Last week’s hardware sales figures have been released for the Land of the Rising Sun and things aren’t looking too good for Microsoft’s Xbox One. You probably heard that at TGS Sony announced a price cut on the PS4 in Japan, well it looks like the cut has made a huge difference. The week before last the PS4 sold 4,071 units in Japan, well last week saw sales make a huge jump to 46,177 units. Xbox One on the other hand saw a decrease from an already low 232 units sold to 203. We shall discuss what this means after a quick look at the hardware sales chart for Japan (the number to the right is units sold last week while the number in brackets is from the week before).
PlayStation 4: 46,117 (4,071)
New 3DS LL: 18,136 (21,765)
PlayStation Vita: 15,237 (19,028)
Wii U: 12,834 (18,024)
New 3DS: 4,367 (5,069)
PlayStation 3: 2,088 (2,630)
3DS: 1,160 (1,529)
PlayStation Vita TV: 761 (790)
3DS LL: 587 (747)
Xbox One 203 (232)
This certainly isn’t good news for the Xbox’s chances in Japan, it wasn’t just outsold by the PS4 it was surpassed by eight other consoles including PS Vita TV, which more than tripled the Xbox’s sales despite being considered a failed console. A quick glance at the chart will tell you that the PS4 was the only console to increase the amount of units sold, the other nine all lost sales, but the Xbox One is bottom of the pile (below last-gen consoles and failed consoles). It’s hard to see how Microsoft will continue supporting the Xbox in Japan, but only time will tell if they double up on their efforts there, or chalk it up as a loss and pull out of the country.