Japanese gamers just aren't buying hardware right now. Sales are way, way down from the same point last year, with the PSP selling at half the rate and the Wii at a mere quarter.
That severe drop in Wii sales overseas has meant a closer weekly race between the PlayStation 3 and Wii, with just 4,000 units sold separating them. That said, PS3 sales have dropped considerably from the same week last year.
Nintendo DS sales, however, are basically the same, thanks to the 50,000 or so Japanese gamers who are still snapping up the new DSi model on a weekly basis. In fact, the only console that has improved its sell-through rate in Japan has been the Xbox 360, which was doing pathetic numbers in the first quarter of 2008.
The weekly Media Create hardware sales numbers for the week of February 2nd to the 8th are...
- Nintendo DSi - 49,529
- PSP - 34,969
- Wii - 20,412
- PlayStation 3 - 16,082
- Nintendo DS Lite - 12,484
- Xbox 360 - 8,311
- PlayStation 2 - 5,089