Wii vs. PS3 in Japan: The Console Slaughter

Famitsu Magazine is reporting the Nintendo console, Wii, has managed to sell 7-million units in Japan. This is roughly three times the number of Sony’s PlayStation 3, the console with superior graphics and power.

Japan isn’t about graphics and power or they’re not a fan of the high priced PlayStation 3. The three times factor seems odd, still, considering the PS3 isn’t three times the cost and really isn’t that bad of a console. Unless the titles on Japan’s console are just not as inviting, the PS3 should be keeping pace with the tiny Wii console. Sony is a Japanese company as is Nintendo and both have a very good grasp of the games the Japanese culture is attracted to buying. What’s happening here!?

“The Wii’s 7 million sales put it far ahead of its foes in the ongoing console conflict in Japan. According to Enterbrain figures quoted by GameDaily, Japanese sales of the PlayStation 3 numbered just 2.37 million units as of September 30, when the Wii had sold around 6.83 million units in the territory. Sony estimates the PS3 sold nearly 17 million units worldwide by the same date.” (gamespot)

The Xbox 360 still can’t compete against the PS3 or Wii in overall numbers, regardless to boosts when they put out a game the Japanese actually find interesting. If Microsoft and Sony learn anything from this generation of consoles, it’s that simple makes better. No, we’re not telling the developers to end the goals of hardcore gaming… we’re just wondering if branching out a bit to scoop up some casual gaming interest.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Episode 340: Pennsylvania PolkaEpisode 340: Pennsylvania Polka

Paul is back for this episode, as this week actually has a Gaming Flashback and a Game History, the former being Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, and the latter being Black Isle Studios.

The news this week includes:

  • Followup: PS Vita Slim to launch in UK
  • Reports: Microsoft plans cheaper, disc-free, white Xbox Ones in 2014
  • Nintendo cuts overheard on executive salaries
  • Square Enix responds to Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III launch rumor
  • Razer to give Xbox One gamers more peripheral options

The Question of the Week, “What was the best game you played that you felt was unfinished?”

Tecmo Declines Square Enix PropositionTecmo Declines Square Enix Proposition

Square Enix, like many developers today, look to combine their efforts with like-minded individuals making video games for our industry. Recently they put out a bid to pickup Tecmo and expand their development archive to new heights by jumping into a few more genre’s without starting at the ground floor.

Tecmo, has decided to opt-out of the friendly bid for the company and has decided to persue a merger with KOEI instead. Square Enix could opt for a hostile take-over bid, much like we’ve seen occur to others in the industry but their smarter than that, Square Enix President Yoichi Wada went on record saying:

“If they truly dislike Square Enix, there is no point. All creators would leave the firm the moment the deal was done. It would be the equivalent of buying a building.” (reuters)

Although Tecmo hasn’t spit upon Square Enix and said they “hate” them, declining the take-over bid explains a lot about the direction Tecmo plans to go, and those plans don’t include Square Enix.

It would have been interesting to see what direction Square Enix would take with Tecmo. Perhaps Square Enix will look to another development company to bid on.

Microsoft Says Blu-ray Holds No 360 ValueMicrosoft Says Blu-ray Holds No 360 Value

Rumors float around the Internet questioning when Microsoft will ship a Blu-ray enabled Xbox 360 or add-on device like they did with the, now failed, HD-DVD. At CES 09 Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division, says this request is “way down the list.”

Mr. Bach had some great selling points as to why a Blu-ray player has little value in the world of Xbox 360. The primary reason, of course, being the Xbox 360 developers cannot take advantage of Blu-ray as a development platform for games. This was the price Sony, or the consumer, paid to own a PlayStation 3 since all games are printed on the media and are, in effect, Blu-ray “capable.”

We say capable because not all (any?) PlayStation 3 games currently make full use of the Blu-ray media. Many games will reprint the game on the media for optimization purposes, fill the game with international voice overs for all countries or, otherwise, stuff the media with something that will serve a useful purpose. Sony has near-future-proofed their device by giving game developers years of growth in terms of utilizing the Blu-ray capacity.

Microsoft chose to take the smaller old-style DVD format for games and media. Adding the HD-DVD didn’t add a large deal of risk because, as we saw, they can discontinue the model and not change their core gaming demographic. We still laughed a bit at them, but that was where it ended. Bach also said that it’s not really a great economic time to push a new 360 SKU on potential customers with additional cost just for Blu-ray movies playback.

They could add Blu-ray game development support as well but that would just alienate the “28 million Xboxes” they have already shipped.

“OK, let me get this straight: I’m going to add something to the product that’s going to raise the cost, which means the price goes up, consumers aren’t asking for it, and by the way, my game developers can’t use it.” (gamespot)

Of course, the first thing that came to our mind was “well, you did it for HD-DVD, how is Blu-ray different?” The key areas we can think of really come down to Blu-ray is a Sony technology and they are a direct competitor and, to top it off, HD-DVD allowed them to fight against the PS3 at the media level of the industry. They minimized the risk by making the product a secondary add-on device and, if HD-DVD had won, they’d have the winning format already under production (still not for games).

It seems Microsoft has changed their battle plans a little. They started out talking up the media aspects of the 360, using Media Center, renting movies and TV shows and had the HD-DVD as a subproduct. Today, they’re investing in Netflix for media and everything else favors the games.

Which is fine, we like games.