Nintendo Sells Three Times as Many Wii as Sony's PlayStation 3

Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Nintendo Co. sold three times as many Wii game machines in Japan last year as Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 consoles, researcher Enterbrain Inc. said.

Nintendo sold 3.63 million Wii units last year, compared with PlayStation 3's 1.21 million, Tokyo-based Enterbrain said today in a faxed statement. Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 game machines sold 257,841 units, the researcher's estimates showed.

In October, Sony cut prices in Japan by as much as 10 percent. In November, the Tokyo-based company introduced its cheapest model at 39,980 yen ($367) to compete with the Wii, which is priced at 25,000 yen. The PlayStation outsold the Wii for the first time in Japan in the period from Oct. 29 to Nov. 25, according to Enterbrain.

To contact the reporters on this story: Masaki Kondo in Tokyo at mkondo3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net.