14 DAY TRIAL // The Sony made PlayStation 3 managed to sell better than the Nintendo Wii for the second month running. The claim comes from the data gathered by Enterbrain, the publisher of the Famitsu gaming magazine, and is backed up by the weekly data offered by Media Create, another company that is watching the videogames market.
Enterbrain is saying that, during April, the PlayStation 3 managed to sell more than 108,000 consoles in Japan, while Nintendo Wii only moved around 67,000 units. The other big home console, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, succeeded in selling only 27,000 units in the same month.
The biggest boost for the Sony home console came from the release of the Blu-ray version of the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children movie, bundled with a PlayStation 3 demo for the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII, which is set to arrive during the winter in Japan.
A lot of players were interested in seeing the movie and in getting their hands on the demo, which was quite impressive, although Square Enix is saying that it's taken from an alpha version of the game.
The PS3 repeated in April what it had achieved in March, selling better than the Wii for the first time in 16 months in Japan. In March, the PlayStation 3 benefited from the release of videogames like Resident Evil 5 from Capcom and Yakuza 3 from SEGA.
Still, the Wii is by far the best sold gaming console in Japan, with over 8 million units in the homes of players, while the PlayStation 3 just surpassed 3 million units sold. It's clear that Nintendo is feeling some pressure to regain first place in the home console market for the Wii, with Satoru Iwata, who is the president of the company, saying that “the Wii is in the most unhealthy condition since it hit the Japanese market.”