PS3 outselling Wii and 360 in Australia

Last week, Nintendo Australia was shouting from the rooftops about the success of the Wii in the country, with the console becoming the fastest to reach 100,000 units sold down under. Now Sony Computer Entertainment Australia (SCEA) has gone on the offensive, with managing director Michael Ephraim saying the PlayStation 3 has been the number one-selling next-gen console in the country since its launch, outselling the Wii and the Xbox 360 almost every week.

In an interview with GameSpot AU, Ephraim quoted figures from data trackers GfK Australia, which show that the PS3 has sold more than 50,000 units since it was launched on March 23, 2007. In comparison, the Wii has sold 100,000 units since its launch on December 7, 2006. "Based on GfK since launch, PS3 has been the number one next-gen console, outselling Wii and Xbox 360 every week, except for last week," Ephraim said.

"Since March 23, PS3 has been the number one-selling next-gen console in Australia, and this is GfK figures. We've now sold 50,000--and we're very excited about the fact that it's being sold in retailers that are gaming retailers as a gaming device and other things, but as you'll notice it's now being sold in Harvey Norman consumer electronic stores as a Blu-ray player."

Australia's next-gen console sales figures seem to be in marked contrast to Japan's, with figures from May showing that the Wii outsold the PS3 by five units to one.