Kotaku
All this time Microsoft has been trying to use the Japanese RPG market as a way into the country, when all they needed was a little Namco Bandai arcade jet fighting action. Fueled by the success of Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation as well as recent price cuts, the latest Media Create numbers show Xbox 360 sales jumping from 3,718 in the previous week to a massive 17.673 units sold. The PlayStation 3, on the other hand, saw a drop that left them with only 17,434 consoles finding homes. That makes for the sweetest 239 Xbox 360 consoles Microsoft has sold in quite some time. Of course Nintendo continues to dominate them both, with 37,617 Wiis and 78,597 DS systems, but what I want to know is who are these 319 people buying the GBA SP? The future is now, people.
360 Beats PS3 In Weekly Japanese Hardware Sales [Gamasutra]
Comments
Wait, what's going on? We just saw this in the Hardware sales article!
But that picture is nice. I'll forgive you because of the picture!
Wow, Hell must have frozen over!
In before end of the world posts.
zomg!
Holy crap!
Interesting to see if the sales stay that way or if they drop right back to "their place" in Japan
well I am going into hiding see you guys after the nuclear holocaust
@NotAZombie: Also, IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD WE'RE GOING TO BE KILLED JUST LIKE THE MAYANS SAID BAH GAWD!
I would buy a 360 for Ace Combat 6. Actually, that's the plan whenever I can eventually afford to go through with it.
Good work from Microsoft. This would have literally been impossible a year or so ago.
HOLY CRAP! 360 outsells the PS3 in japan? I thought you would have better chances of shitting rainbow bricks then that happening. Sony is in trouble.
The bad news for Wii and PS3 isn't that the 360 sold well for one week, it's that the Japanese console market is dying, which makes the 360's inevitable third place finish less of a problem for Microsoft.
If this game can make a dead system show some life. I wonder what games like FFXIII and MGS4 will do...
as "t3h kids" say: GG MS GG!!!1!!1!
Jet fighter games are that popular huh?
@GamingPalooza:
MS just has more games right now. If things don't improve by this time next year, THEN Sony will be in trouble. Until then, all the nay saying and doom talk is just wishful thinking on the part of loyalists.
That's great for microsoft, a few years back no one would ever dream of a MS system topping the sales over there. I doubt it will be so good for them next month though.
@XbhaskarX: I should have said the bad news for the PS3. The Wii will be fine because it has Europe and America. But the PS3's second place finish in Japan will be pretty meaningless if it's selling only 10-25k per week there.
@ XBHASKARX
thats mad talk, Japan has more consoles and sells more DS's in a square block then anywhere in the world. Maybe their Sony fanship will die because the PS3 is a failure that won't die, but their console market is better then ours. They have more, a lot more, and they value it.
@XbhaskarX:
exactly, less than 30% of Wii sales are in Japan, and less than 25% of PS3 sales are in Japan. It's definitely not the main market anymore.
Don't get use to it 360 fans this is maybe the first and the last time this going to happen.
If you fans want to I can bet on it.
@GamingPalooza:
wait what? What sales charts are you looking at?
I just saw a pig flying around my house. Weird.
Well this is pretty much a tree falling in a forest no one cares and no one will hear it. Only the die hard fanboys will blow this out of proportion. Expect your typical 3k or less sales of the 360 next week.
Sony is getting the crap beat out of them.
Sony will get those back when Ace Combat 6 goes multi next year. It is coming, believe it.
@t0yrobo: Why do you say "things won't be as good for them next month"?
Lost Odyssey comes out in Japan on December 6, and will easily outsell Ace Combat 6.
The GBA can play original gameboy games whereas the DS cannot. Therefore it is superior. Well... maybe not... no not in the slightest.
@mcastro02:
Japan has a strange tendency to hold a grudge against subpar hardware. Think how American cars still don't sell there thanks to the shitty 1980's imports we started to send them back then.
Once they start finding out that a quarter of their 360 are going to die because their apartments are to small.
@GamingPalooza: DS and PSP sell like crazy because the Japanese take public transportation. The non-handheld market is dying in Japan.
@PapaBear434:
You act as if Microsoft didn't install new heatsinks or smaller chipsets into 360s...
@PapaBear434:
I meant to complete my thought there. My daughter and her Scooby Doo obsession distracted me.
"Once they start finding out that a quarter of their 360 are going to die because their apartments are to small, people will never touch Microsoft products in Japan again."
Maybe this will be the wake-up call Sony needs for them to realize they're losing the battle AND the war.
It'll still take a ton more work on the part of Microsoft before they stand a chance of gaining acceptance in the Japanese gaming scene.
This really isn't bad news or any news for Sony. I mean, yeah PS3 sales went down but that's normal fluctuation. It is huge news for MS though even if it is a one-shot deal. I'm sure they're glad to sell in the new-gen range even for a single week considering they've usually been down around GameCube sales.
The 319 GBA's were all sold with a pokemon game, likely. People have become re-addicted to catching them all. Just like a Bangcock whore who won't stop until she has every VD in the book. Gotta catch 'em all.
@lotkrota:
They have yet to do the chipsets, to my knowledge, and even if they did it doesn't fix the OTHER issues they've had, like faulty DVD ROMs, frying graphics cards...
And the heatsinks have done little to nothing to fix the overheating issue. Mine supposably had the new heatsinks, and it fried again within a few weeks.
@mcastro02:
mcastro02 said "Don't get use to it 360 fans this is maybe the first and the last time this going to happen. If you fans want to I can bet on it."
What a joke, you don't think the 360 will outsell the PS3 in Japan for a week ever again?? Okay, I'll bet on it. It may happen as soon as the week of December 2-8, when the 360 gets Lost Odyssey.
Wow, this is incredible news to say the least. Hats off to the folks at Microsoft, game well played sirs.
XBHASKARX What do you bet? lets do it noe.
@mcastro02:
Acually, once lost odysee comes out in december, expect the 360 to hit sales around the 50-90,000 mark. Blue dragon sold aprox.90,000 360's at it's launch so I wouldn't expect anything less of L.O.
@XbhaskarX: Is it really? I had totally lost track of what was going on with that game.
Either way it's hard to see this as much more than a fluke, but it's still really bad for Sony.
XBHASKARX
Ace combat 6 is and old franchise. Lost Odyssey is new you ignorant.
@mcastro02: Is "noe" even a word?
Yes let's bet. You said the 360 will never outsell the PS3 in Japan in any week from now until the end of time. I'm saying the 360 will outsell the PS3 in Japan in at least one week.
How about whoever loses leaves this site forever. I've got until 2010-2011 to win, whereas you may lose as early as this December.
@PapaBear434: Unless the Famicom was more reliable, the NES was a steaming pile with its faulty pin connector.
@mcastro02: Yes Lost Odyssey is new. So?
Blue Dragon was new and it didn't have trouble selling thru 90,000 360's and 200,000 copies.
@mcastro02: Don't get use to it 360 fans this is maybe the first and the last time this going to happen.
If you fans want to I can bet on it.
You do not have to bet on it because more than likely it will fall back. The thing about this, however, is that it shows the 360 can actually LIVE in japan as a main console as long as the games suit their taste.
So its not about the sales going back down for microsoft now, its about getting those games they want in Japan. Long story short, Sony had better get on it because I am sure this is also a shock to them.
What's that noise?
That is the sound of my jaw hitting the ground.
I expect next week will be Sony's week. Ceramic White PS3 and Dual Shock 3 will be the reasons (released on Nov 11).
So would that make Ace Combat 6 a soldier ace? (a la AC Zero)
"An Ace who can read the tide of battle. Can predict the situation in an instant and change the flow of battle."
Come on guys, two posts? Anyway, you've got a price drop, AC6 and some budget re-releases. It took that much for the console to have a decent week.. and beat the PS3 by 200 or so.
Wait wait wait... The 360 outsells the PS3 for one week by a tiny margin, and it's all over every gaming website? What is the world coming to, is Microsoft secretly paying people to put focus on this crap?
All in all, what's the big f'ing deal? Whatever, I agree with what RType said ^
Wow, nearly EVERY gaming website
So all Microsoft really needs to do in order to conquer the Japanese market is supersaturate their platform with Flight Combat sims and Final Fantasy 7 spinoffs?
I don't think this news should be viewed as console-is-better-than blah blah. It's simply the fruits of Microsoft's labor in Japan finally coming in. Even if it is just a few grapes on the vine, it's definitely growing.
@DimensionWarped:
thats it:P
XBHASKARX
You don't even know if Lost