PS2 Japanese Sales Drop

According to a report from Bloomberg, Sony has sold 33% less PlayStation 2 consoles in the first six months of 2003 in Japan, compared to the same period in 2002. A total of 1,085,560 units were sold in the first half of 2003, compared to 1,620,239 in the same period last year. This data tallies with figures from the US, which show a similar slowdown in demand, which could indicate that the console is reaching saturation point amongst consumers. At the same time sales of Nintendo’s GameCube console rose in the first six months of 2003 to 319,037 units, up 5% from the same period in 2002. Figures for the Xbox in Japan were not available, but are unlikely to provide comfortable reading for Microsoft.