There is no law that says Final Fantasy titles cannot release on workdays in Japan. The law you are thinking about pertains to Dragon Quest.

i think slim PS3 with a discount equivalent to US $50 will really pull the avg weekly sales to 15 - 20k level... add few good games and it could be in 25k range..

The PSP hardware never really sold badly in Japan. It's just that DS hardware and software sales made PSP sales look bad.

FFXIII + PS3 slim= 20k sales a week

PSP hardware sales weren't bad enough to be at say...PS3/GC levels or lower. But they were nowhere near as good as they are now. It sold slightly faster than the Sega Saturn without the software power that the Saturn had.

The PSP has always had rock solid sales in Japan; there's really no comparison between the 2 platforms. The PS3 is as good as dead and nothing will change that.

Yes

For portables, it's a lot more reasonable to upgrade. PSP is a lot cheaper to upgrade. Also, portables go through a fair amount of abuse, so they degrade over time as well. I think existing owners are more open to upgrade a portable unit.

A home unit OTOH does not go through the same abuse. In addition, someone who spends $400-500 on something expects it to last a long time. That is a heck of a lot of money just to save a bit of shelf space.

So while it a slim version might be successful at getting new buyers to commit, I don't see quite the demand from existing owners that a portable might receive.

I am very sure PS3 will have the same kind of surge later in the middle of its career. When the PS3 Slim hits Japan, along with a $100 price cut equivilent, and FFXIII, FFvsXIII, Gran Turismo 5, and the new team ico game, I think the PS3 will explode on Japan. In fact once this happens (and I think it will be late next year) PS3 will take off world wide and then we will see what the feel for PS3 is on these forums.

I think it can do it....specially a redesigned unit with a lower price will do wonders for the machine.As for software ,I think its doing pretty well in Japan for the userbase ,thing is that "hardcore gaming" is a lot smaller that what it was ....maybe in some years a new generation of otacus will bring some strong demographics to that market but right now is a lot reduced from its prior glory.So it would need some casual sales ,too ....things like Singstar ,Buzz and Eye Pet could be bombs in japanese market but for some reason SCEJ avoids those games as disease and hasnt released even one of those there.They should change their direction.