A Million PS3s Sold in Japan

Reuters is reporting that the PlayStation 3 has reached 1 million units sold in Japan. The article notes that the eight months the console took to reach this mark is roughly four times slower than it took the Wii. Of course, the 360 has only managed to eek out 420,705 units sold in a much longer timespan. To put things in perspective, an aging news report suggests that the PlayStation 2 sold 1 million units the first weekend it was released in Japan. Even the Wii didn't hit that, though that may have been an issue of supply rather than demand. Do you think there is a specific reason the PS3 isn't selling as well as the PlayStation 2 did, or is the market just a different place than it was 7 years ago?

Comments

The numbers

[MeanderingMind]

The last numbers reported on Japanese hardware sales: July 2nd - 8th

That would mean in the past 10 days, at least 24,129 PS3s were sold. That is approximately 16,890 PS3s last week, and 7,239 so far this week.

For comparison, the Wii was at 2,949,774 units sold the week before last. Given that they've been consistantly selled 70k+ per week, the Wii probably surpassed 3 million consoles last week. The Xbox 360 has yet to break 400k units.

Re:The numbers

[AuMatar]

The truely interesting thing to me on that list is the DS. The lifetime Japan sales of the DS are showing as 18M, and PS2 is 20M. If thats right, the DS is about to surpass the PS2 in number of units sold!

Re:The numbers

[meringuoid]

The truely interesting thing to me on that list is the DS. The lifetime Japan sales of the DS are showing as 18M, and PS2 is 20M. If thats right, the DS is about to surpass the PS2 in number of units sold!

DS did that long ago. Look again at the chart: eighteen million is the figure for 'DSL', while lower down the chart you'll see that something called 'NDS' has sold 6.5 million.

Between the DS and DS Lite, Nintendo have shifted nearly 26 million in Japan. That's about one in five of the entire Japanese population.

Re:The numbers

[iainl]

Indeed. Codename of that '3x PowerPC on a single die' chip? Xenon. So you're both right.

Yes

[rob1980]

Do you think there is a specific reason the PS3 isn't selling as well as the PlayStation 2 did, or is the market just a different place than it was 7 years ago?

Playstation 2 launch price: ¥39,800
Playstation 3 launch price: ¥49,980 (basic), ¥59,980 (premium)

That might have had something to do with it.

Re:Slashdot groupthink?

[c_forq]

Because the PS3 is made by Sony, and the division in control of it has demonstrated extreme arrogance. The Slashdot Groupthink is strongly against arrogance, which is why it is so slanted against Microsoft, Sony, IBM at time, Sun at times, Apple at times (although the Apple fanbase here lessens the effect), and even Nintendo in the past. The Slashdot Groupthink loves the Wii because Nintendo is actually putting its money on what the Slashdot Groupthink has been saying for years (gameplay is more important than graphics, games should be fun, etc.). They care about units sold because publishers and developers care about units sold, and they want to see more games for their fun system and for Sony to eat its hubris.