Sony Outsells Wii in Japan; EA Excited Over PS3 Sales Target
By Stephany on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 12:54 PM PST In Gamer Life, Games Industry, Sony, Sony
With new console purchases expected to reach 200 million units in the next five to six years, John Riccitiello who is the head of Electronic Arts is pleased with the upswing in PS3 sales. “It’s been the longest, hardest transition in the history of the industry. Last Friday marked one of those points where you can say something’s changed,” he said. “Around the world, based on the data I’ve got, it was pretty clear that the transition is now over.”According to Riccitiello, Sony’s recent price cut for the PS3 will ensure that the console will hit the company’s sales target of 11 million units. While sales for the console have lagged behind the Xbox 360 and Wii for what seems like eons, sales jumped following an October price cut and the launch of a lower-priced version. Last week during the holiday shopping mayhem, the number of PS3 units purchased more than tripled from the year before.
“It looked like it might have been a two-horse race, but it’s clearly a three-horse race,” Riccitiello said of Sony’s recent sales. “I think from this point, pleasantly for me, it’s sort of fat city in the game industry.”
Does this mean that the possibility of MGS4 selling one million units on day one of release is now actually plausible? I believe it does, and to give PS3 fans even more news to smile about, the PS3 recently outsold the Wii in Japan during November for the first time.
In the weeks leading up to November 25, the PS3 had sold 183,217 units in Japan which tops the sales of 159,193 Wii consoles. Formerly, Sony had dominated the industry with previous generations of their console, but lost out to the lower priced Wii.
For the full monty on the PS3’s latest sales figures, check out the Reuters articles here and here.
Try hitting that $299 price point and sales will really take off, 360 still has the better game line-up of the three systems… IMO
License to ill said: ‘360 still has the better game line-up of the three systems…’
It definitely does at the moment but that changes next year. The first 3 or 4 months of 2008 are going to be very very good for the PS3 imo with exclusives Haze, LittleBigPlanet, Killzone 2 and possibly Metal Gear Solid 4 all being released. On the other hand I cant name you a single exclusive due to be released in that period on the 360. The console with all the buzz around it in early 2008 will be the PS3 and that is sure to affect the purchasing of people buying a console for Grand Theft Auto 4 which is due to be released in that period as well.
I was just having a look at some sales figures on VG charts. Obviously they arent completely accurate but they give an indication. What I found interesing was that in the 2 weeks between 10th and 24th November both the 360 and PS3 sold 600k units worldwide (PS3-606k, 360-603k). Amazingly though this is how that 600k is broken down percentage wise by region:
Japan
360 4.9%
PS3 29%
EU
360 16.4%
PS3 26.4%
US
360 78.7%
PS3 44.6%
Interesting post…this gives us more reasons to buy PS3…It rocks…
Amazing plan SONY . release ur exclusives when no one has an any to release.
thats what they were planing all time .
((Just like the hunter , waiting for the them to let their guard down))
They still won’t get past the number 2 mark…the WII sold like hotcakes around the world so it’s to be expected, especially in Japan, that the PS3 will eventually beat the WII in sales.
It would be more surprising if it was the 360, hell that would be more deserving of an article.
look out 360 the king is back