PlayStation 3 takes top-selling honor in Japan, nowhere else

According to market research firmMedia Create, month-to-month sales of Nintendo's newest handheld, the DSi, have dropped 19.42%, PSP sales declined 17%, both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sales dropped 10%, and Nintendo Wii sales dropped 4.5%.

Even though the PlayStation 3's sales dropped further than the Wii's in March, Sony's console actually outsold Nintendo's by a margin of 47,000 units, according to statistics released by gaming magazine Enterbrain today.

The last time this happened was at the end of 2007, when anything that outsold the Wii made news.

Sony's PlayStation 3 has been the lowest-selling console in the United States thanks mostly to its position at the top of the pricing scale. The console with the broadest appeal, not coincidentally, is also the console with the lowest price, the Wii.

Recently, SCEA's senior Vice President of Marketing, Peter Dille, said, "I think it's already well publicized that we have a very clear objective from our parent, Sony Corp., that we're to focus on a profit objective, and with those marching orders it limits the playbook when it comes to pricing and promotion."

"We've had a very successful year;" Dille continued. "We had record revenues across our three platforms last year, and our PS3 business was up 40 percent, notwithstanding the tough climate. So we've really focused on changing the conversation away from price and trying to communicate the value inherent in the PS3."

This recent spike in sales is unlikely to be felt anywhere outside of the Isles of Japan, since it has been attributed to a Sega game called Ryu Ga Gotoku 3 (also known as Yakuza 3) which Sega has no plans of releasing in other languages.