sure MS will never dominate or doing as well as others but still a reasonable good shot!

  • Dave52 #13 3 years ago

    @AliRay

    True, true - and I don't know to be honest. I don't think we've seen the PS3's full potential yet (got a taster with KZ2, and will see more from Drakes Fortune2). They're also looking at the 3d gamer market. I think it's fair to say that the Xbox and the PS3 have got out of sync with regards to releases, so I would expect a new Xbox before a PS4, I'm sure Sony have thought about it too.

  • Vistrix #14 3 years ago

    @AliRay Then that would be the next generation. The PS3 would of still beaten the 360 (assuming sales keep on catching up).

    Microsoft will have the same lead they did with the 360. Eventually Nintendo and Sony will release their next console and everything will just repeat!

    If Microsoft can improve on their weaknesses (mainly poor hardware), then the next gen may look even better for them for the long term.

  • AliRay #15 3 years ago

    It will indeed be the next gen, but if Sony insist on a 10-year plan for the PS3, then the next Xbox will (hopefully) be ALOT more powerful, reliable, AND have more than the 12 month head start that the 360 had. The risk for Sony is that devs/publishers will see this, and shift their main focus onto the new machine (probably meaning poor-quality ports for the PS3?).

    I'm not really thinkin in terms of 'who won this gen', more like how the games divisions of each company are doing on the whole. Obviously, M$ haven't done brilliantly due to the RROD fiasco, but it's not all rosey at Sony either iirc?

  • Xerx3s #16 3 years ago

    "We hope to line up strong software to support hardware sales in the second half of the year."

    Heh.

  • Xerx3s #17 3 years ago

    I bet it's even stronger than last years holiday lineup. ;p

  • Whatsfor #18 3 years ago

    Aliray,

    Remember that in 2 - 3 years time when xbox (3) is out that sony could potentially have a 50 million install base and a price half the value of the current one, what would devs want sales from... a 50m user base that will grow even bigger or a new console with less then 4m users in the first year?

  • miiiguel #19 3 years ago

    lol, even when it's Nintendo doing the hoola-dance on Sony's face the discussion allways ends on 360. Omnipresent machine.

  • ronuds #20 3 years ago

    "They've consistently sold more than the 360 month by month if you align their launch dates despite it being double the price at some points."

    Would the people who make these claims PLEASE provide a shred of evidence that isn't vgchartz? It's simply not true. The PS3 outsold the 360 in 2006 - 2007 when it first launched (so for a couple months) and the 2 years since then the 360 has outsold the PS3 worldwide, albeit by a small amount.

    Please stop trying to spread this bullshit.

    But to Miiiiguel's excellent point, how or why are we talking about the 360 anyway?
    Edited by 1 at 07/04/09 @ 15:31

  • Yaz #21 3 years ago

    @Vistrix who wrote "I would be amazed if the 360 doesnt finish in last place."

    Well, as of now, the 360 is about 8m ahead of the PS3. So let's say the next-gen starts late 2012, then for the PS3 to catch up to 360 sales, it will need to outsell the 360 by an average of over 200 000 each month from now on.

    Do you really see that happening? Because I don't....

    ....or at least, I don't see it catching up within this current gen. However, since Sony plans a 10 year life-cycle for the PS3, it should overtake the 360 eventually, but imo not until long after we've all moved onto the next generation of consoles.

  • Yaz #22 3 years ago

    notmyrealname "*edit* to all the crazies shouting xbox720 and/or ps4 in 3 years: Take a look at the gameindustry and the current depression... I will be very surprised if I see either MS or Sony push out a higher spec system in the next 4 years."

    Firstly, yes we can all give our opinions on when we think the next-gen will start, and we can all come up with reasons why we think our opinions are correct, but that's all they are right now, i.e. opinions. You are no more correct than those who believe a next-gen console will be released in 2012. :p

    Secondly, since I was the one who mentioned 2012, the purpose of my arguement was to discuss the likelyhood of the PS3 bridging the 8m gap to the 360 before the next-gen starts, and hence was a date I consider to be the *minimum* for the start of the next-gen, not necessarily the actual date.

    So, going back to that point, even if we're taking about 4 years from now, the PS3 will need to outsell the 360 by about 154 000 each month from now on to catch up. Of course, a good price cut for the PS3 would give it's sales a boost, but that will eventually be countered by a 360 price cut.

    Hence I don't believe the PS3 will overtake 360 sales before the next-gen starts. But hey, that's just my opinion. ;)