InsideJapan News Network

Japanese sales of the Nintendo Wii and the Sony Playstation 3 are neck-and-neck, the president of Nintendo has conceded.

Satoru Itawa, while speaking on the state of the Japanese gaming market at a conference, said that while sales of the Wii fell and sales of the Playstation rose, sales between the two models are still to close to call.

"Although we held more than a 60 per cent hardware market share through last year - Wii has 42 per cent and PS3 [a] 40 per cent share thus far this year - so both machines are neck-and-neck in Japan," he commented.

Mr Iwata went on to say that despite the drop in the number of units sold, Nintendo is in a good position to "regain momentum" during the approaching sales season.

The Wii has been a global hit since its introduction and has been praised for its ability to appeal to players who previously may not have been interested in the computer games sector.

Written by Kimberley Homer.


Related news stories:
PS3 sales rise by 1,100 % (10th September 2009)
Wii Sports Resort gains positive reviews (31st July 2009)
Wii sales top 7m in Japan (27th November 2008)
Nintendo reveals sales drop (31st July 2009)