By Tom Magrino, GameSpot Posted Apr 7, 2009 10:11 am PT Financial Times report indicates Nintendo console sales slipped 63% during March to 99,335, well below the Sony system's 146,948 units.

 The Japanese gaming market may be diminutive compared to the US and Europe, but the last month has seen Sony establish a leg up in the region over its current-generation console rivals. Citing figures from industry research firm and Famitsu publisher Enterbrain, the Financial Times reports that the PlayStation 3 sold 146,948 in Japan for the five-week period ended March 29. That figure easily trumps the PS3's closest competitor, the Nintendo Wii, which sold 99,335 units during the same period.

 The FT notes that Sony's win in the region for the period is marked as much by the uptick in PS3 sales as a weakening in Wii sales. Wii sales for the period were off nearly 63 percent from the year-ago period, the financial trade reports, due in large part to its lack of compelling releases in March. On the other hand, the PS3 saw the release of anticipated games such as Sega's Yakuza 3 and Capcom's Resident Evil 5, both of which topped Media Create's weekly software charts. However, Nintendo seems unfazed by the Wii's lagging sales in Japan.

 "It is still the first few months of the year when sales are slow for the industry, so we are not particularly concerned," a representative told the FT. "We hope to line up strong software to support hardware sales in the second half of the year." Despite its recent downturn in Japan, the Wii remains the most popular console in the US. Reporting on February sales last month, the NPD Group revealed that the Wii easily outsold the PlayStation 3, 753,000 units to 276,000.

hopefully starts ps3 outsells wii in other regions too!!!!!

Good win. Almost a 1.5:1 ratio.

Also, VGChartz data says 113,813 (PS3) to 74,435 (Wii), so while our numbers are far lower, they're still a very similar ratio.

What Rohail misses is that the PS3 got Resident Evil 5 during March (and some other nice games), while the Wii got absolutely nothing particularly interesting. That accounts for likely 50% of the PS3's hardware sales alone.

no im just saying that i hope that the ps3 outsells the wii...i know that cant happen...given the current situation

FF13 and the hype leading up to it will keep the PS3 over Wii all year. Big surprise? No. :P

 no...but maybe not all year though

Did you read the 3rd paragraph?  He does make that same exact point.

Well, Ps3 outsold Wii in Feburary as well.

The differences in numbers come from what weeks each tracking service considers part of each month.

VGC has Yakuza 3 releasing in Feb, whereas MC had it in March.

You know an article is biased when it says "Sony systems."  The numbers included PS2, it's basically SDF.