After the fun and games of the PlayStation 3 launch last month, the figures are in for the first full weeks of sales in Sony's home territory of Japan and they're not as bright as expected.
Although Sony doesn't release such details and usually won't comment on sales anyway, Tokyo-based market-research firm Media Create keeps track of the data.
According to Media Create, 42,099 PS3 consoles were sold between 13 and 19 November. This contrasts sharply with the 81,693 units shifted on 11 and 12 November alone. The fall continued the following week, with just 32,622 PS3s being sold in the week to 26 November.
The steep fall in sales may be due to a shortage of consoles, although Sony has adhered to the line that shipments are proceeding as planned to shops in Japan and the US.
By way of comparison with competing consoles and handhelds, here's the full breakdown for games hardware sales in Japan in the week to 26 November:
- DS Lite 201,378
- PS3 32,662
- PSP 30,815
- PS2 26,263
- Xbox 360 7,007
- Game Boy 2,526
- GameCube 576
- Xbox 0
While the lead established by Nintendo's DS Lite is as unsurprising as the zero sales attributed to the original Microsoft Xbox, it's intriguing to note that the PS2 is just 6,000 sales beyond its younger sibling, the PS3. J Mark Lytle
