Nintendo Dominating Japan’s Game System Sales
Nintendo is still owning the polls (don’t worry, we’ll translate for you : ), led by the DS Lite which continues to dominate sales with 150,000 units followed by the supply constrained Wii with 77,000. The Xbox 360 saw a small sales increase, with Microsoft’s console recording 3,872 units. The big suprise? For the first time in many months, the PlayStation 3 outsold its predecessor (the PS2 for those alittle slow) with sales more than doubling from last week’s total of 12,187 to 28,829 units this week.
Hardware sales for the week ended July 29 (This is for Japan):
- DS Lite: 150,494
- Wii : 77,169
- PSP: 35,068
- PS3: 28,829
- PS2: 11,757
- Xbox 360: 3,872
- GB Micro: 263
- GBA SP: 228
- GC: 102
- DS: 90
- GBA: 41
The increase is attributable to the release of Hot Shots Golf 5 for PS3, although whether it is sustainable will be keenly watched by the whole Japanese games industry. The game moved an impressive 152,379 units in the week ending July 29, likely being the key factor in the PS3’s boost in sales. Only Mario Party 8 for Wii (264,953 units) sold more games. Impressive, and suprising how popular golf is in Japan considering the limited number of golf courses and the expense of them over there.
