Wii sold 235k in Japan last month

It really is all over for Sony in Japan. I just can’t see how they can turn things around now.

It’s fairly incredible, yep.

Isn’t 139k a jump on last week’s figures?

Should be. Metal Gear boosted it, innit. Can’t remember what it was last month, though.

Another price drop, I guess.

In some ways, this isn’t good for the Japanese gaming industry. Mainly because the PS3 is doing better elsewhere. Which essentially means more of a focus on western development. Siren’s already got a more US-friendly approach. I’m just hoping the next Team ICO doesn’t have tits and gore ‘to crack the western market’. Ueda-san did give some tantalising hints that it might have multiplayer elements, though.

139k is a jump, but it’s been a very short-term jump – we’re almost back to 10k a week already. When the biggest game release of the year can’t shift your machine, what the hell can? It’s not even that expensive over there.

I get the idea they just don’t want it. Doubt there’s really anything that can overcome that, price drops and marketing included.

You reckon a PS3 “slim” might do it, Blerk?

I dunno. I think it might be too late now. The companies are going to be looking at the charts and thinking “we’d better do DS and Wii games”.

Their best chance is probably a sudden interest in Blu-Ray, but even that’s not guaranteed to sell either PS3s or games.

They must be wondering where they went wrong. Hell, I’m wondering where they went wrong. Perhaps they didn’t. Perhaps Nintendo were just ‘more right’?

Surely there’s a long way to go yet, though? Wii will decline eventually, maybe a slim PS3 will come out and the price will go down and people will movie onto PS3 en masse. I don’t know, obviously, but I’d say the whole story’s far from clear at the moment. There’s years to go for PS3.

I expected the Wii decline to have started by now, but it hasn’t. From what I can see, it’s going to have DS-style legs. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the PS3 as such, it’s just that the Japanese market seems to have radically changed since the release of the PS2. Sony produced ‘more of the same but shinier’, but it appears that ‘more of the same’ just isn’t what they wanted.

Yeah. As I said in another thread, a friend of mine that goes to Japan regularly told me the gaming “scene” over there’s changed dramatically since PS2. He said PS3′s too big and clunky for them. Wii really is stunning, though. It’s not just the Japanese figures. The NPDs really baffle me sometimes. Who the hell’s buying all those Wiis?

Quite. I often wonder what percentage of Wiis are collecting dust in a cupboard somewhere.

My brother and his family bought one last Christmas and they’ve still only got Wii Sports and Brain Training. He’s not bought a single game since last November.

patlike: The best the PS3 can hope for in Japan is a bump like the PSP got with the slim. The problem is that the PSP never sold as badly as the PS3 is selling.

Same here. My Wii last saw action when Endless Ocean came out.

PT: I read somewhere this morning that PSP’s sales are being fuelled by piracy as opposed to anything else. Maybe PS3 needs proper blockbusters as opposed to a slimmer console.

Surely FFXIII will go a long way to fixing it. I’m mindful of Microsoft’s comments, though, about not wanting to spend the money on FF because there was still no guarantee the Japanese would buy 360s if they did. Does make you wonder if Blerk’s right. Maybe Sony really have properly fucked it.

Blerk: I play tennis on Wii with my wife once a month. If that.

Maybe what the PS3 needs is piracy?

I wonder if E3 will contain any announcements aimed at counter acting this with positive moves into the casual market. I’d put money on it that MS and Sony will now that the Wii has consistent sales.

patlike: PSP has an advantage in that it’s being bought as a mobile media player as well. Piracy probably helps a bit but the fact is that other than Monster Hunter people really aren’t buying games for it.

Piracy went a very long way to making PS2 the machine it was. There you go, Sony. Just show people how to crack it, and you’re off

PT: Yeah, you’re right. My Japanese-loving friend told me that games simply aren’t as “cool” as they were in any way over there any more. Does make you wonder if the “hardcore” thing – i.e. “proper” Japanese games – really is on the way out.

Sony haven’t helped themselves, of course. They’ve been content to sit on their fat laurels and expect to win rather than chasing exclusives with their wallets out. In the meantime Microsoft have nipped in and pinched a whole host of neat-looking games which would’ve probably better sold the PS3 to the Japanese market. Microsoft must know that they can’t win in Japan, so the next-best thing is to fuck Sony over in Japan. And it’s totally working.

Also, many Japanese developers appear to have been left behind by their Western counterparts, technology-wise. Playing catch-up for them is going to be quite difficult, as is getting their games noticed in a huge sea of hi-def shinies if they’re not up to the same standards. For them it’s easier to just continue making DS and Wii games, which don’t have such high expectations, especially given that their home market doesn’t really seem very interested in the afore-mentioned hi-def shinies.

Which is a terrible shame, because I can’t help feeling that we’re on the verge of losing something forever here.

I saw a thread like this last year. Substitute “PSP” for “PS3″, but the same points were made.

Personally, I don’t accept that the Wii and PS3 are in the same market anyway. There is room for a low-def, causual gaming machine AND a hi-def, do-all unit for the esoteric. Just as there is room for the Toyota Aygo and the Nissan GT-R.

I keep telling you,

Spirit of Dreamcast.
New home.

RevolutionBlues: You’re right, there’s certainly room for both. The problem is that most of the 100m+ customers from the PS1 and PS2 were casual gamers… and Sony is starting to realise that they’ve lost them to the Wii.

Part of it is a generational thing, and some of it is down to lifestyle. A lot of people who were mad on PS2 will now be a little older, perhaps with a little less time on their hands for gaming. And the DS or PSP fits their needs better. Whereas Wii has plenty of quick-fix games that can be played in a spare half an hour here and there, and doesn’t require constant lengthy firmware upgrades, patches or any of that nonsense. So that’s possibly why that’s the top dog of the home consoles.

And then there’s the fact that RPGs nowadays – probably the most popular ‘hardcore’ genre in Japan – are getting ridiculously expensive to make on the high-end machines. So a lot of developers go for the DS, because it’s got the biggest audience, while some smaller developers even keep their franchises going on the PS2.

But yeah, perhaps the only thing that can save PS3 now is Final Fantasy. That could potentially convince a lot of PS2 owners to finally go current-gen (it’s not next-gen if it’s here now) but that’s not going to help short term.

It’s a very strange situation over there, that’s for sure.

I think you’re right, Hero – people have discovered that they do most of their gaming during the morning/evening commute, so it makes sense to buy most of their stuff for a portable platform. So we get this weird reversal of fortunes – the machine which used to get the piddly throw-away games now gets the big long ones and vice-versa.

Man, I wish I could get on with handhelds. But I just can’t.

I’m lucky in that respect, and that’s why I think the DS is becoming my favourite gaming machine ever. If I was Japanese, it definitely would be. There’s an astonishing range of software, a hell of a lot of which never gets localised, or takes aeons to make it over here.

I’m playing a music game called Daigasso Band Brothers DX at the moment which is just amazing – each song (31 on the cart, with 200 to choose from as downloadable content) has eight instrumental parts, which you can play on one of four different difficulties, and there’s singing and guitar parts, too. And a full editing suite so you can create your own 8-track versions of your favourite songs. And a free downloadable channel on your Wii so it doesn’t sound tinny coming through your DS speakers. It’s best in multiplayer though – you can have eight players from a single copy of the game, all contributing a part of each track. It’s really funny when someone messes up because it puts everyone else off, especially if it’s the drummer.

Woah, tangent. Anyway, yes. Japan. You’re right about the technology thing too – you begin to wonder whether it’s going to be almost a generation behind in terms of tech if this carries on.

I suppose its only Japan that you’re talking about but I do think that talk of the PS3 being the next Dreamcast is a little premature considering that sales of the PS3 have almost completely mirrored that of the PS2 so far, globally at least. Check it:

http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php?cons1=PS2&reg1=All&cons2=PS3&reg2=All&cons3=X360&reg3=All&weeks=156

If anything its the next Dreamcast, its the 360. Look at the pads man. God I loved the Dreamcast.

P.s Change one of them to the Wii and then look at the trend and think how many that things gonna sell. Ooh missus!

klanger13: That chart is broken… it has completely incorrect figures for the PS2.

What do you thinks wrong with it? Certainly the figures for the current gen look in the right area. Enlighten me thus…

klanger13: View the same data, but split the regions on the PS2.

Japan: ~6.0m
America: ~10.5m
Other: ~8.7m

Does that add up to the ~14.5m you see in the chart you linked?

(hint, no… it adds up to ~25m)

scampers off to check

Hmmmm, interesting. I wonder why? So is the different areas of SCE reporting different numbers? Is this the numbers shipped vs number sold problem?

Its the shipped numbers they are using – just in case you were spoddy enough to care:

http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdataps2_e.html

Can’t find where they got the worldwide sales from though?

No, it’s because VGChartz is a joke. Always has been.

As for where they get their figures. You sit on it.

Well, true. But at least it tries to base itself in reality rather than hearsay so I give it points for that. Not many points, but points.

Wouldn’t splitting out the regions obviously give you a larger number because you’re still looking at 156 weeks from launch, but the launch was staggered over seven or eight months (with each region launching at a different time)? So you’re actually looking at a much larger period of time than the graph suggests.

Not that I’m defending VGChartz and their ‘figures’.

Well, yes. But the’re also shipped figures so they will always be more. Anyway, the main figures all point to the fact that I am right. And thats all that matters

Nah, I’m with Psycho – that graph’s bollocksed somehow.

I’m right!!! La la la.

These are VGC’s sales (not shipped) numbers side by side.

PS3
Japan: ~2.2m
America: ~5.2m
Other: ~6.4m
Total: ~13.8m

PS2:
Japan: ~6.0m
America: ~10.5m
Other: ~8.7m
Total: ~25.2m

Japan and America should be fairly accurate. Other is sheer imagination. Either way, you can see clearly that the PS3 is no-where near where the PS2 was at the same point in its life.

You also have to remember that the PS2 was severely stock-limited for at least the first six months. Getting hold of one was hell on Earth. No such problems with the PS3.

You reckon a PS3 “slim” might do it, Blerk?

I do. I think it’d make a huge difference.

They look suspiciously like the shipped figures from the link for the ps2 if you ask me and I know that Sony used to always quote shipped rather than sold.

In any case, I think my original point was that calling the ps3 the next Dreamcast is a bit over the top at this stage. Even when you campare it to 360 sales.

There was a point they could say it truly in Europe though… but it was a trick of the release dates of the consoles.

PS2: 24/11/2000
PS3: 23/03/2007

Announce in January 2008 that you’re selling the PS3 faster than the PS2 did and you take into account a fully stocked xmas which the PS2 didn’t have at the same point.

You really think they shipped 6 million to Japan and only sold 2.2 million?

You can verify the Japanese numbers anyway. That data has always been available to the public.

I was talking to klanger, not you, monkey boy!

Don’t cry! I was looking for non-VGChartz info and found this amusing little nugget.