Houston Community News >> Wii Outsells Sony PS3 By a Margin of Five-to-One
6/6/2007- A little over a year
ago, analysts and industry watchers would have bet that the battle for dominance
in the so-called "next-generation" video game console arena would have been
between Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3, with Sony in the dominant
role and Microsoft doggedly playing catch-up—and virtually no one mentioning
Nintendo. But the future isn't what it used to be, and another sign has come by
way of Japanese game magazine publisher Enterbrain, which reports the Nintendo
Wii outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 by a factor of five to one in Japan during the
month of May.
According to Enterbrain, Sony managed to sell 45,321 PS3 units in Japan during
May. Conversely, Nintendo moved 251,794 Wii consoles. The move continues the
Wii's winning streak in Japan: during April, Enterbrain found the less-expensive
console with the innovative controller outsold the more-powerful PS3 by four to
one.
Sony says it will ship 11 million PS3 units by the end of its fiscal year in
March 2008; however, that target seems to be slipping further into the realm of
wishful thinking. In the United States, market research firm NPD Group also puts
the Wii significantly ahead of the PS3, consistently ranking it as the
top-selling gaming console.
The PlayStation 3's lagging sales darkens the shadow looming over Sony's gaming
division, which posted an operating loss just under $2 billion for its fiscal
year ended March 31, 2007. The massive start-up costs associated with the Blu-ray
equipped PS3 console dragged down Sony's overall profitability.
(Contributed by Digital Trends News.com)