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A Million PS3s Sold in Japan

Posted by Zonk on from the i've-heard-slow-and-steady-wins-the-race dept.

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?

12 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. The numbers by MeanderingMind · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    --
    Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
    1. Re:The numbers by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      the simple fact that the 360's hardware is better suited for games

      I don't know that this is justifiable as an opinion, much less a "simple fact".

      It may be true that the 360's Xenon CPU may be more familiar to developers than the PS3's Cell, but I'm not sure that translates into being "better suited for games". There's no reason that a game written to take advantage of the Cell architecture could not be better than one written to take advantage of the Xenon.

    2. Re:The numbers by meringuoid · · Score: 3, Informative
      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.

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
    3. Re:The numbers by iainl · · Score: 3, Informative

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

      --
      "I Know You Are But What Am I?"
  2. No idea by eln · · Score: 5, Funny

    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? No, we have no idea why the PS3 is not selling well. There has certainly not been countless posts complaining about the price on any of our thrice-weekly PS3 vs. Wii vs. 360 Slashdot threads. None of us have any idea why this is happening, and it has caught us totally off guard. No one on Slashdot ever predicted that the PS3 would have a hard time selling, and there was certainly never any speculation that the price was too high.

    This is all entirely new and interesting information. I'm sure we will have a lively and enlightening discussion where multiple new and logically sound theories based on solid economic and sociological data will be presented.
  3. reasons? by Thanatos69 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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?

    If this isn't a setup for a flame war, I don't know what is.
  4. Maybe... by rbarreira · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe the reason is that people only have one job? Those slackers...

    --

    The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
  5. Re:Yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    What is that Y with the lines through it?

    Is ¥ anime for $?

  6. Re:shipped != sold by rlp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As long as Wii manufacturing is not meeting demand, for Nintendo: shipped == sold.

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    [Insert pithy quote here]
  7. Re:Slashdot groupthink? by the_tsi · · Score: 3, Funny

    We are at war with Sony. We have always been at war with Sony. 2+2=5.

  8. Re:People aren't making enough to spend enough.... by VGPowerlord · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't know about in Japan, but in the US, it's not just more expensive, it's twice as (or 100% more) expensive as the PS and PS2 were at launch (PS: $299; PS2: $299; PS3: $599).

    By comparison, the Wii launched for 25% more than the Game Cube, which itself launched at the same exact price as all of Nintendo's previous console systems (NES, SNES, N64, GC: $199; Wii: $249). The XBox 360 launched for 33% more than the XBox (XBox: $299; XBox 360: $399).

    Seriously, though, the PS3 launched for $200 more than the already overpriced console that had been out for a year. That's seriously dumb.

    --
    GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
  9. 599 reasons by mapmaker · · Score: 4, Funny
    Do you think there is a specific reason the PS3 isn't selling as well as the PlayStation 2 did?

    No, there isn't a single specific reason. It's a combination of 599 reasons.