To celebrate the PS3’s 2nd Birthday in Japan Famitsu have been looking back and putting some numbers together.
The thing that I found to be the most surprising is the fact that no piece of software has broken the million mark for the PS3 in the land of the rising sun.
The leader in sales at the moment is MGS4 which has shifted 671,706 units. However what is even more surprising is that 476,334 of those units were sold within 4 days of it’s launch which goes to show that Solid Snake just doesn’t have the legs anymore.
It’s a very romantic idea that people still think that Japan is hugely important in the video game race when you look at the sales. In 2 years the PS3 itself has only sold 2 469 448 units in it’s home country which is a drop in the ocean compared to the 17 million it has shifted worldwide.
I honestly believe Microsoft are wasting their time trying to capture the Japanese market and would be better helped trying to secure all the smaller (current) markets with great potential like India, Brazil, China and of course South Africa.
Source: PS3Fanboy
Last Updated: December 9, 2008
LousyGamer
December 9, 2008 at 07:40
Hey, very good article.
I agree, India, China and Brazil have much more potential than Japan. So they should rather focus their efforts on the emerging markets and put Japan on the back burner. India and China combined have more than a third of the world’s population so that alone should be a driver for where the focus should be..
As for SA, growth potential is good, so we should also not be forgotten.
easy
December 9, 2008 at 08:46
the only problem with that is, that the 1st world countries are suffering from a recession obviously, which in turn has a massive effect on emerging markets. we are not feeling it now but will in the next couple months.
most commodities are going up around about the 25% mark, which is huge. ms and sony need to consolidate existing market share, which i feel sony is doing a better job of than ms.
its going to be a rough ride the next year or so.
Werner
December 9, 2008 at 09:00
What should also be mentioned with regards to India and China’s population. Although they might have a crap-load op people… more than half of those live in poverty.
RivaZA
December 9, 2008 at 09:25
China? Not a chance! You do get the Xbox 360 there, everyone chipped. This allows you to put in any laptop HDD into the little casing. And if you connect it online, instead of connecting to live it connects to a games database where you can download every game available for free straight to the harddrive. Don’t know if that includes online play though.
So there is no way anyone living in China is going to buy legit products.
Scotty777
December 9, 2008 at 09:55
hmmm… thing with South Africa is that with the sudden spike in console prices, I don’t think that we will have decent sales…
janrik
December 9, 2008 at 10:43
..or be able to afford to…
ferver
December 9, 2008 at 11:18
It’s not for the sales figures.
Japan has always been the videogame land, and some of the best publishers are located there (Square, Capcom, Konami, …). And when you see that the Wii has sold over 7 million units there… well I can easily understand why Microsoft would want to capture it.