Nintendo's Wii Outsells PlayStation 3-to-1 in Japan (Update1)

Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Nintendo Co.'s Wii game console outsold Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 by three-to-one in August in Japan, according to a Tokyo-based research firm.

Nintendo, the world's biggest maker of handheld games, sold 245,653 Wii machines, compared with Sony's 81,541 PlayStation consoles in the four weeks to Aug. 26, researcher Enterbrain Inc. said in a faxed statement today.

The Wii has outsold PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 since its Japanese introduction in December on the success of ``Wii Sports'' and the ``Mario'' games. Nintendo held a four-to-one sales lead over Sony in July.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft sold 11,288 Xbox 360s in Japan in August, Enterbrain said.

Shares of Kyoto-based Nintendo fell 1.7 percent to 52,800 yen on the Osaka Securities Exchange today. Sony gained 0.4 percent to 5,600 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

                        Wii             PS3          Xbox 360
Before November                                       168,898
November                            169,082            21,771
December            989,118         297,634            99,798
January             405,423         147,519            43,700
February            296,338          85,812            18,629
March               262,754         112,027            14,444
April               287,722          71,247            17,094
May                 251,794          45,321            11,082
June                270,974          41,628            17,616
July                396,752          91,987            17,970
August              245,653          81,541            11,288

Total             3,406,528       1,143,798           442,290

To contact the reporter on this story: Hiroshi Suzuki in Tokyo at hsuzuki5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Teo Chian Wei at cwteo@bloomberg.net.