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Wii Outsells PS3, Blue-ray Outsells HD DVD

Posted by Zonk on from the fighting-for-their-place-in-rock-and-roll dept.

njkid1, a regular contributor of GameDaily articles, passed us word that the Wii is handily outselling the PS3 in Japan. Famitsu parent company Enterbrain has figures showing that Nintendo sold 405,000 Wii units last month, while Sony sold 148,000 units of the PS3. While this is probably not something the folks at Sony are overjoyed about, they did have reason to crow this week. They've now announced that cumulative Blu-ray sales have passed the HD DVD format for the first time. Gamasutra has the word, from Sony itself, with some interesting supporting information. Most PS3 owners, it seems, have used their system to watch HD movies. Some full 80 percent plan to buy further HD titles in the future. This is further support for the VideoScan sales figures we discussed last week.

4 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. Wow? by realilskater · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is it really surprising that something that costs less than half the price of a PS3 and offers a completely new style of game play is selling more units?

  2. Apples and Oranges by baptiste · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While they are both game consoles, there is a big price differential between a Wii and a PS3. It makes sense that the Wii would sell more units. While it has a nifty controller, power wise it's on par with the PS2 which sold like gangbusters this past holiday season. Compare it to those numbers for a telling look.

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  3. Dead cat bounce by Generic+Guy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Even a dead cat will bounce once on its way down.

    The common perception about the VideoScan numbers is that a lot of PS3 owners used their "free Blu-ray movie" coupon, boosting 'sales' after Christmas. Especially since there doesn't seem to be anything else available worth doing on the PS3 device right now. This is in addition to a rather dry HD-DVD lineup in January. Let's remember, the first two weeks in January after Christmas doesn't necessarily set a trend.

    The VideoScan numbers for the third week in January, not reported in the article, already show Blu-Ray slumping down again, compared to HD-DVD.

    All this sounds vaguely similar to the narrowly-defined "Zune leads 30GB music player market in first two days of sales" reports we saw a few weeks ago. Much ado about nothing.

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  4. Re:It makes sense by goodenoughnickname · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Huh?

    I should have elaborated instead of sounding like a troll. When the PSP debuted, games were scant, but people wanted to use their new hardware so they bought what was in supply: UMD movies. Perhaps now the same thing is happening with the PS3 and Blu-Ray movies.