Enterbrain: Wii-to-PS3 Sales Gap Narrows In Japan

Monthly data from Japanese research firm and Famitsu magazine publisher Enterbrain, as reported by Reuters, has show that the Wii’s lead over the PlayStation 3 in hardware sales fell again for the fourth month in a row. According to Enterbrain data, which only broadly agrees with weekly figures from Media Create, the Wii outsold the PlayStation 3 by only a ratio of 2-to-1 during October. Enterbrain’s data shows that 110,415 units of the Wii were sold and 47,183 units of the PlayStation 3. The Wii was outselling the PlayStation 3 by as much as 6-to-1 in June of this year, before falling to 4-to-1 in July and 3-to-1 in August. The all-time high for the Wii though was a ratio of 8-to-1 against the PlayStation 3 in November 2006. Although sales of the PlayStation 3 have slowly crept up over the course of the year the change in sales ratios is largely due to a drop in Wii sales, which has been particularly evident during September and October – although there has been signs of recovery in the last two weeks, according to Media Create data. It is unclear how much supply issues factor into the Wii's current Japanese sales. However, coming at a traditionally slow period of the year for games retailers in Japan and with few major games released during the period, a more important litmus test for Nintendo’s console will be the release of Super Mario Galaxy this week and Wii Fit in December.