Nintendo Wii outsells PS3 3-to-1 in Japan
TOKYO (Reuters) - Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii outsold Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 by more than 3-to-1 in Japan in December, a game magazine publisher said, regaining its position as the top-selling video game console.
Nintendo sold 774,123 units of the Wii in the five weeks to December 30, compared with 232,421 units of the PS3, Enterbrain said on Monday.
The PS3 beat the Wii in Japan monthly sales in November, its first monthly win since the consoles' launches a year ago thanks to price cuts and a release of a new model.
But Nintendo launched its "Wii Fit" home fitness game on December 1 in Japan, breathing life back into Wii demand.
The new game features a pressure-sensing mat called the "Wii Balance Board", which looks like a set of bathroom scales and can sense when a person moves and leans, enabling players to "head" virtual soccer balls and experience ski jumping on a TV screen.
The board can also be used for such activities as yoga and aerobics.
Microsoft Corp, which competes with Sony and Nintendo in the global videogame industry, sold 38,994 units of the Xbox 360 in Japan in December.
Although popular in North America and Europe, the Microsoft machine has been struggling in Japan, the home market of its two major rivals.
In 2007, Nintendo sold 3.6 million units of the Wii in Japan, or three times the sales of the PlayStation 3, Enterbrain said.
Sales of the Xbox 360 came to 257,841 units last year, the publisher said.
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
