Xbox 360 Surpasses Total Xbox Sales as Japan's Game Market Climbs in October

In its two years on the market in Japan, the Xbox 360 has now sold more than the original Xbox. DS sales dominated across the Pacific during the month of October, however.

by James Brightman on Thursday, November 15, 2007

GameDaily BIZ has received the latest monthly Famitsu marketing data service report for the period covering October 1 – 28. Although software sales fell by over 14 percent, hardware sales climbed 30 percent, resulting in overall industry growth of 2.2 percent.

Although the DS Lite continued to dominate the hardware scene with 318,066 units sold thanks in part to the new "Crimson/Black" model released on October 4, the notable hardware news is that Microsoft's Xbox 360 has finally surpassed that of the original Xbox – within two years to boot. Through October 28 in Japan, the Xbox 360 has sold 474,000 units, exceeding the original Xbox total of 473,000 units. Famitsu said this was fueled partially by the arrival of the Xbox 360 Elite model (120GB, HDMI-enabled) on October 11. That said, Xbox 360 sold just 18,717 during October.

The second best selling platform was the PSP with 279,090 units. The Wii meanwhile dropped back to just 110,415 units, while the PS3 sold 47,183 units, just barely edging out the PS2, which sold 45,447.

Namco Bandai led the charge on the software front, with top sellers Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (PS2) and Gundam Battle Chronicle (PSP), which sold 252,953 units and 168,926 units, respectively. Square Enix's Final Fantasy Tactics A2: The Sealed Grimoire (DS) also fared well with 158,408 copies sold. Microsoft's Halo 3 managed to crack the top 50 at number 47 with 17,294 copies sold; the game has sold over 78K units since it released on September 27 in Japan.