Holy shit and the LHC is suposed to be activated on september 10...damn we are REALLY going to die!

Mike918

Probably a similar shortage to that which they have suffered here in NA for the last 6 mos. AFAIK that is the only reason they are being outsold by the PS3 in NA.

Kspraydad

Ms outselling Ps3 in US : Known
MS outselling PS3 in Japan? Nope
News? Nope

br4nd0n

After selling so few consoles month over month for such a long time, I doubt they could have predicted the (relatively) extreme high demand they've been seeing since the release of Tales of Vesperia.

PeteeWJ

USA USA USA eh.. MS MS MS no seriously good job microsoft

ZetaCrossfire

yes

tkohrs2002

@Griffehpoo: FFXIII is PS3 exclusive in Japan...

silverfox840

i would wonder that they wouldn't send as many shipments with the rate of sales they had, so yeah they probably did sell out legitimately.

cipotefello

Hmm. Wonder what caused it? FFXIII? Ace Combat 6? Inquiring minds want to know!

Griffehpoo

Yeah, it's definitely Tales of Vesperia. Huge sellers in Japan.

hydraMIRAGE

I know it is late, and I should not have visited Gizmodo after drinking a couple of beers (everything looks better after a couple of beers, even Gizmodo). Still, I admit that I can't understand this post. The link says nothing about sales numbers or 28K units sold in Japan last month or much of anything except that Microsoft sold out of the few units they had for sale in Japan. When did Microsoft outsell the PS3 in Japan by over twice as many units? I missed that memo.

Still, the beer does make the post look really good, even if I don't understand it. Then again, I saw my wife, and she is the hottest chick I have ever seen, and I don't understand a word she is saying. Something about my lazy ass and the garage.

I love beer.

Monty

@Mike918: They're probably gonna delay again, they should call it the duke nukem forever

cipotefello

"Microsoft's console has been outselling Sony's Playstation 3 lately at a rate of almost 3 to 1"
If you count last week as lately, then sure, other wise your choice of wording could easily give readers the wrong impression. The 360 has seen a huge surge in sales in Japan that coincided with the release of Namcos' Tales of Vesperia RPG. However, this may be a start of a trend but it is not the continuation of one. As the week before the PS3 led the 360 9,508 to 5,359. Looking back over the last few months there hasn't been a week where the 360 has come closer than 1/2 the sales numbers of the PS3.

What is interesting looking at the numbers is that the 360 seems to be gaining a bit of steam in Japan, as it's weekly numbers have been on a rising curve recently. MS has been doing something right getting all of those RPGs lined up for release this winter.

gotenki

"...did Microsoft short Japanese stock on purpose just to claim "sold out" status? "

I'm going to guess it wasn't intentional. The more consoles they sell, the more games they *might* sell. I doubt the momentary pleasure of being able to truthfully say they were "sold out". My guess is they were caught of guard...

(MS shipping department)

"Well another day another FIVE 360 units to send to Japan...gotta keep that stock, up oh yeah..."

'Dude, they already sold 18,000 and it's only the 10th.'

"Ap-ah-dub-dit WHAT?!?!?"

OddManOut

The console sales in Japan for August 4 - 10, 2008 were:

1. NDS Lite - 60,434
2. PSP - 58,501
3. Wii - 38,506
4. Xbox 360 - 24,962
5. PlayStation 3 - 9,673
6. PlayStation 2 - 8,503

As PeteeWJ said, it's because of Tales of Vesperia. The game on Xbox 360 sold 108,328 copies that week.

If I remember right, that's more Xbox 360 consoles sold in a week than they normally sell in over a month.

TailsNZ

@Monty: beer is good, it also makes you want to post vowel-removing worthy posts.

MrBlahBlah

microsoft finally gets a bit of respect in japan, i say cheers to them!

ccwii

@Monty:
Yes, you did miss the memo.

[kotaku.com]

Darkest Daze

simply put, its because we have ninja gaiden and final fantasy.

mikail511

Whoa...that was trippy. And now I look like an ass.

Fantastic.

rcast1986

Did my comment really get deleted??

That's just sad. Seems like the Gizbots are drawing inspiration from the UK government these days...

rcast1986

Yes, because *not* making money and earning headlines on Gizmodo and Engadget is exactly what MS has in mind. It MUST be on purpose.

Really? Honestly? Not saying it hasn't been said, but I haven't heard/seen a single accusation on this website claiming that Apple purposefully shortchanging stock on the iPhone (or anything else for that matter) to garner more attention.

Maybe people in Japan just want the fking system. And Tales of Vesperia. Ever consider that as a possibility??

rcast1986

this was just for one week. not "lately"

sorry but this is BS I live in Japan and see them in stock.

maybe a huge buzz will be created from the JRPGs that are coming out for 360 but I am doubtful.

TT

One would wonder... could this be because PS3 isn't making 40GB's anymore and waiting for them to be sold out and then put out the new 80GB PS3 that's priced at the 40GB price? That would be my guess, since it's like that at every store I've been at here. Or it could be from stupid people that don't know that the 360 isn't getting FF in that territory.

I'm surprised though, but I think it's because of the PS3 not shipping out too many 40GB's so of course they won't sell a lot because they don't have any left to sell.

ttech10

Huh?! I think my brain just malfunctioned, because I thought I heard you say that the Xbox 360 was outselling the PS3 in Japan. They must have dropped the price through the floor in order to make that happen.

ManekiNeko

@ManekiNeko: NO they didn't drop the price.

BostonPimpDaddy2

I love how the Giz always includes some flamebait at the end of MS posts.

BoinK

What they didn't tell you is that that was still the first batch they sent over selling out just now.

strider_mt2k

It wasn't Microsofts fault that retailers didn't want to purchase any xbox units. Its stupid to assume this was intentional. Microsoft wants console penetration in Japan like no other nation. With no consoles in peoples hands (and there are very few already), there will be no games to sell to them.

Retailers don't want to sit on dead valueless stock of 360's, because quite frankly, no one wants it there. They were probably aware that a game that could sell 360's was coming out, but like all the other JRPG's that came out for the 360, they felt it wasn't going to help sell consoles anyways since no one in Japan wants a 360.

Boy were they wrong about this one...

diabolusunknownTheSecond

X360 in high demand????? lol, yeah right, you could get a X360 on ebay with about 10 good games for $200 or less

snitch29

@Griffehpoo: The sale of Tales of Vesperia, the new Namco-Bandai JRPG. It is A 360 exclusive.

That is the sort of stuff Xbox needs to do and it looks good with three other Square-Enix exclusives coming out in the next year (apart from FFXIII)

M.A.S.

I Wii on your PS3

theDagda

'shorting stock' has a second completely different meaning and i got confused there for second. though, it would be interesting if microsoft employees were shorting sony stock due to the almost 3:1 outselling ratio. but then, i dont think that the PS3 is the major breadwinner for sony.

likefry_likefry

ps3s still a winner cause they got gran turismo on the way and mgs4...

urbanturban666

Xbox 360 is outselling PS3 in Japan. 3 to 1. How difficult is it for you people to fathom that? Its selling becuase its good and people want it. Yes, even in Sony and Nintendo loving Japan.

But then again, its Microsoft doing well and some of you just can't handle that.

skeptic11

@urbanturban666: Except the Japanese didn't like MGS 4. It's already in the bargain bins there.

robinandtami

Don't ya think that everyone in Japan already has a PS3 and now they are ready to get a XBox. Then when everyone has all three systems it will be time to make the PS3 2000 and the cycle continues.

reddingofish

It's one week, it's Tales of Vesperia. Everyone calm down. When MGS4 came out, PS3 sold 70k to 3k or something like that.

dangj307

I doubt it, I mean who the hell expected the 360 to sell well in Japan?
Its just that tales of vesperia game, I wouldn't buy a console for one game though (okay maybe Zelda, but that's a special case).

mferrari

@skeptic11: the article is misleading, thats all. It outsold it 3 to 1 only one week. People in Japan like Tales of Vesperia, not 360. This week 360 sales are about half of ps3s.

TT

@rcast1986: I second that opinion...

also, why no mention of the shortage of Wii's here in the states? thats been going on for about as long as the Wii has been available...i know i saw a post on this very sight a few weeks/months back, but why bother mentioning that when there's a grand opportunity to take a stab at Microsoft? right Gizmodo?

stupidjerk