88,400 Consoles Sold In Japanese PS3 Launch

Sony has sold a total of 88,400 units of the PlayStation 3 console in its first weekend, following the official launch of the console in Japan on Saturday, with most stores sold out within hours. The figure was calculated by Famitsu publisher Enterbrain, with around 54,600 units (62 percent) of total sales being for the 60GB hard drive version of the console, which is priced at ¥59,980 ($508). The cheaper 20GB hard drive version, which had its price dropped in Japan to ¥49,980 ($420) shortly before launch, sold 33,800 units. Enterbrain estimates that Namco Bandai’s Ridge Racer 7 and Mobile Suit Gundam: Target In Sight (aka Crossfire) were the best selling titles at launch, with approximately 30,000 unit sales each. With so few units available, an immediate sell-out was nearly guaranteed, given the high level of anticipation for the device. Thus far, there have been no immediate reports of hardware problems, although there have been some complaints of largely documented but unreliable backwards compatibility with PlayStation 2 and PSone games, which Sony claim will be rectified with subsequent online updates. The launch of the console has already led to the expected grey export market, with online auction site eBay filled with $1,000+ priced auctions for the console. Additionally, some reader reports from game blogs such as Kotaku are claiming that Chinese immigrants were being used to queue up for the console by Japanese businessmen, who then hope to sell the console online at a considerable mark-up.