For the week of Jan. 22 to Jan. 28 sales of the PlayStation 2
totaled 20,995 units while those of the PlayStation 3 were 19,996, said
Media Create Co. Ltd. The research company receives data from around
3,000 stores across Japan and uses that to estimate nationwide sales.
Sales of the PlayStation 2 have been so good that Sony this week
raised its full year shipment target for that console to 13 million
units from 11 million units. A combination of the low price -- it costs
¥16,000 (US$133) versus either ¥49,980 or ¥59,980 for the PlayStation 3
-- and a strong catalog of software titles is continuing to attract
customers to the console.
Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s competing Wii console, which launched shortly after
the PlayStation 3, sold 83,754 units in the week. The surprise winner
among the new-generation consoles was Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, which
managed to achieve a sales increase of just over 300 units to 7,365
units in the week when overall sales of the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox
360 fell by just over 3,000 units to 111,115 units, according to the
figures.
The biggest selling hardware of the week was Nintendo's DS Lite,
which sold 194,526 units against 35,700 units for the rival PlayStation
Portable.
In the software ranking "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," which launched
in Japan on Jan. 25, topped the chart with estimated sales of 227,261
units. That's more than double the second ranked "Dragon Quest Monsters
Joker" for the Nintendo DS.
Martyn Williams
February 2, 2007
Source:
GamePro