Japanese interest in PS3 matches Wii

by Andrew Yoon { Jan 17th 2008 at 2:00PM }

Nintendo's success with the Wii is undeniable. Sales of the little white console have been phenomenal in Japan. In the console world, nothing is seemingly able to touch it (except handhelds, such as the DS and PSP).

But, what does the future bear for Sony's PS3? It looks like it may have a successful year in store, as a survey of Japanese gamers show interest in Sony's new system to match Nintendo's. "[When] asked which console they hoped to buy next, 28% chose the Wii and 27% picked the PlayStation 3." A single percentage point separates the two. (For comparison, Xbox 360 was chosen by 3% of survey takers.)

Sony's machine is doing fairly well, especially considering its significantly higher cost. In fact, only 6% of gamers surveyed thought price mattered. 49.2% said their top concern for picking a console was "because it's compatible with the games they absolutely want to play." Let's hope titles like Final Fantasy XIII will keep Japanese gamers interested.

[Via GameDaily; Photo Source]

Tags: japan, survey

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

dadanman @ Jan 17th 2008 2:24PM

Once they release games thes Japanese love it will go crazy. They really don't FPS and such.

DelSource @ Jan 17th 2008 7:11PM

"Once they release games thes Japanese love it will go crazy. They really don't FPS and such."

But here's the problem. The Japanese don't love most of what Sony gives them. They largely ignored Loco Roco and completely ignored Patapon on the PSP. Both would have been huge sellers on the DS, little doubt.

Musouka @ Jan 17th 2008 2:19PM

What about the rest 42% ? They already had the PS3 and/or Wii?
Only about 20% of all console-gamers have a current-gen console now, I think. (looking at PS2+GC+xbox1 numbers).

Roto13 @ Jan 17th 2008 2:30PM

You know, Japan's relationship with the Xbox 360 really interests me. I mean, it's pathetic. 3%? But still, worldwide, it's the second highest selling console right now. That means it's success in other markets is pretty huge. (Even if it did get a year's head start.)

Mr Khan @ Jan 17th 2008 2:50PM

An odd fact, considering how soundly PS3 is being beaten currently

Just goes to show how slow Next-gen adoption actually is. I suppose many Japanese are just waiting for enough interesting content to show up on any console at all (except DS of course, all of them own 3 of those)

ouj @ Jan 17th 2008 3:10PM

"But still, worldwide, it's [360] the second highest selling console right now. "

Actually, PS3 has been selling more worldwide quite regularly over the last months. It sells more than Xbox 360 in Europe and Japan, the difference being big enough to cover the lost ground in North America.

Here in Europe it's just a boom waiting to happen. I've seen coworkers etc. buy PS3 even though they've never owned a gaming console before.

Killjebus @ Jan 17th 2008 3:14PM

Its just a matter of time. I still do not know why the Wii is grouped with the 360 and the PS3 when it is VERY similar in power with the PS2.
When the BIG guns that the Japanese REALLY care about come out...IE FF13, MGS4, GT5, White Knight Story, then the PS3 will be where it belongs. The Wii can only go so far, I have said that the craze will peak and start to die out by the end of 2008 since the PS3 and Wii launched.

With developers really starting to come to grips with the Cell it is obvious that the monster that is the PS3 will have games that the Wii could only dream of.

It is time for the fad to go away. I still cannot believe how many people Nintendo duped into buying their glorified GameCube with motion controls for $250.

And for those of you who say graphics don't matter? Yeah, keep saying that when PS3 owners are playing 3rd generation games on the black behemoth.

I am half Japanese myself (Scandanippion, Japaweigian...pick one) and I lived in Japan and still do not understand why they flock to some of the CRAP Nintendo slings at them.

Szu @ Jan 17th 2008 3:33PM

So does this mean we can start calling the PS3 a fad?

Because, I really want it to be a success and outsell it's competition be an average ratio of 2.5 to 1 for the next two years.

bmac @ Jan 17th 2008 3:48PM

"because it's compatible with the games they absolutely want to play."

Holy crap, it's like they're actual gamers or something.

Szu @ Jan 17th 2008 3:42PM

Sorry for the last post, it looks like I got ahead of myself. The PS3 outsold the 360 in Japan by an average yearly ratio of about 3 to 1.

Laurens Holst @ Jan 17th 2008 4:33PM

PS3 outsells XBox 360 more like 1:6 in Japan, if you ask me (see the hardware charts at http://kotaku.com/tag/sales/).

Demibeard @ Jan 19th 2008 4:15AM

I'm glad that the interest in the two machines is almost level pegging, let's just hope it translates into sales.

Does anybody know a Wii owner with more than 2-3 games? Everyone I know only has Wii Sports and maybe Wii Olympics for their little white box, (apart from the ones with a little chip modification!!) It's hardly what you might call sterling sales.

I know all the x-bots will say that there's only two games available for the PS3, but WE all know that's not true, I've got 12 titles excluding the PSN stuff.

What I find truly scary/worrying is the DS trend, who is left in Japan to buy it? Just how BIG are their brains going to be with all that training? Will all that practice on Cooking Mama lead to an explosion of Japanese restaurants?

aortiz @ Jan 17th 2008 5:31PM

Are these statistics really viable?
While it certainly means the PS3 is growing very much in popularity in Japan, the factor that's being avoided by this survey is "How many people already own a Wii in Japan?"
Obviously, Wii owners will not be thinking of buying a SECOND Wii. So, technically, the PS3's popularity would not match the Wii's.

Still, even if it's not success to the level we'd like, it's certainly good things for Sony.

Carlton @ Jan 17th 2008 7:33PM

The article stated a quarter of the people surveyed already own a Wii and 10% own a PS3. 43% also said that they would choose the console that most people are talking about (which I guess would mean the Wii).

So yeah, the popularity of the PS3 is still not close to the Wii in Japan, but it does show there are still a lot of fence sitters when it comes to PS3 adoption.