Citing data released by Japanese game chart compiler Enterbrain, a
new report by the Mainichi Daily News in Japan writes that Sony has sold just 466,716 PlayStation 3 consoles in the region since its debut on November 11, while Nintendo has enjoyed brisk success with its Wii in Japan, having realized more than double as many consoles sold with 989,118 units.
The reported number of PlayStation 3 consoles sold in Japan likely falls well below Sony's earlier projected goal of 1 million units shipped within the region by the close of 2006, even taking into account unsold consoles.
Earlier this week at the annual CES trade show in Las Vegas, officials from Sony
confirmed that that the company had shipped 1 million units of the PlayStation 3 in the United States up to the end of 2006.
The PlayStation 3 has been plagued by numerous issues since production of the high end gaming console began, most notably due to the system's Blu-ray player and accompanying blue laser diode, which factored heavily into the difficulties that surrounded and helped to delay the launch of the console.
Sony president Kaz Hirai recently
spoke out regarding these difficulties, noting that "We were asking our teams to develop millions of components for the PlayStation 3, like the Blu-ray Disc player and cell broadband engine, that had previously only been produced in the thousands."
According to the report, Sony has yet to officially comment on the figures released by Enterbrain, noting only that there may be a discrepancy between the number of units sold and the number of PlayStation 3 consoles that were shipped within Japan. Both Sony and Nintendo continue to project global sales of 6 million consoles by the end of March.
