PS3 suffering in Japan, its predecessors selling better

Sony might be prominent in Japan, but the PlayStation 2 and PSP take most of the hardware sales share. The ambitious PS3 is suffering, just like in most places (except Germany).

Media Create Co.’s latest weekly retail sales data for Japan show that the PS3 sold 8,659 units – all time low for the console. It’s not much different from last week’s 8,839 units sold, but things aren’t looking good. Software sales aren’t going well neither: no PS3 titles are on the top 50 from last week ’til now.

On other hand, PSP sold 27,505 while the good ol’ PS2 is still fighting with 10,881. Plenty of third-party publishers supporting the PS2 with games that never reach outside Japan make it no surprise, that the gamers there lean toward the machine with a wider library.

Sony lost US$ 563 million in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year due to PS3 manufacturing costs and had sales figures that would make Ken Kutaragi cry.

The 80GB version in Korea could be made available in other territories, says Media Create Co. Maybe we’ll get our price cut too, but that isn’t very likely. It’s pretty obvious that Sony needs to make a move and make ends meet, or else they’d be crossing their fingers hoping that new titles will generate more interest among those that don’t own a PS3 yet.

Sony might be prominent in Japan, but the PlayStation 2 and PSP take most of the hardware sales share. The ambitious PS3 is suffering, just like in most places (except Germany).

Media Create Co.’s latest weekly retail sales data for Japan show that the PS3 sold 8,659 units – all time low for the console. It’s not much different from last week’s 8,839 units sold, but things aren’t looking good. Software sales aren’t going well neither: no PS3 titles are on the top 50 from last week ’til now.

On other hand, PSP sold 27,505 while the good ol’ PS2 is still fighting with 10,881. Plenty of third-party publishers supporting the PS2 with games that never reach outside Japan make it no surprise, that the gamers there lean toward the machine with a wider library.

Sony lost US$ 563 million in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year due to PS3 manufacturing costs and had sales figures that would make Ken Kutaragi cry.

The 80GB version in Korea could be made available in other territories, says Media Create Co. Maybe we’ll get our price cut too, but that isn’t very likely. It’s pretty obvious that Sony needs to make a move and make ends meet, or else they’d be crossing their fingers hoping that new titles will generate more interest among those that don’t own a PS3 yet.