Register Hardware

Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/07/18/wii_wins_in_japan/

PS3 outsold Xbox 360 2:1 in Japan

By Tony Smith
Published Wednesday 18th July 2007 12:42 GMT

For all ex-Microsoft, now EA Sports man Peter Moore's claim (http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=16809) that the PS3 isn't doing too well in Japan, the latest sales figures from that country show the Sony has shifted a darn sight more next-gen consoles than Moore managed.

According to Japanese games magazine publisher Enterbrain - by way of the Reuters news agency - Sony had sold 1.01m PS3s in Japan between from the console's 11 November 2006 debut there to 15 July 2007.

The Xbox 360, which arrived in Japan in December 2005, almost a year before the PS3, has only racked up local sales of 420,705, between that date and 8 July, Enterbrain's numbers show.

But Wii fans get the last laugh: the Nintendo console, the most recent of the three next-gen machines to launch in Japan, had experienced sales totalling 2.9m units as of 8 July, and may already have passed the 3m mark by now - or, if it hasn't, will do so in the very near future.

So not only has it outsold the PS3 by almost 3:1, it's outsold the Xbox 360 by more than 7:1.

Not that Moore minds much: according to US Securities and Exchange Commission filings (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=26811) from his new employer, he's getting $550,000 a year base salary plus $333,000 moving expenses and a $1.5m bonus for leaving Microsoft, though he'll have to stay at EA for two years to avoid paying it back.