Sony Corp sold over 525,000 PlayStation3 consoles in the United States
during the week of Black Friday that kicks off the holiday shopping
season, surpassing sales of Nintendo's new Wii U.
Sony Computer
Entertainment Inc said on Thursday that sales of its six-year-old
PlayStation3 jumped 9 percent over the same period last year. The sales
compared with over 400,000 units sold of Nintendo's Wii U (Pictures), the new
console on which the Japanese company is staking much of its future.
Microsoft
Corp sold over 750,000 units of its Xbox 360 console during the week of
Black Friday, one of the heaviest U.S. consumer-spending periods of the
year.
The results could deal a blow to Nintendo, which is hoping
that the Wii U, which comes with a touchscreen "GamePad" controller,
will revive growth and pull it out of the red in coming years. Since its
November 18 U.S. launch, the Wii U has been marred by technical
glitches, including long software download times.
Analysts have
said the initial sales numbers may have been curbed by insufficient
supply, common during the launch of new products.
On Monday, Nintendo said Wii U consoles were "effectively sold out" in U.S. retail stores.
Sales
of consoles and portable handheld game devices like the Nintendo 3DS
are crumbling as gamers migrate to offerings on smartphones and tablets.
According to research firm NPD Group, video game hardware sales slid 37
percent in October from a year ago.
The battle between the three
game makers is expected to intensify when Sony and Microsoft launch
their own next-generation PlayStation and Xbox consoles, expected in
2013.
© Thomson Reuters 2012