The latest sales numbers are in, and Nintendo reported Wii sales of 171,851 units in Japan for the month of July. While the PSP continues to ride a wave of strong sales in Japan, the Wii-rival PS3 only sold 54,823 units last month, allowing the Nintendo Wii to outsell it by 3-to-1 according to game magazine Enterbrain. But all is not lost for Sony as the PSP remains the king of sales in Japan, hustling 256,765 units out the door compared to the Nintendo DS’s 217,639, certainly not too shabby in its own right and not very far behind. The PSP’s newfound usefulness as not just a gaming platform but also a handy media and mobile device as launched its sales over recent months as more and more gamers snap them up.

While I don’t expect the PS3 to beat the Wii in sales, being outsold 3-to-1 is just sad. The Wii, while innovative and easy for casual gamers, really isn’t all that useful for anything much and even after over a year of owning a Wii, I find myself simply going back and playing the same games. Meanwhile, my PS3 gets a lot more usage than the Wii, albeit not for gaming. The best part of the PS3 is obviously its Blu-Ray playing capability which is becoming more and more important as hi-def TV sales increase as prices go down and the United States ushers in its switch to digital television. The fact that it is comparatively priced to other standalone Blu-Ray players out there yet has a greater host of features only increases its attractiveness. Plus the PS3 performs excellent upscaling for DVDs. I also use my PS3 as a media server to played streamed movies from my computer. Plug in a USB memory stick and you can even play a high quality slideshow on your TV as well. I’d probably also use the web browsing feature if I had a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

I can’t say that I like the Wii better than the PS3 or vice versa since they both provide different types of enjoyment at different price points, but the PS3 is a heck of a lot more useful. I’m sure the PS3 sales will pick up again when the rest of Japan and the world realize this. Firmware updates and increased feature sets are only going to make the PS3 better. I haven’t really seen any big improvements on the Wii on the other hand.

(source: Reuters)
Image/Code Retard

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