JAPAN: 360 trumps Wii in sales shock

Its price is to be cut in the UK this Friday, and it recently pipped PS3 in the US August sales battle – but now Xbox 360 has managed its most staggering victory yet by topping Wii in the weekly Japanese hardware charts to become the nation’s best selling home console.

Famitsu owner Enterbrain reports that for the week ending September 14th 360 sold 28,681 units – massively up on the 843 units sold the week before. Wii, in contrast, sold 27,057 units and PS3 just 8,050.

The success is a result of the new 60GB SKU, which at YEN 29,800 is both 40GB bigger than the machine it replaces and YEN 5,000 cheaper. The firm’s Arcade and Elite SKUs were also cut in price.

In addition, Square Enix released the popular Infinite Undiscovery, which shifted 86,708 in its first week – a big hit that arrives not long after another big RPG 360 success, Tales of Vesperia.

Xbox 360 has now sold 717,275 machines in Japan, begging the question of whether one million sales are now possible?