According to new figures from Enterbrain, the Sony PlayStation 3 has now hit a new milestone in Japan, 5 million units sold.
The console launched in the nation in November 2006.
The figures also included the best selling games list, with Final Fantasy XIII becoming the biggest seller with 1.8 million copies sold. Metal Gear Solid 4 was a distant second, with 706,000 copies sold in the country.
According to VGChartz, the Wii is still the leader in Japan, with over 10 million units sold, but it appears the PS3 is trying to play catchup. The Xbox 360 has sold just over 1.28 million units.
Globally, the Wii is the dominant market share leader with over 70 million units sold. The Xbox 360 is in second with almost 40 million units sold, and the PS3 is in third with almost 34 million units.
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Sony Europe has confirmed that four games will be added to the PS3 Platinum line, which sell for GBP 19.99 or less.
The games are Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, Killzone 2, Resistance 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4, all of which sold minimum 400,000 units.
The official release date is not yet known, however October seems most likely. Many of the games already sell for close to the new MSRP.
Current ‘Platinum’ games are Assassin’s Creed, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction, all of which were top sellers.
Gi.biz notes that an Amazon UK listing shows Grand Theft Auto IV will also join the Platinum line soon and is already selling for £16.99 via preorder.
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Citing yesterdays disappointing November hardware sales, CNNMoney has called the Sony PlayStation 3 a “sinking ship.”
The numbers show that the PS3 sold 19 percent less consoles year-on-year from the same period in 2007, and CNNMoney believes that a substantial price cut is necessary if the console wants to see a growth in sales anytime soon.
After being outsold 840,000 to 380,000 for the month by its main rival the Xbox 360, many analysts have agreed that a price cut is necessary before the console falls behind by an “insurmountable margin.”
The CNNMoney article also attributed the slow down in sales to three specific reasons. The high price tag (All Xbox 360 models are cheaper than cheapest PS3), the fact that no one cares about Blu-ray, and the lack of strong selling titles for the platform.
We can all agree that price is an issue, but the other two issues CNNMoney brings up are a bit, for lack of a better word, iffy. Blu-ray player sales and Blu-ray movie sales continue to grow exponentially and show similar numbers to that of DVD when it was the “new” format in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Sony has had some hot selling exclusive titles such as Metal Gear Solid 4, LittleBIGPlanet, Resistance 1 and 2, and Uncharted but software sales arent as strong as that of the Xbox 360, from most accounts. Whether it needs more exclusive titles is up for debate however.
