It was assumed early on that despite the beating both high definition console are taking from the Wii, the PS3 would eventually defeat the Xbox 360 worldwide because of Japan.

Lately however, it has become abundantly clear that the PS3 (and of course the Xbox 360) are stuffed in Japan.  The nation has chosen the Wii as it's console, and just a few weeks after DMC4 and a week before Yakuza 3, Sony is selling 15k units, perhaps even less.

What is looking up for Sony is the situation in Europe.  For some time it looked like Microsoft was successfully competing with Sony in Europe, but now that situation is changing drastically.

It now appears that Japan is a lost cause for both High Definition consoles, and that if Sony's worldwide victory is to be entertained, it must be won in Europe.

Does anyone have any realistic (as in doable, profitable, marketable) ways in which Sony can lift it's sales in Japan, or Microsoft can lift it's sales in Europe in such a way as to affect the second and third placings of this generation? 

i totally agree with you. sony can lift its sales in japan if it releases like ridge racer 8 or something lol.

i dont think 360 can do any better in europe as it seems now every1 is turning to ps3, unless they release some soccer game thats better than fifa or pes 08 or something crazy...

MS: Heavily push Fable 2 when it comes out. Also, bundle GTAIV to grab themselves some who want the game but are undecided on the console.

Sony: price cut, and Final Fantasy will give it a big boost.

I disagree on the point that PS3 sales are low despite Yakuza 3 being a week away. There's a bundle for Yakuza 3, so why would people buy it now, when they can buy it next week? Now, I don't expect a significant boost, but it should be enough to push the PS3 past 20k. I think. While I don't expect the PS3 to win out in Japan at all, eventually when enough RPG and mainstream titles for Japan roll out, the PS3 should be forever out of the teens someday. Well, at least for a while.

Microsoft has been pushing EA really hard for things like better versions of games and advertising agreements, but I reckon it would be AMAZING (granted, unlikely) if they moneyhatted EA into one year of Fifa09 high-def exclusivity.

MY worry for Sony in Japan is that sales arn't spiking for long enough after largish games. It is beginning to look like all the hardcore crowd that would buy MGS4, FFXIII etc already have a PS3, and the few that don't buy it launch week or shortly after for the game they want. I think GT5 will move some consoles, but i'm losing confidence in how many.

Well considering the amount people in Japan are willing to pay for PS3's with BC I think Sony really just needs to give them back an option with BC, that should help it a good amount. I believe they only have the 40g PS3, which is pretty unfortunate.

MS in Europe though....that's a tough one because I couldn't really tell you why PS3 is winning there in the first place....I haven't really looked into it.

But the problem is the Yakuza bundle is only 10k, and most of the JRPG's will surely go to the Wii, where the hardware sales are.

Elsewhere, the Xbox 360 is getting all the good WRPG's.

I know the Yakuza bundle isn't much, but I mean we'll see it out of the teens likely. And while plenty of JRPG's are going to the Wii, a title like WKS (from Level 5) or FFXIII isn't. Nor the Last Remnant. And I don't think they're going to be ported either.

Im not sure I would call either of them stuffed.

At the current rate it will take the PS3 about 34weeks to catch up to the 360 in europe. I think the 360 should outperform the original xbox as well. So it isn't really stuffed. I don't think Microsoft can really boost their sales in Europe anymore though. Tbh I think MS have basically got themselves to a point now where the 360 will outperform the xbox but it won't be by a huge amount as im sure they were hoping. It just seems like they have stable sales now and don't have much to boost them. They have exclusives coming, but a lot of the exclusives don't seem like the games that would sway new users. So I think the sales will pretty much just stay around where they are with little peaks every now and then.

And the PS3 in Japan isn't stuffed, it just doesn't look like it will manage to be anywhere near the success the PS2 was. Im sure FF etc will help. It definetly seems to be in a bad way at the moment though. My theory is that all the hardcore gaming otaku in Japan already have the PS3 and so sales have drastically slowed since it's casual appeal is pretty much 0. I mean the fact that last week the sales difference between the 360 and PS3 in Japan was only 10k is very worrying for Sony. I do wonder if the PS3 will ever be able to have mainstream appeal here in Japan. Im not even sure the Tsutaya (like blockbuster) near me rents Blu-ray =/ In fact I don't think i've even a single blu-ray movie here. HDTV's seem really rare as well. So no blu-ray and no HDTV's kinda limits the appeal of the PS3.

The PS3 has enough "fanbase" games to be reputable in Japan. What they really need to do is either software emulation or bring in the 80gb. Japanese love their BC.