360 Outsells PS3 in Japan On Strength of Exclusive Title

In a first for the Japanese market, the Xbox 360 outsold the PlayStation 3 by a small margin for the week of Oct. 29 through Nov. 4.

The sales tracking firm Media Create announced that Microsoft sold 200 more of its consoles than Sony did, radically altering the traditional weekly pattern, which sees about 3,000 360s sold compared to 10,000 to 20,000 PS3s.

The catalyst for the sales spike was Ace Combat 6: The Fires of Liberation, a graphically impressive 360 exclusive. It sold 76,000 units in its first week of sales, a figure surpassed only by the Wii's Mario Galaxy.

Nonetheless, the larger picture is one that sees both consoles lagging far behind the portable handhelds and the Nintendo Wii.

While acknowledging its company's difficulty in winning over the Japanese market, Microsoft officials have nonetheless said in the past they will continue to press forward with efforts to win a bigger market share.

Source: Ars Technica