Japan: Xbox 360 beats PlayStation 3 for second week, PSP sales decline waiting for PSP-3000

The Xbox 360 may still not have outsold the Wii in Japan, but it’s definitely leaving the PlayStation 3 eating its dust. The latest numbers show that Xbox 360 sales in the region has exceeded the PS3’s for the second week running. In the handheld scene, it’s the calm before the storm as sales decline in anticipation for the PSP-3000.

The Xbox 360 may still not have outsold the Wii, but it’s definitely leaving the PlayStation 3 eating its dust in Japan. The latest numbers show that Xbox 360 sales in the region has exceeded the PS3’s by several thousand for the second week running.

While the Xbox 360 continues to outsell the PS3 though, its sales experienced a very sharp drop from the previous week. At that time it sold around 28,000, while the latest numbers show it only sold close to 14,000. The drop is believed to be caused by retail inventory problems, but it’s not clear how much of a factor that was.

Perhaps – it the inventory problems weren’t the overall cause – the huge downward spike might indicate that the sudden burst in sales might just as suddenly wink out. Remember, Sony wasn’t worried at all about the Xbox 360 price cut, saying before that they have no doubt that the Xbox 360 will have a sales increase, but that it’s not sustainable in the long-term. Were they right? At any rate, we’ll know in the following weeks.

In the handheld scene, it’s the calm before the storm as sales decline in anticipation for the PSP-3000. Sales experienced a drop of around 1,500 from the previous week. Here are the sales data for Japan for the week ending on September 21:

• DS Lite: 61,242
• Wii: 29,921
• PSP: 28,674
• Xbox 360: 13,777
• PS3: 8,156
• PS2: 7,720

• Japan: Xbox 360 outsells Wii, PlayStation 3 comes in last
• Media Create Japan: 360 really didn’t beat Wii; still beat PS3 though
• Sony on Xbox 360 price cuts: meh

Via Media Create