The PlayStation 3 outsold the Wii and Xbox 360 in Japan this week. It also outsold the Nintendo DSi, PSP, DS Lite and PlayStation 2, not something we've seen happen too often.
The hardware boost, propelling the PS3 out of its regular fourth place finish, can be chalked up to the release of Yakuza 3 (AKA Ryu Ga Gotoku 3) for the platform which sold 372,000 copies during the week. A bundled version that shipped with a white, dragon-emblazoned PlayStation 3 likely helped move more hardware than normal—enough to outsell the Wii and Xbox 360 combined.
We'll be interested to see how the newly released Resident Evil 5 affects hardware sales next week, as it will be available on both hi-def console platforms.
The bestselling hardware in Japan for the week of February 22nd to March 1st is...
- PlayStation 3 - 36,513
- Nintendo DSi - 35,827
- PSP - 35,588
- Wii - 17,876
- Xbox 360 - 11,795
- Nintendo DS Lite - 11,774
- PlayStation 2 - 5,099