Sony have been pushing this hard in Japan, and I get the impression the campaign has worked.

Launching new kit and software on a Sunday is an odd move, and means the sales figures will take a week or so before they can be comparable with the competiton, but one way or another I predict the following:

1)  PS3 to outsell the Wii over the next couple of weeks.

2)  Shin Sangokumosou 5 (DW6) PS3 to be top of the software charts.

3)  Ratchet and Clank Future to perform well and challenge Super Mario Galaxy's chart position.

Soriku is right in that Japan never cared much for Ratchet, but I think the PS3 has a shot at beating the Wii in Japan for a few weeks this year. I mean even the 360 beat the PS3 for a week with price cuts and pretty big games, so anything can happen.

Most Japanese consider the 40GB as an "incomplete" machine, as they've removed BC and to many Japanese, BC is important. I doubt we'll get to see high shifts at all. And if that will happen, its only thanks to the fact Dynasty Warriors was included.

1) Probably not. The Japanese are huge technophiles, meaning they'll know all about the lack of backwards compatibility. Plus, the PS3 has had price cuts in Japan before, and those have failed to stimulate sales.

2) I'd guess that Mario Galaxy will still be up top. If Gundam Musou failed to sell well, then so will DW6.

3) R&C Future simply isn't in the same category as Mario - especially in Japan.

1. Will happen

2.Mario galaxy should be on top if not its a huge dissapointment

3. It will sell 40k at starting week then drop to an average of 15k, ratchet is the same thing as mario galaxy just with less planet stuff.

1.) Definitely. I think Sony will sell around 45k ps3's.

2.) Yeah. 150k.

3.) No way. R&C will struggle to break 50k.

@ Garcian

R U kidding? Gundam did extremely well. Almost 300k as for now. 25% attach rate. Consider this.

There would have to be a huge spike for that to come true. It could happen, after all the 360 also had a huge sales spike recently in Japan.

But if it happens, does it matter? What Sony needs is momentum, not spikes. Sony's had plenty of sales spikes with all their price cuts, bundles and new models. What they didn't get yet was momentum. Every time there was a spike in PS3 sales, it went down fast (after 2-3 weeks at most).

All of the above doesn't mean that Sony fans won't be chanting victory for a couple of weeks, of course.

Is strange, but I agree with soriku...

1. Yes, the PS3 will beat out the Wii for a few weeks. However, the Wii will rise above again, and the PS3 will sell poorly again. It'll sell better after that than it had been prior to the release, but only marginally. Nothing substantial.

2. No. It'll sell well, but top? No. Maybe first-week, but after that, no.

3. Yes, it will perform well (compared to first week), but no, it won't challenge SMG.

Just to clarify, I don't think R&C will challenge Mario Galaxy's lifetime figures, but after its first full week on release I think it will be performing about as well as Galaxy.

People shouldn't dismiss R&C's popularity in Japan. R&C4 did over 85,000 in its first week and 222,000 lifetime (according to this site).

I predict Galaxy will be under 100,000 in its second week, so I think the new R&C game could challenge those figures.