Nintendo Owns Japan
Sony not quite as dead as might be believed
Posted 29 Dec 2008

Despite the general feeling among gaming experts and the 'hardcore' that Nintendo's Wii was a flash in the pan or simply a gimmick, it has not only managed to own the North American market in November 2008, it's done the same in Japan for the festive season.
Japanese stat collator, Media Create's figures for December 15th to the 21st show the following (courtesy of ChartGet):
Nintendo DSi = 204,100
Sony PSP = 146,000
Nintendo Wii = 131,000
Nintendo DSL = 50,300
Sony PS3 = 39,100
Microsoft = X360 12,900
PS2 = 8,700
You'll also notice healthy sales of PSP which were driven by the release of Dissidia: Final Fantasy selling some 489,000 units; while Gundam Musou 2 helped PS3 top the Xbox 360. The latter has been picking up good numbers in Japan recently but simply had nothing astonishing on the games front in the audited period.
However, all that said, Japan remains a fertile and winning ground for Nintendo.
Japanese stat collator, Media Create's figures for December 15th to the 21st show the following (courtesy of ChartGet):
Nintendo DSi = 204,100
Sony PSP = 146,000
Nintendo Wii = 131,000
Nintendo DSL = 50,300
Sony PS3 = 39,100
Microsoft = X360 12,900
PS2 = 8,700
You'll also notice healthy sales of PSP which were driven by the release of Dissidia: Final Fantasy selling some 489,000 units; while Gundam Musou 2 helped PS3 top the Xbox 360. The latter has been picking up good numbers in Japan recently but simply had nothing astonishing on the games front in the audited period.
However, all that said, Japan remains a fertile and winning ground for Nintendo.
Comments
2/5
Well good news for Sony is the healthy PSP sales. PS3 needs some exclusive that makes the Japanese go crazy and quickly.
Hopefully the PSP can stay healthy for a while 'cos it won't be good if sales suddenly plummet.
Hopefully the PSP can stay healthy for a while 'cos it won't be good if sales suddenly plummet.
more comments below our sponsor's message
3/5
White Knight Story could very well be the one for Sony also FF13 which will only be on the PS3 in Japan.
4/5
yeah FF13 is going to blow their minds.
cue cut away to the release date, to the general indifference of the japanese public to FF13.
d'oh.
i bet they are soooo pissed off that Nintendo got dragon quest 9 AND 10. 10 will sell s**tloads.
cue cut away to the release date, to the general indifference of the japanese public to FF13.
d'oh.
i bet they are soooo pissed off that Nintendo got dragon quest 9 AND 10. 10 will sell s**tloads.
5/5
OptimusP wrote:
So it begs the question, how many of those Xbox360's that were bought just for Tales of Vesparia have been sold back into the second hand market and other spike consolesales that can be linked with one specific game. Offcourse, very very hard to find out offcourse.
That's a very interesting question Optimus, I'll pass it on to Tim and see if we can find out from our Japanese correspondents.
Related News
Latest Features
| Interview// F1 2009: David Croft and Anthony Davidson |
| Review// Assassin's Creed II |
| Interview// SCEE's Alison Turner on the PSN Video Store |
| Interview// F1 2009: Sumo Digital's Ned Waterhouse |








What i notice most of these so-called "analysis" of Japanese game figures is that they never take into account the habit of the Japanese to actually buy hardware for one game and after they finished that game they actually sell both (game and hardware) on the second hand market. All hardware platforms "suffer" from this.
So it begs the question, how many of those Xbox360's that were bought just for Tales of Vesparia have been sold back into the second hand market and other spike consolesales that can be linked with one specific game. Offcourse, very very hard to find out offcourse.