After being placed last in Japan, Sony has now rebounded back from it’s embarrassing placement with a huge rise in PS3 sales, mostly due to the new PS3 Slims (called Lites in Japan). To understand how big the sales were, you’d have to times the previous week’s PS3 sales and times it by 150; that’s right 150. The previous weeks sales for the PS3 were only 1,000; which was pretty abysmal due to it’s scarcity and high price tag (pre-slim price down). After the price drop and new console, over 150,000 systems were sold which crushed it’s previous record of 88,000 PS3 sold back in 2006. Some PS3 games also benefited from the surge, as Metal Gear Solid 4 and the Final Fantasy demos sold about 70,000 copies.

Sony is really trying to get back on track in Japan, and with it’s lower price and heavy advertising campaign, it can surely see its’ way back up. The only real questions are: how long can they keep this going and is it too late for Sony to counteract what it’s competitors have done? We shall soon see, but as of now it may look like it will go Sony’s way for one major reason: Final Fantasy XIII.

Square-Enix is supposed announce information regarding the release of the game tomorrow, which is currently slated to be released Q4 2009 in Japan (2010 in North America). The biggest thing to note about FFXIII is that the game is a PS3-exclusive, unlike the NA versions. The game is already expected to generate a lot of sales, and could be  just what the PS3 needs to continue this momentum to get the upper hand in the console wars. Again, we will have to wait and see for the results.

Source: ign.com