Oh the irony, Nintendo admits PS3 beat it in Japan last month.

**A7MAD** · 12-01-2007

Nintendo has admitted defeat to the PS3 last month in Japan, well sort of. Via the Associated Press news feed, Wii owners were greeted with the headline that 'Sony PS3 outsells Nintendo Wii in Japan'.

Ah, the irony: a reader sends us this screenshot of the Nintendo Wii News channel admitting its own four-week "defeat" against the Sony PlayStation 3. It's either that a) the channel editors feel they are not being paid enough, b) that Nintendo doesn't give a **** about giving the losing side some respite, c) nobody edits the channel or d) you are all a bunch of Apple Sony fanboys.

Source

**Ziggarat** · 12-01-2007

It's most likely b. Nintendo doesn't have the same massive ego Sony and Microsoft have. In the end, Nintendo is the only company reaping any profit and in fact, of the last gen consoles, Nintendo profited, Sony broke even, and Microsoft remained in the red for almost all of that gen. The fact that the PS3 outsold the Wii in Japan means Nintendo is very objective with it's console and is focused on gaming, not console wars. I could be wrong...there could be an ego unlike anything we've ever seen before...but then if Nintendo ever had an ego, I'm sure the GameCube and 2 competitors stealing what had been the sole territory of Nintendo for a decade is very humbling.

**Morganator** · 12-01-2007

Originally Posted by Ziggarat

It's most likely b. Nintendo doesn't have the same massive ego Sony and Microsoft have. In the end, Nintendo is the only company reaping any profit and in fact, of the last gen consoles, Nintendo profited, Sony broke even, and Microsoft remained in the red for almost all of that gen. The fact that the PS3 outsold the Wii in Japan means Nintendo is very objective with it's console and is focused on gaming, not console wars. I could be wrong...there could be an ego unlike anything we've ever seen before...but then if Nintendo ever had an ego, I'm sure the GameCube and 2 competitors stealing what had been the sole territory of Nintendo for a decade is very humbling.

Wow! Good post. I don't think Nintendo is all that concerned though I'm sure it's more of a shock than anything else.

**Grinchy** · 12-01-2007

They would have kept that story from coming up but they were too busy rolling around in money and drinking sake.

**twentypointfive** · 12-01-2007

yeah the wii has been the console leader for over a year with the ps3 and 2 years for the 360. i'd be a good sport too about passing the top spot to another console maker for a few weeks.

**AndyD** · 12-01-2007

They are not admiting anything. Their news comes off the AP wire and they dont filter it.

**Idenowhereiam** · 12-01-2007

i thought it was only 3 weeks that sony was outselling not the whole month?.. what changed? or is nintendo just calling it and even month instead of 3 weeks...

**Saigon** · 12-01-2007

lol...man...this will never be put to rest...

**Doc Evils** · 12-01-2007

heh that might be more careful with the info that filters out next time.

**Gero** · 12-01-2007

This is cool though for two reasons- 1) Nintendo gives credit where deserved and 2) Maybe some of these Wii owners will see this and question why, then go out and buy a PS3.

**Sephyr** · 12-01-2007

They're just good sports. It's gaming news so why not write about it?

**LordNoob** · 12-01-2007

Originally Posted by idenowhereiam

i thought it was only 3 weeks that sony was outselling not the whole month?.. what changed? or is nintendo just calling it and even month instead of 3 weeks...

Overall for the month of November. The Wii outsold the PS3 by a little less than 4k the final week according to MC.

**tuaamin13** · 12-01-2007

Originally Posted by Ziggarat

It's most likely b. Nintendo doesn't have the same massive ego Sony and Microsoft have. In the end, Nintendo is the only company reaping any profit and in fact, of the last gen consoles, Nintendo profited, Sony broke even, and Microsoft remained in the red for almost all of that gen. The fact that the PS3 outsold the Wii in Japan means Nintendo is very objective with it's console and is focused on gaming, not console wars. I could be wrong...there could be an ego unlike anything we've ever seen before...but then if Nintendo ever had an ego, I'm sure the GameCube and 2 competitors stealing what had been the sole territory of Nintendo for a decade is very humbling.

I'm pretty sure Sony more than broke even on the PS2. You don't sell 120 million of your consoles and not break even.

I also think that Nintendo does not filter/preview news reports for their channel. All the articles are by the AP, so they probably just gave the AP rights to upload what they want to the channel.

**Alpha2** · 12-01-2007

Sony did a little more than break even on over a hundred million consoles. Prehaps if you just count hardware sales a lone but you gotta have something to play on those hundred million+ consoles. They had a set strategy where by they had made enough money that by the time M$ was starting to make money on hardware sales they could lower their price forcing M$ to do the same and suddenly cause them to not be making a profit again.

Yeah the news comes through AP so it's not like Nintendo has any control over that. They could post "Nintendo has **** games!" on their feed and it'd still go through.

**tabular** · 12-01-2007

Originally Posted by Ziggarat

In the end, Nintendo is the only company reaping any profit and in fact, of the last gen consoles, Nintendo profited, Sony broke even, and Microsoft remained in the red for almost all of that gen.

Not true. Last gen; Nintendo barely broke even, Microsoft ended in the red and Sony made a truckload.

**Alpha2** · 12-01-2007

No, Nintendo always makes a profit on their systems because they dont do as much R&D as the other two. All their components are generally off the shelf with very little custom hardware.

This is way they'll never go Software only like Sega did. Sega had over extended themselves with hardware development, arcade boards and funding failing arcades. With their system loosing against the PS2 they had to jump ship and in the end it still forced them to sell most of the company to Sammy.

**Falanx13** · 12-01-2007

I don't think Nintendo really cares whether or not Sony took hardware sales for a month, considering that the Wii and the DS have led hardware sales for the past few years. If they actually openly admitted that the Wii was beat by the PS3, then it goes to show that they are humble about their success.

Nintendo just never comes across to me as being as smug and egotistical as Sony and Microsoft... well, except maybe their spokesmouth, Reggie Fils-Aime.

Besides, doesn't Nintendo keep saying that they aren't even trying to win the console war with the Wii because it was targeted towards a different audience (everybody) than the PS3 and X360 (hard core gamers)?

**Alpha2** · 12-01-2007

When Nintendo was spouting all that rubbish about "changing the paradigm of gamming" they were pretty darn egotisitical. They might have sold 12 million Wii's but they havent changed a thing.

**PS3-The Ultimate Machine** · 12-01-2007

I just got a whole lot of respect for Nintendo for this.Admitting something like this without a "BUT!" is really something.

**SolidSnakeUS** · 12-01-2007

Well, if you think about it, news is news, even if it is on the Wii News Channel.

**DadaOwns** · 12-01-2007

I personally think, most people who bought the Wii, just wanted to see how the console works and etc, Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad idea in anyway, Nintendo should've start putting out BETTER games since so many people had the Wii, I personally think Sony took over because of Wii's like of games.

No I am not a Wii Fanboy lol

**kokoriet** · 12-01-2007

There's absolutely no irony in the article. What the heck

Do they even know what irony means? Why did they act as if Nintendo should've been ashamed of 'being beat'? When has Nintendo ever been acted emotionally to their 'competitor's performance? Actually, has Nintendo even dissed the competition this gen? The only things I can recall them saying of either of them are either positive, or neutral at best.

Originally Posted by Alpha2

When Nintendo was spouting all that rubbish about "changing the paradigm of gamming" they were pretty darn egotisitical. They might have sold 12 million Wii's but they havent changed a thing.

The fact they sold thay many wiis shows that the changes they've made you obviously haven't noticed ^^ Their comment was also as far from egotistical as you can get. Egotistical.. as well as arrogant would be something like 'We are taking gaming forward in ways our competitors could only dream of'

They wanted to take gaming a step sideways rather than forward or back. Well, I guess that could still be seen as an egotistical statement, but as far as egos go, it's pretty darn tame

There is one thing that gave me pause though. It's odd that no one else has brought it up already either. I'd really like to see the rest of the information in that news report because it says 'according to a number survey'.
A survey?

Originally Posted by Morganator

I don't think Nintendo is all that concerned though I'm sure it's more of a shock than anything else.

I'm pretty sure they must still be reeling at least twice a day over how well their console is performing :P When you're so happy about what the future holds it's hard to ever be mean to people. I'm sure Miyamoto is one of the happiest men alive as far as a visionary for games could possibly be.

**Gtek500** · 12-01-2007

Well Nintendo must feel some sort of shame or they must be planning on something. Console wars or not business is business no company wants its competitors to beat them especially if youre one thats focused only on gaming. Im sure they dont have to worry about much they have kids on their side. But they are acknowledging that sony is making a comeback. Im sure lots of people underestimated the wii but look what happened. So what did everyone do after ps3 released and look at where its heading.

**Alpha2** · 12-01-2007

The fact they sold thay many wiis shows that the changes they've made you obviously haven't noticed ^^ Their comment was also as far from egotistical as you can get. Egotistical.. as well as arrogant would be something like 'We are taking gaming forward in ways our competitors could only dream of'

But that's EXACTLY what "changing the paradigm" means! just because they didnt say it like a 15 year old dosent change anything and neither does a "wiggle wand" controller.

They wanted to take gaming a step sideways rather than forward or back. Well, I guess that could still be seen as an egotistical statement, but as far as egos go, it's pretty darn tame

The context in which it was uttered at the time WAS egotisitical because they were talking about how their competition had no new ideas. Just because they sold twice as many systems dosent mean anything because their game sales are still lackluster for the number of systems they have.

**Dr.Drake** · 12-01-2007

What the hell is wrong with Nintendo? Why did they even mention it at all? Some monkey at Nintendo's PR department is going to get whipped for this. Interesting news nonetheless... I suppose it is official now, as Nintendo wouldn't confirm something true when it emits a negative images upon themselves unless they were sure it was correct.