Last month, Sony characterized the Wii’s phenomenal sales as simply an "impulse buy," but Mario and Company may have the last laugh. Sales numbers for the month of January have been released by NPD and indicate that the Wii outsold both the Xbox 360 and PS3 during the month.
The console sales numbers for January break down to 435,503 Wiis sold, 294,000 Xbox 360s sold, and 243,554 PS3s sold in the U.S. Amazingly enough, Sony’s PS2 amassed sold 299,352 units–outselling the PS3 in the process.
SCEA put its own spin on the third place finish (or fourth place, if the PS2 is included) by saying that things would be looking up for the PS3 as more titles continue to be released for it. Sony said, "Tie ratios (number of games sold for each PS3 purchased) for the PS3 have improved by 80 percent since launch and should continue to climb with the release of the much-anticipated MotorStorm from SCEA and Virtua Fighter 5 from Sega." Virtua Fighter 5, once a PS3 exclusive, will be headed to the Xbox 360 sometime in the summer of 2007. Some are now speculating that the 360 version will offer online multiplayer capability–something the PS3 version does not. This wouldn’t be the first time such a thing happened–Sega did just this with Virtua Tennis 3.
Sony’s resistance to facing the facts as they unfold is exemplified by its executives dismissing the Wii’s success as an impulse buy. These words may come back to haunt the corporate executives at Sony as they see the PS3’s market share shrink in the shadow of continued strong sales of the Wii.
