News Blog

Sales for Sony Corp.’s Playstation 3 moved closer to Nintendo Co.’s Wii in the Japan retail sales for the month of Aug.

Magazine publisher Enterbrain on Mon. reported that the Wii sold 245,653 units compared to the PS3 at 81,541 in Aug. Despite being outsold by 3-to-1, the PS3 was previously outsold by Wii by 4-to-1 in July and 6-to-1 in June.

PS3 sales were bolstered by the release of Everybody’s Golf 5 in Japan, which has sold more than 280,000 units to date in the territory. Additionally, weekly sales of 20,000 units were highly than a previous average of 12-13,000 units per week.

The PS3 debuted in Nov. 2006 in Japan and has held lower-than-expected sales due to lack of top software and high cost.

By comparison, Wii has held a mass-market reception on casual game titles like motion-sensitive sports and carnival games to attract a wide audience of consumers.

The PS3 has sold more than 1 million units to date in Japan compared to 3 million Wii units sold in the territory.