Enterbrain, a Japanese market research firm, has released sales figures indicating that Nintendo’s Wii is outselling Sony’s PS3 by a margin of almost 3 to 1. The data seems to show that Nintendo has widened its lead from December, when the Wii’s sales ratio with the PS3 was two to one.
According to the report, Enterbrain believes that the Wii is leading because of a better selection of launch titles and relatively inexpensive price tag. The research firm estimates that the Wii has sold 1.4 million units in Japan, compared to 614,000 PlayStation 3s. Sony originally planned to have at least 1 million units sold by the end of 2006. Hirokazu Hamamura, President of Enterbrain, said that he believes another price cut is due for the PS3, and that Sony’s machine fare better as more game titles become available for it. "There could be a price cut for the PS3 by the end of the year, and more software titles will hit the market. I expect the PS3 to be doing better after a while. Of course, the Wii will keep running ahead all the while," he told Reuters.
Media Create, another Japanese research firm, showed that the top ten software sellers during the week of February 2 were comprised of six DS titles, two PS2 titles, and two Wii titles. The PS3 had only one game place in the top 50 list. Sony’s first hurdle with the PS3 was to manufacture enough units to meet demand. Now that enough stock is available on store shelves, the next step is to provide enough quality software for the machine. Most industry watchers are waiting for the next wave of games to determine if the game console can truly live up to the hype. Meanwhile, Sony is hoping to exonerate itself from accusations that the PS3 is overpriced and underperforming.
