360 sales beat PS3 in Japan

Release of Ace Combat 6 boosts sales of Microsoft's system just ahead of Sony's competition.

Microsoft has had a notoriously difficult time cracking the Japanese console market, but this week the company notched its biggest victory in the country since Halo 3 topped the sales charts. The latest figures from Media Create show that the Xbox 360 sold more units than Sony's PlayStation 3 in the Land of the Rising Sun for the week ending November 4.

Last week's figures showed the DS Lite still on top with 78,552 units; the PlayStation Portable following with 59,714; the Wii at 37,617; the Xbox 360 at 17,673; the PS3 at 17,434; and the PS2 at 10,209.

By contrast, the previous week's sales recorded 3,718 Xbox 360s sold, and the week before, 3,011. The jump in sales was attributed to the release of the 360-exclusive game Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, which debuted at number two in the chart, and sold 76,708 copies in the first week.

673 Comments

  • Roger_K7

    Posted Dec 18, 2008 1:50 pm PT

    I'm just waiting for Namco to release an Ace Combat game for the ps3 maybe ace combat 7. does anybody know?

  • IIBlackknightII

    Posted Nov 27, 2007 10:00 pm PT

    Xbox 360 & ps3 is still expensive.I wonder when ps3 when will the price go down.The Ace Combat 6 is awesome.

  • rebelliousdude

    Posted Nov 21, 2007 8:47 pm PT

    theres so much irony! ace combat was playstation exclusive since it came out more than 10 years ago and now its only on 360. its the ex ps exclusive that gave the 360 its sales

  • rodrigo101992

    Posted Nov 20, 2007 7:29 pm PT

    thats wh i prefered to buy an x360, because i can play online more with others i dont know

  • turfwar10

    Posted Nov 19, 2007 10:39 am PT

    YES!!!! CRACK THE CHAMPAGNE XBOX!!!!!!!!!!!! PS3 HAVE A DRINK WITH US AS WELL!!!

  • Darth_Slayer

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 4:32 pm PT

    And your point is? The Wii is trashing both the PS3 and X360, and there's nothing glamorous about competing for last place. And the PS3 did cause losses to Sony whether throught software or hardware sales, and considering the fact that that major publishers such as EA always delay their PS3 releases running at lower frame rates, the PS3 is being treated like a second rate console, much like the Xbox last gen.

  • darkride66

    Posted Nov 13, 2007 11:35 am PT

    Huh. Look at that. After all that ballyhoo and it looks like this last week's data has the 360 becoming Japan's whipping boy again. That's too bad. I think the 360 is a solid console and deserves a better reception in Japan and the rest of the world (excluding North American of course) then it's currently receiving.

  • S_Pac_316

    Posted Nov 13, 2007 10:58 am PT

    Well, it's nice to know that it's getting some success across the pacific.

  • S_Pac_316

    Posted Nov 13, 2007 10:57 am PT

    Well, it's nice to know that it's getting some success across the pacific.

  • darkride66

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 6:46 pm PT

    l337fool asked "What is the largest console gaming market in the world today? How is the PS3 doing there compared to the 360?"
    Not too badly. Certainly doing better in Europe, but July almost saw PS3 pull ahead of the 360 in sales in North America(depending on where you get your numbers, it might have.) Not too shabby for a console that was only a few months old at the time. Sales in any one particular region aren't that important compared to the worldwide sales figures though. With the PS3 almost at 6 million after only a year and projected sales of 12 million or so next year alone, do you really think developers are going to turn a blind eye? I'm guessing they don't build their business models around fanboys spouting off on forums but rather rely on actual sales numbers and projections from real analysts. Besides, using your logic the developers should all abandon the 360 as well in favor of the Wii.

  • rockstar_88

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 6:06 pm PT

    Well...this is...a definite surprise to me.

  • Dixteel

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 4:26 pm PT

    Very interesting how a few games can make huge difference. I wonder what will happen when MGS 4 and FF13 get released. Will it tilt the balance again?

  • Dixteel

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 4:19 pm PT

    Very interesting how a few games can make huge difference. I wonder what will happen when MGS 4 and FF13 get released. Will it tilt the balance again?

  • neothe0ne1

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 3:38 pm PT

    Homerj: "The numbers that are important at this late stage in the current gen (over 1 yr out, not including the jumping ahead of MS) are the percentage of the user base that buys a particular title."

    No they aren't. The numbers that matter at this stage are the number of units of games sold. You _seem_ to be implying that later in your post, but overall your post is an incoherent wall of text that keeps contradicting itself. Judging from that sentence I quoted, you would be saying 40% of the PS3 userbase buying a game would be better than 10% of the Wii userbase buying a game... which is incorrect.

  • l337fool

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 3:31 pm PT

    darkride66 " it's nice to see that they're still selling on par with what the 360 did from launch."

    two question- What is the largest console gaming market in the world today? How is the PS3 doing there compared to the 360? Attach rates, game sales, etc while pehaps not important for the sake of Sony supporters these days are very important to the people who make games. I like video games and I hope you do to.

  • Homerj

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 10:39 am PT

    Attach rates as in "number of software titles sold per unit of hardware" is indeed unimportant. These numbers have relavance only in the first few months of hardware release. The only thing those numbers have told in this gen is that the 360 was purchased for gaming while the PS3 was purchased for other reasons (speculative re-selling, blu ray, etc). The numbers that are important at this late stage in the current gen (over 1 yr out, not including the jumping ahead of MS) are the percentage of the user base that buys a particular title. For the high end releases for 360, that has been around 20-40% per title (a tad higher for Wii if I'm not mistaken). For PS3 (with the exception of Resistance and Motorstorm) that rate has been around 5-10%. By elementary school math, an average AAA title would sell the same number of copies for PS3 if the install base were 4 times higher than that of 360 or Wii. The PS2 was king of the last gen because the huge install base could overcome the market penetration for a title. Even a title that sold to a couple percent could have sales figures of well over a million. The PS3 will not be an attractive target to devs until either the user install base goes up ten or twenty fold, or the market penetration of titles gets into the 40s or 50s.

  • darkride66

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 10:17 am PT

    I 100% disagree with Homerj. This early into the game no one is making any money off software yet, everyone is trying to increase their user base. Obviously MS and Sony don't think hardware sales are meaningless at this point or they wouldn't be neither of them would be bringing out new sku's or dropping prices. That's why PS2 games are still routinely outselling PS3 and 360 titles, because the user base isn't there yet. And, because I know Homerj will start blabbering on about attach rates, just google attach rates and read a couple of articles from analysts. High attach rates can be symptoms of low installed base. Almost one year into the PS3, hardware sales are everything, and it's nice to see that they're still selling on par with what the 360 did from launch.

  • Homerj

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 8:40 am PT

    Is everyone still on about the hardware sales figures? A year into the current gen (not counting the almost 1yr head start of 360), hardware sales are kind of meaningless. The important thing at this point is the software sales, as thats where the profitibility is, and thats what third party devs determine their business models on. The important thing here is that a 360 title hit number two on that weeks software sales chart...while the only other titles on that chart are for DS and Wii. The Japanese sales of Ace Combat 6 in one week were 1/3 of the total world wide sales of Heavenly Sword since release.

  • jay_rock_

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 8:28 am PT

    Digital_Hitman : Well thanks for reading lol I was playing my game,and kept stoping my game to type on my computer.

  • Arcanum

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 7:46 am PT

    Congratulations to Microsoft says the Sony guy

  • Digital_Hitman

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 7:45 am PT

    Jay, That must have been the longest run on sentence I have ever read. It was like reading a paragraph without any periods.

  • kejigoto

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 7:42 am PT

    @ JCDenton

    Not enough to account for these sort of numbers, there is like 2 or 3 military bases across Japan I believe and something tells me there isn't a huge amount of guys over there rushing out and buying Xbox 360s. More than likely they would have had one before heading over to Japan. These numbers are just too high to think that the US military presence over there would tilt the 360 sales this much, this is simply Sony losing business and its a direct result of the lack of anything decent on the PS3.

    Sure these are lack luster numbers, but so far its Sony's best, and compared to the Wii and DS its nothing. For those who think Sony is about to make up the ground its lost don't really seem to realize how much ground they actually have to make up. Not only that but the first heavy hitters for the Wii still have yet to arrive (excluding Super Mario Galaxy which arrives today). So that will definitely spur more Wii sales for those who have been doubting the console and its games. PS3 has a long ways to go and with all the delays on software, there's less and less reasons to get a PS3 every single day. Microsoft is doing well for itself, and if it can keep up this sort of thing in Japan, Sony doesn't have a chance. Maybe in 10 years the PS3 will beat the Wii, but I'm sure by then Nintendo will definitely have something bigger and better out.

  • OldWiseBob

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 6:40 am PT

    Never thought I'd live to see this happen.

    Congratulations Microsoft, you actually got some sales in Japan.

  • jay_rock_

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 6:07 am PT

    Klawgamer55 : Yeah I had 3 of them but thats not right why waste my money on a system that not going to last more then six months and yes I'am a big gow fan but then again I grew up on playstation frist not going to down sony for making mistakes MS got there to (the three rings) there fixing it yes I know but the only prob that sony has is the games but then again you got your reason I got my to, at least I can talk to you with out you down everything that sony does your a cool person later dude nice chat!!!!!!!!!!

  • shinchy

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 3:34 am PT

    Odd to see the PSP so high, I've had one since launch and still play it alot... but there is a hell of a lot of crappy games on the thing, thank god for the homebrew though.

  • TheoleDominion1

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 3:18 am PT

    Congrats MS, since I thought the x360 wouldn't even surpass the original xbox sales in consoles or games.

  • Game-o_O

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 2:09 am PT

    Is this accounting to how many 360's shipped or sold?

  • Klawgamer55

    Posted Nov 11, 2007 10:33 pm PT

    jay_rock_ : Your right I do own a 360, been through four of them and still wouldn't trade it in for a PS3 because as I have stated Sony has nothing that interest me coming out. And I'm not buying one damn Hi-Def movie in any format until there is one standard.

  • Devvy01

    Posted Nov 11, 2007 9:52 pm PT

    VHS Vs Beta, Blu-ray Vs HD, XBOX vs PS3, where can I put some bets down please? Wish I had that damn delorean now!

  • V-Nine

    Posted Nov 11, 2007 7:26 pm PT

    After berating Sony in a similar minor sucess article I won't cheer for Microsoft . These lackluster numbers...heh.

  • monk12345

    Posted Nov 11, 2007 7:07 pm PT

    *face palm* This is what Sony get's for losing their exclusives. How can they lose a big franchise like Ace Combat!? It's going to be way worse for if Final Fantasy 13 goes multi-platform.If that does happen not even MGS4 can save the PS3 *sigh*

  • The_AI

    Posted Nov 11, 2007 4:30 pm PT

    Hell has frozen over. The PS3 is now losing everywhere, and the 360 is doing meh in Japan, as opposed to freaking terrible.

  • mpoulin

    Posted Nov 11, 2007 2:11 pm PT

    WOW.....Good for Microsoft!

  • Joshua250

    Posted Nov 11, 2007 12:36 pm PT

    It's the end of the world! Oh well. *Goes back to playing his 360.*

  • jay_rock_

    Posted Nov 11, 2007 12:29 pm PT

    Klawgamer55: Yeah I see what your saying you got a real good point but I'am pretty shore everyone had a ps2 but then again sony F up when they remove the rumble from the controller which made me mad @$$ hell but they fix that I have to wate for it next year just like everything else lol just like I wated for fable when it came out on the xbox but why do those fangirls hate the ps3 so much really not saying your one but you do own a 360 right!!!!!!

  • JCDenton

    Posted Nov 11, 2007 10:28 am PT

    I kind of wonder how many american military guys live in japan...are they the ones buying halo and ace combat??

  • ENDOT12123

    Posted Nov 11, 2007 10:27 am PT

    this is war...................who will win?

  • everythingj

    Posted Nov 11, 2007 7:39 am PT

    it.. has.. BEGUN.

  • Azhar85

    Posted Nov 11, 2007 5:48 am PT

    3 years...too late..until that 360 has many games to play and fans rather than ps3...

  • raze-boi

    Posted Nov 11, 2007 12:22 am PT

    Go Xbox 360!!!

  • Wellscha

    Posted Nov 10, 2007 10:00 pm PT

    Guys, Some of you downplay this saying that next week the sales will fall down which is true. More or less this is considered "symbolic" victory to 360. It proved that the whole "Japanese hate foreign products" and "Japanese Gamers hate the 360" is pure none sense.

    The 360 will sell well in Japan as long as it has many games made specifically for the Japanese gamers.

  • MangyForestCat

    Posted Nov 10, 2007 9:28 pm PT

    WOW....

  • playstation_wii

    Posted Nov 10, 2007 9:01 pm PT

    wow, I thought it would even be behind the ps2!

  • drangel_jam

    Posted Nov 10, 2007 7:54 pm PT

    The numbers are still horrible if you ask me, the X360 didn't beat the PS3, the PS3 is simply dormant.
    If this an indicator of progression, I'm happy for the X60, but seriously, the Japanese market clearly has a problem with western brands. Everybody knows that the Xbox 360 has the best and more games, but all they do it's wait 3 YEARS to buy a worthy PS3 and games like MGS4, and FFXIII come out.

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