yeah they did good this week

Software UP

Are you referring to Japan alone if not I see it quite differently.

Man, I post in these every time theres a new Japanese MC/Famitsu thread...But here it goes again.

1) The Xbox 360 isn't up in Japan merely because of ToV. It's up for other games too.
2) The Xbox 360 has never had such an increase in sales like it has for the past 5 weeks. Every big title has seen a slight increase in sales 1 week before a big game hits...This would be the equivalent of the PS3 going up to 20,000/wk for no actual reason.
3) It's very doubtful the Xbox 360 will dip below 3,000 units/wk until (maybe) October. With the trend we've seen, ToV, Clannad, and IU should keep sales very healthy until October. And then you have the exclusive TLR coming to the 360 in November.

And at any rate, the X360 is (oddly) in a position to give the Playstation 3 a European-style fight - to where both are battling for scraps in 2nd place...With the PS3 on top, but the X360 still fighting. It's hard to think that you could of said, 3 months or 6 months ago, that the Xbox 360 would be within 5,000 units per week of the PS3 WITHOUT a major release, and everyone would say your crazy.

Also, I guess the reason anyone cares about this (aside from MS owners) is that the Japanese market is pretty much as-expected: PSP on top, DS still doing OK to Good, Wii dominating the console race, and the PS3 underwhelming. The only thing that's really different, and unexpected is the X360. Give credit where credit is due :)

good job 360, should continue for a few months yet i think, specially with the coming games.

I actually agree with this. Maybe if the 360 gets close to 1uping the PS3 in Japan...it will convince Sony to at least try to secure some JRPGs.

Nice post. I think you have potential as a poster here sir. Just don't get jaded.

DS - considering the install base, 60k/week is pretty much excellent. Sales will be good over Xmas, and if Ninty want to bring in a PRICE CUT in Japan - sales will boost significantly again.

Wii - holding steady, excellent figures considering general "lack" of hit software for last few months. WiiFit & MK doing well for hardware.

PSP - excellent sales, be interesting to see where it ends up once Sony stops releasing new colours (etc). It is leading the market, but at the same time - its only 10k (15%) over DS sales at the moment.

360 - definitely on the rise, has been since E3 (?). If MS can string together a few big releases, they could significantly bump 360 sales long-term in Japan. As someone mentioned, already beaten total XBOX sales in the region by 30% or so.

PS3 - holding pretty steady, but probably the only hardware in Japan on some form of downward curve at the moment. Should steady around 10k, but will be interesting to see what happens if there are NO big releases for a few weeks.

...

Next few weeks will be big again, interesting to see how DS v PSP does, and 360 vrs PS3 does.

For the record: PSP + DS + Wii currently has 91% of the hardware market. So in a lot of ways (to retailers) the PS3 + 360 are virtually irrelevant at the moment.

I think you could also look at it like this

The fact the 360 has made this crawl to 5,000 with games like ES (although it hits the PS3 in September), Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon and the forthcoming IU, ToV and TLR, (timed) tells more about just how little interest there is for the 360 in Japan. Yes it is doing better then the XBox, but that's comparing itself to total failure, plus the 360 had a year in Japan all by itself. There is hardly anything that deserves congratulations for the 360 in Japan, other then "good job! You've gone from abysmal to terrible and are catching up to the PS3's craptacular"

The sales of the 360 shouldn't be seen as how "great" the 360 is doing/improving, but just how much of a rut the PS3 is in.

And by the same measure, using the same logic, also shows how horrible the Playstation 3 is doing in Japan. It just launched a game that has higher sales than the Xbox 360's 5 best sellers combined, yet can't sell as well as it did during it's "lull" before MNG5 did.

The Playstation 3 has had the same chance the Xbox 360 has in terms of software - it had Metal Gear Solid, Gundam games, Sony 1st party titles, leading sales for the multiplatform titles, yet can't sell a single unit more than it did LAST year on an average week-to-week basis. So if the Japanese gamers have little interest in the Xbox 360, then they certainly have no interest in the Playstation 3, and never will, even when FFXIII or <insert savior of the PS3> launches.