It was expensive, no doubt, but as far as the Wii went; the Wii had sole access to a majority market segment that would never show any interest in the PS3 concept anyway, the PS3 greatest hurdle was the 360 and the 360 was clearly not a factor in Japan.
Even with things going against it, losing exclusivity of key franchises such as Final Fantasy and the ridiculous price, there is no arguing that it launched in a far kinder Japanese market for traditional consoles.
Japan has moved more and more in a convenience-oriented direction, they started really favoring handhelds and now we're clearly seeing the 3DS suffer the most in this region despite some fairly poor competiton to Sony's worst selling console ever, by far, as well as tanking home consoles.
On top of that, the Wii U collapsed again in January and is actually down a fair bit year-over-year in Japan, a highly unusual happening in a console's second CY, where it should traditionally climb globally and regionally regardless, this is especially telling when you factor in the purchasing incentives in the Japanese market; they have the best bundles, they had the most time with Wii Party U and Wii Fit U (not that they would have at any rate), and Japan had by far the most enormous sales spike of all the regions in Q4, and collapsed just as badly.

The Japanese market is quite simply not as interested in consoles any more; it won't matter if the PS4 is cheaper than PS3, it won't matter that there is no phenomenon eating up sales (from a market segment that wouldn't touch a PS4 with oven mitts anyway) and it certainly won't help that most of the industry, even the Japanese developers, have taken a turn towards Western-centric features, mechanics and appeal. The mobile/tablet market in Japan has now surpassed the US, despite the US being a much larger gaming market for consoles and overall software as well as in sheer population, this speaks volumes of where the Japanese audience is headed. I just can't see the PS4 outperforming the PS3 in lifetime sales in Japan, but I think it will have a slightly higher yearly average, but a shorter lifecycle. I'll be very surprised if the PS4's baseline is 20k or more through Q2 and Q3, if it climbs towards and over 25k; I'll be downright shocked.

Meh, to be expected. Still beating WiiU though. lol I know....

I am not too familiar with vague joking and a lot of people have strange beliefs on here full of fear and loathing. So you never know. I am expecting a big first week, but nothing to big following that as this is a new IP and by no means a proven well selling IP. If it sells consoles for more than 4 weeks it will be a rare gem amongst new IPs. It would have to be Ass. Creed big for a new IP sales. Call me a skeptic of that.

Wow, that's a huge difference, but its mainly cause of the Japan launch.

That's true but it doesn't matter if the X1 is out in Japan or not.  From now one, PS4 is going to dominate every week with Japan release while the Xbox can only rellies on Software and price cut.  Unless the X1 got a lot more exclusive compare to what it has now, they will be falling behind even furthur.

me loves this news.

@Patty2720 and wht angle is that. o it's the I cant see it angle. best angle ever lol.

X1 has no chance in Europe and Japan even with price cuts and more exclusives. The only territory they can win this gen is N.A, but even that is looking unlikely unless it takes a massive price cut. 

Sad to ser the PS4 selling. People wait 7 years for the new generation and only want best graphics? Xbox One is a true new generation console: Kinect 2, cloud, voice, best apps, etc...

Yeah the PS4 has a 1.25m lead in EU. That's huge at this stage.

In NA it's only a 300k lead. So I think the Xbone could remain quite competitive there with the right titles and pricing.