First they said VF5 was going to help the PS3 to do great numbers and improve hardware sales. VF5 sold ~50k and helped move roughly 8k systems Then they said Gundam Mosou + bundles would be the real deal, after all it was bundled + a huge game. Gundam Mosou sells 180k, but only moves ~20k systems. Whats next again? Phil Harrison's keynote at GDC to ressurect the PS3 in Japan?

@ HappySqurriel

Rome wasn't build in a day, I don't think the PS3 was designed to dominate at day one as it's more expensive than most traditional game consoles, the PS2 isn't discontinued and financially at this point this could even be problematic for Sony if that was actually already the case (unless this would immediately boost their HDTV sales significantly as well)! Yet, the PS3 is already doing much better than its closest competitor (in terms of pricing and specs) the XBox 360, selling twice the hardware install base despite a year headstart and more (second/third gen) games available. If Gundam Musou reached 170k sales this would also mean the game already outsold all the top selling XBox 360 games in Japan.

@ mrstickball

Who are "they"? Actually I read many conflicting opinions on this from PS3 users, yet I agree VF5 in Japan performed below expectations, I would have thought the game would have sold at least over 100,000 units in Japan at this point in time. Currently over 70k units of VF5 have been sold.

I think you missed my point ... I was saying his comment was more about how much the PS3 fanboys hyped the Gundam Musou. Now, as for the "Closest Competitor" ... Certainly the XBox 360 is a closer match to the strategy that Sony choose with the PS3 but the Wii is still a close competitor for both users and developers. Publishers and developers have limited resources to build games and can only focus on creating so much content at a given time; as long as the Wii's lead grows it will become (increasingly) difficult for Sony to aquire support from third-party developers.

Sony doesn't get going in the first yaer in terms of games. What Squrriel misunderstood is that. They sold PS2s quickly because everyone knew good games would come based off of the PS1. Now they know they won't come in the first year, so of course they haven't bought one yet. If Sony gets a remodel out in time for Christmas, they will tear it up. Granted, MS can drop the 360 premium to $300, but if there's a $400 PS3 in the US and a $350 PS3 in Japan there will be a war. A real one. This? It's a prelude. Sony was more worried about killing HDDVD than XBox360 for the first year, they'll probably worry about their console business in the second (like they did w/ the last two).

http://www.vgcharts.org/forum/thread.php?id=629&start=-0 Gotta loveit.

Thanks - exactly what I wanted to say MikeB: Of course the PS3´s installed base is much lower than the DS Lite´s installed base but Sony expected Gundam to be a millionseller, too. BTW: the 360 was never expected to sell better than the PS3 - in fact, it was expected to sell as "good" as the old box. And of course the PS3 doesn´t have to take over the japanese market in one day - but when shell it start? Next year?

The PS2 (and Gameboy Advance) were two consoles that represent a perfect merger of the correct product, reasonable price and appropriate time ... The PS3 in many ways could be seen as having been released too early ... Sony fans believe that this means that sales will pick-up later; I believe this will lead to the PS3 selling poorly, losing support from third parties, and eventually lacking the game selection to attract customers later.

Media Create Sales: 1. Gundam Musou 170,725 2. Super Robot Taisen W 139,311 3. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd 137,851 4. Wii Sports 39,639 5. Professor Layton 33,957 6. Wii Play 31,702 7. Iron Left Brain: Mistake Museum 2 28,495 8. Dragon Quest Monsters 27,236 9. New Super Mario 24,545 10. More Brain Training 22,854 11. Animal Crossing Wild World 12. Picross DS 13. Fire Emblem: Goddess of the Dawn 14. Mario Kart DS 15. Harvest Moon: The Island I Grew Up On 16. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 17. Common Knowledge Training 18. Wario: Master of Disguise 19. Brain Age 20. Pokémon Diamond 21. SimCity DS 22. Naruto: Shippuuden Gekitou Ninja Taisen! EX 23. Wario Ware Smooth Moves 24. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni 25. English Training 26. Death Note 27. Pokémon Pearl 28. Kanji Brain Test 2M 29. Heisei Board of Education DS 30. Bleach DS 2nd: Kokui Hirameku Requiem http://eg.nttpub.co.jp/ranking.html

The reign of the ps3 has finally begun, sales are very nice.