While
elsewhere in the world, the Wii has little trouble outpacing its competition – with nearly 25 million units sold worldwide, nearly double the PS3's 13 million and a solid 25% lead on the Xbox 360's 20 million in sales – in Japan, it's a two console race (sorry, Xbox). In a piece headlined "Sony PS3 catching up to Wii in Japanese sales," Reuters' Tokyo branch covers the horse race, writing that the Wii "once again outsold Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 in Japan in June, but its lead is fading." While technically accurate if referring to monthly sales – the Wii
only outsold the PS3 by a margin of 1.7 to 1 last month, a dip from the 6 to 1 margin of the previous month – the bigger picture isn't so clear.
So, spurred on by sales of
Metal Gear Solid 4, the PS3 did better last month, okay (you already know that, of course, from reading our
Japanese hardware sales series). But with nearly 6 million Wii units sold in Japan, versus just 2 million PlayStation 3 units sold (source:
Wii,
PS3), it looks to us like the PlayStation 3 still has a lot of "catching up" to do and no more Metal Gear Solids.
_thumbnail.jpg "i am 8-bit: 2008")
(Page 1) Reader Comments
Anyway, despite the crazy stats(real or otherwise)to follow in this comment thread; it's good to see competition still alive and well... because this industry definitely can't last long being stagnant.
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Just because the PS3 has decreased the gap in number of consoles sold, the Wii still outsold the PS3 and by quite a margin still, so it is still increasing it's gap in total number of sales compared to the PS3.
This report is very misleading (and I think you've noticed that yourself according to your title). Reuters seem to want some hostile fanboyism.
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It make no sense...
It's understandable really. For all of Metal Gear Solid 4's awesomeness (it really is damn good) it can't hope to compete with...well...Wii Sports. Throw in Wii Fit (which I still can't find in any stores, despite my desire to play that ski jump game) and you've got an unbeatable combination.
On that note, I haven't touched my Wii since I finished Mario Galaxy, and I'm desperate for another Zelda or Mario...or Star Fox...anything....please Nintendo.
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Perspectives, and all that.
Innovation (IR moreso that the waggle but both for all intensive purposes)
Free game with purchase which appeals to wider demographic
Many franchises which are best sellers for two decades appear as Wii games.
Many franchises which were best sellers two decades ago appear on Virtual console - and lets face it a lot of NES and SNES have now kicked the bucket so it offers a cheap way to regain childhood memories.
Many casual games which appeal to the casual gamer - a large demographic.
WiiWare - has good games coming for it (not really a winner over XBLA though but can fight the PSN, and has picked up many titles which XBLA lost due to their strictness).
Wii Fit - major appeal for casuals.
DS connectivity - it connects with the handheld of choice and allows demos as well as other things.
Brand recognition - Nintendo is known for generations, along with Mario, and the DS is the best selling game console of this generation (out of home and portable) and the Wii gets the brand recognition of Nintendo from the DS.
You should be shot...
Better games, are you serious?? You have mario games, and zelda. Which zelda played better on the gamecube with the controller anyway. And the last huge title the wii had was smash bros.. which sucks for online play.
The PS3 and 360 have way better games, the only thing that sold the wii was its od low price, which won't last soon with the 360 and ps3 eventually dropping in price later on. Its like a lot of developers are saying, the wii is selling cuz it looked nice and cool at someones house, but when you get its like eeeh...
You should be shot for incenuating the Gamecube version of Twilight Princess controls better than the Wii version.
Slap yoself.
But nice try though,, I like how tried to defend that idea.....not..
I stopped reading here. If you can't open without an ad hominem, your comment isn't worth my time. And yes the PS3's library does pale in comparison to Wii's right now, which is fucking sad.
Uh, no it doesn't.
At this point, though, arguments like these are just as fucking dumb as current PSP vs. DS arguments, because as much as you can bash either system, at this point, each system has games that make the system worth owning.
But dont worry I'm sure all the kiddy games will keep you busy for now until Soul Calibur 4 comes out......oooh wait.... yea sorry wii is not invited..
)':
This stuff happens when you give people what they want....crazy sh*t.
I bought the Wii expecting it to be the most fun console. I've been primarily a PC gamer my whole life, because consoles have never had a rich enough feature set to really draw me in until now. And the Wii is a slight departure from the norm, promising a unique experience all it's own. I was a bit annoyed by standard console shenanigans (required to buy expensive proprietary controllers, yet another special controller required for VC games, and so on) with the Wii. Well, then I heard about a game coming to the PS3/360 that I was really interested in, and I heard that the PS3 was very open, allowing keyboard & mouse and other standard PC hardware, plus with cheap adapters the old PS1 and PS2 controllers work on it. All said and done, I wound up paying less for the PS3 than the Wii... which is cool, since I didn't expect to get too much use out of the PS3. So imagine my surprise when a few months later I found myself using the PS3 way more than my Wii. The games are so much more compelling that at this time I haven't even touched my Wii in probably 3 months. That's totally not how I expected things to go.
Oh and these worldwide numbers are much closer than I thought. Clearly, no console is losing.
LOL.... so true Evan.
That's just retarted.
*retarded
Anyway, it has nothing to do with trying to "look cool". It's purely a preference for what type of games you want to play.
When total Wii sales equal total PS3+360 sales, I think more software will be sold on the PS3+360 than the Wii. When the PS1 and PS2 dominated, it dominated both software and hardware sales. It's a big difference, especially to developers.
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And I see you've also made sure to give yourself a back door by adding a caveat that it's really the software sales that matter.
What will it be after that? Will the Wii have to also be leading in metacritic scores to be the winner?
In the words of Abe Simpson: "I used to be with it. Then they changed what it was."
The good news: Developers don't have to waste a lot of money on a risky, niche, but awesome venture
The bad news: developers won't waste a lot of money on a piss-poor effort
On the other hand, with people driving less and attempting to find more entertainment at or close to home, you'd think that might help the industry in general.
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yeah, i said that back in january, february, and march. but not in april cause i sold the mofo on ebay for twice what i paid for it. thanks wii ;D
You constantly whine and berate people for enjoying the wii, games that differ from your very dull narrow tastes, or Nintendo franchices (franchices, by the way which leave anything sony could make in the dust. Sorry you know this is true), but yet never offer up any alternatives.
What games live up to your standards tmacairjordan87?.. Really you should make a list, Im very curious.
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11201&Itemid=2
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