Create new account
Forgot password?

NEWS

Japan: Hardware Sales Down Across the Board

Tom Ivan's picture

By Tom Ivan

September 12, 2008

  • Login or register to post comments

See also:

Related Articles:

Sales of all systems fell in Japan during the week ended September 7.

The DS retained the top spot in the hardware chart for the fifth week running with over 50,000 unit sales, while Sony’s PSP narrowly outpaced Nintendo’s Wii to hold second place.

Sales of Sony’s home consoles remained below the 10,000 unit mark, the PS3 once again edging the PS2 by less than 1,000 sales, while Microsoft’s Xbox 360 managed to shift just 1,044 units, presumably due to ongoing stock shortages.

DS - 51,412
PSP - 34,462
Wii - 33,128
PS3 - 8,317
PS2 - 7,948
Xbox 360 - 1,044

Sales data compiled by Media Create.

PantherLotus's picture
On September 13th PantherLotus said:

This week's MC LotusCharts:

http://lotuscharts.blogspot.com/2008/09/media-create-sales-0901-0907-har...
http://lotuscharts.blogspot.com/2008/09/media-create-sales-0901-0907-con...
http://lotuscharts.blogspot.com/2008/09/media-create-sales-0901-0907-han...

Enjoy!

Kim_Naroz's picture
On September 12th Kim_Naroz said:

The rise in Japanese demand has to do with the successful RPG game called "Tales of Vesperia."

Tales of Vesperia is the most successful Japanese RPG released yet--even more successful than Blue Dragon.

When Tales of Vesperia was released, the Xbox 360 completely sold out in Japan. Microsoft literally told the Japanese consumers that the country of Japan would be getting more Xbox 360 systems in early September.

There were ZERO Xbox 360 systems in the country of Japan to sell in the 3rd and 4th weeks of August.

Personally, I think this is an example of poor business management in Japan. Microsoft should have been ready to satisfy the BIG demand that Tales of Vesperia caused. Microsoft would NEVER miss an opportunity like that in North America.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the Xbox 360 down that the price has dropped in Japan, too.

NickgamertagO1's picture
On September 12th NickgamertagO1 said:

Should they have been able to anticipate just how large the demand was though? They've released big Japanese RPGs over there before (2 or 3 of them) and the demand never was THAT big. It could have been poor business management, it could have been that they honestly didn't feel the demand would sky rocket like that, or they did it on purpose so they can have a press release that shows the 360 completely sold out, which could foster increased demand as it seems like a hot item now that its sold out.

NickgamertagO1's picture
On September 12th NickgamertagO1 said:

Japan 360 monthly sales from January of 08

Jan-29, 361
Feb-5,231
Mar-9,041
Apr-5,231
May-6,678
Jun-16,878
July-18,315
Aug- 30,320 (after only 2 weeks, 1st week 5,359, 2nd week 24,962). Don't have remainder of August numbers though.

Looks like Japan sales have been up and down, but seems there's been somewhat of an increase in demand over the last 2 1/2 months. It does look like though that this year ms has sold at least 1,300 360s a week (at its worst). With weekly sales over the last 2 1/2 months averaging 5,118 consoles. So to drop to 1,000 a week (its worst week of the year after a somewhat sharp increase in average weekly sales and total monthly sales) seems as though it could be due to shortages. Or, the 360s recent rise in demand has just fell completely flat.

http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Media_Create_January_2008

Ozzman_79's picture
On September 12th Ozzman_79 said:

yes, this would qualify as vastly different. Probably is shortages, and, from the looks of June/July/August, increased demand as well.

Limanima's picture
On September 12th Limanima said:

Stock shortages in the XBox? That's just a big lie from Microsoft. How is it that possible? I don't believe that there aren't more then 1000 consoles for sale in the entire Japan.
I think that the low price strategy totally failed over there.

Ozzman_79's picture
On September 12th Ozzman_79 said:

I guess a good barometer about if this is true or not would be to go look at the sales a few months ago, before the shortage claims and see if the sales levels were vastly different. Personally, I don't care enough to dig in the archives to find the answer, but if someone did......