I disagree that it's an important week for either platform...

All this shows is that there's a hardcore group of Japanese Final Fantasy lovers who are looking forward to FF13, and willing to buy a demo and a Final Fantasy special edition console. This is not surprising or revealing in any significant way given the importance of the franchise.

As far as the Wii goes, I don't see any reason why it's an important week for it. There was no significant software for it, and sales were basically the same as last week as expected... An important week for the Wii will be the next one when Monster Hunter G comes out (and even then not a terribly important one since it's just a port of an old game).

What this week shows is that there's a group of Sony fans on this site who get easily excited about a one-time sales spike.

I disagree back

I said interesting as in overall interesting as some uncommong events took place. I think it's important for PS3 though as it should convince SE that FFXIII will go gangbusters in Japan. I know as you state this is seen as a given but with 360 spikes due to jRPG and many Japanese developers looking seriously interested in the platform this is just the kind of clear message PS3 needs that it is locally probably the best HD platform for jRPG and Japanese centric titles. I see that as important personally. EDIT: when I say personally I don't mean preference. I don't actually play jRPG titles really. I just mean in terms of something of note in local market conditions.

I don't see why MS wouldn't continue to work behind the scenes to get FFXIII on 360 too, for example (SE are clearly open to changing their tack if convinced) and this should make it a lot easier for Sony to convince them not to confuse local consumers by doing so.

As for Wii it's not massivly important but I think seeing the PS3 that high on a demo (even one for a key title) vs Wii weekly sales in a quiet period is a clear signal to Nintendo (not that I think they need it) that the Wii is not invulnerable (the way the PS2 ended up) and that they need to be very careful in their home market. The Wii remains much more dependant on Nintendo titles for success than the PS2, IMHO, and if it is going to see long gaps without titles to keep the average weekly sales up then Sony is being handed a clear opening to fight back via a steady stream of 1st/3rd party titles.

However when I said interesting and important I didn't mean Earth shattering, as in release of an actual major title important. But certainly more interesting and important than a week of average sales and a steady state environment.

Also, who said I'm excited? I'm not, I just think its a small spike but one that (after a sustained dip in Wii sales in Japan, and a somewhat sustained PS3 upswing) marks out that nothing is clear cut in the region currently, vs how things looked not too long ago - also it was a thread I fancied responding to.

You'll notice my overall response to the OT was 'probably not'.

I disagree back

I said interesting as in overall interesting as some uncommong events took place. I think it's important for PS3 though as it should convince SE that FFXIII will go gangbusters in Japan. I know as you state this is seen as a given but with 360 spikes due to jRPG and many Japanese developers looking seriously interested in the platform this is just the kind of clear message PS3 needs that it is locally probably the best HD platform for jRPG and Japanese centric titles. I see that as important personally. EDIT: when I say personally I don't mean preference. I don't actually play jRPG titles really. I just mean in terms of something of note in local market conditions.

I don't see why MS wouldn't continue to work behind the scenes to get FFXIII on 360 too, for example (SE are clearly open to changing their tack if convinced) and this should make it a lot easier for Sony to convince them not to confuse local consumers by doing so.

As for Wii it's not massivly important but I think seeing the PS3 that high on a demo (even one for a key title) vs Wii weekly sales in a quiet period is a clear signal to Nintendo (not that I think they need it) that the Wii is not invulnerable (the way the PS2 ended up) and that they need to be very careful in their home market. The Wii remains much more dependant on Nintendo titles for success than the PS2, IMHO, and if it is going to see long gaps without titles to keep the average weekly sales up then Sony is being handed a clear opening to fight back via a steady stream of 1st/3rd party titles.

However when I said interesting and important I didn't mean Earth shattering, as in release of an actual major title important. But certainly more interesting and important than a week of average sales and a steady state environment.

Also, who said I'm excited? I'm not, I just think its a small spike but one that (after a sustained dip in Wii sales in Japan, and a somewhat sustained PS3 upswing) marks out that nothing is clear cut in the region currently, vs how things looked not too long ago - also it was a thread I fancied responding to.

You'll notice my overall response to the OT was 'probably not'.

Again, the PS3 is not high due to the demo alone. The 160GB FF7 special edition sold 40k according to y-koron (if I understood the data correctly), so that's the biggest factor behind the hardware boost.

I didn't say you were excited. It just seems that a group of PS3 fans got too excited, to the point of thinking that this week is a turning point... when in fact it's just a sales spike which isn't unprecedented, especially when special hardware editions come out.

Actually I did forget the FF7 special edition when I posted - good point. Sorry, I thought you meant me. I agree there's going to be some high as kite PS3 fanboys floating around right now.

To be honest the steady low sales of the Wii seem more of note than the expected PS3 spike, which is what I was trying to get at too. I'm not at all in the Wii doomed camp. But I have been surprised the average weekly sales have dipped to current levels. Still, it's hard to believe Nintendo won't get it back up again. With the current USA/Others sales overall they're still smiling anyway I guess.

On the special edition - I sometimes wonder why in Japan all the companies don't have special edition paint jobs coming out regular as clockwork. They always seem to sell well for Sony/Nintendo there's a pretty long list of IP you could use as bait (not that Nintendo seems to use this approach).

I definitely agree that the Wii's slowdown is important. The way I interpret it is the existing Wii software is losing its effect, and new software must be released before the console can improve (still it's not a given that it will improve to the previous levels of 50k+ per week for a long time).

On the special editions, as far as I can remember Sony has done them for Yakuza, Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil. Only the biggest franchises seem to get one.

When MGS4 came out, PS3 sales improved from 10k to 78k in its launch week (and then decreased to 23k):

http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii&reg1=Japan&cons2=Wii&reg2=Japan&cons3=PS3&reg3=Japan&start=39509&end=39922

This tells me that there will still be a boost when FF13 comes out, though probably not as big as MGS4 since FF fans have had a longer time to buy a PS3, plus this FF7 bundle. But of course, Sony could release another FF special edition console when FF13 comes out, giving it yet another boost.