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Sony’s Play Station 3 Outsold Nintendo’s Wii in November

December 3, 2007
By Ken Worsley


Late last month, Steven Towns over at Seeking Alpha noted that during the weeks ending November 11 and 18, Sony’s Playstation 3 had outsold Nintendo’s Wii for the first time. This was also discussed in the most recent edition of BizCast Japan, when Albrecht Stahmer brought up the fact that Sony is now awash in cash, and that challenging Nintendo could be one possible strategic course of action for the firm.

Now we know it’s official: According to market researcher Enterbrain, in the four weeks ending November 25, Sony moved 183,217 PS3 units in Japan, while Nintendo sold 159,193 of its Wii consoles.

Enterbrain is saying that the increased sales are due to price cuts on the PS3, which amount to about 10 percent. Beyond that, however, is the fact that a significant amount of game software is finally being released for the PS3 platform. A few months ago I said here that I expected the PS3 to be outselling the Wii within 18 months, and that better software would spur the sales. Some people said I was crazy.

Of course, Sony is still well behind. Globally, they have sold 5.6 million units, while Nintendo has sold 13.2 million units of the Wii, and Microsoft has moved 13.4 million units of the Xbox 360. I do think they are in for the long haul, however. In two years time it will be hard to see the value in buying a Wii - the novelty will have worn off.

But can Sony keep it up? How deeply will these price cuts hurt them? We already know they take a loss on console sales and try to make up for it with license fees collected from software sales. Then we have the big question: Will the Blu-Ray catch on? The debate over high definition DVD seems to have lost some traction, but at some point the issue is going to come to a head.

Filed Under Business, Retail, Technology 

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Comments

8 Responses to “Sony’s Play Station 3 Outsold Nintendo’s Wii in November”

  1. Martay on December 3rd, 2007 2:45 am

    Have you seen the Vii, a Chinese-made knock off of the Wii? Saw the video over at Japan Probe: http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=3285

  2. Sony’s Play Station 3 Outsold Nintendo’s Wii in November on December 3rd, 2007 4:51 am

    […] post by Ken Worsley and software by Elliott […]

  3. Ken Worsley on December 3rd, 2007 3:58 pm

    Martay, thanks for the link. Looks…umm…familiar. I wonder if the same games work?

  4. Bickle on December 3rd, 2007 7:31 pm

    I picked up the PS3 after they dropped the price. It’s impressive. Waving the controller around seems annoying to me. I like the graphics!

  5. Guy on December 8th, 2007 4:38 pm

    “In two years time it will be hard to see the value in buying a Wii - the novelty will have worn off”

    Does that comment come from an objective standpoint? I think it would be foolish to attribute the success of the Wii to mere novelty value. It truly adds something to a lot of games, and in addition to that, Nintendo isn’t sitting still. The new Wii Fit board is surely just one of more innovations to come.

    And Bickle, I guess from you saying “seems” annoying that you haven’t actually tried it out? Please tell me if I’m wrong.

  6. Ken Worsley on December 8th, 2007 6:03 pm

    Does that comment come from an objective standpoint?

    Not at all. It’s my opinion.

  7. Guy on December 8th, 2007 6:39 pm

    Okay then! But I don’t agree with it. Some people may dismiss the Wii control style as a mere novelty, but it really does make many genres of play a lot more interesting and indeed challenging, and opens the door for new genres requiring new styles of play to appear. I will probably buy a PS3 sometime later in its life, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who having played the Wii feels somewhat inactive when I just sit there and hold the pad, motionless.

    The PSP has a lot more high-tech functions than the DS too - music and film playback, not to mention the much higher quality visuals, but there are reasons it hasn’t overtaken the DS and won’t.

  8. Nintendo’s Wii opening a big lead in sales over Sony’s PlayStation 3 Japan Economy News & Blog - Business, Economy, Marketing and Economic Reports on February 1st, 2008 6:56 pm

    […] in early December, we reported that Sony’s PlayStation 3 had outsold Nintendo’s Wii gaming console for the first time ever in November 2007. Back then, in the four weeks ending November 25, Sony […]

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