213w ago - Price drop or no price drop, the PlayStation 3 has been slaughtering other consoles on its home turf. In fact, it's doing so well that it has actually managed to outsell the Nintendo Wii for 2009.

The current year-to-date figures put the PlayStation 3 at 447,700 units sold, while the Nintendo Wii is at 431,833 units sold.

The constant wave of heavy hitter games, as well as the release of Advent Children on Blu-ray, have given the console a hefty boost in weekly sales. You can view the performance of each console down below for the week of 04/13~04/19.

• PlayStation 3 - 62,527
• PSP - 40,065
• Nintendo DSi - 38,287
• Nintendo Wii - 13,221
• Xbox 360 - 8,652
• Nintendo DS - 6,438
• PlayStation 2 - 4,230

215w ago - Sony's PlayStation 3 has outsold Nintendo's Wii console in Japan for the first time in 16 months.

To quote: Last month, Sony shifted 146,948 units of the PS3 compared to 99,335 Wiis, reported publishing firm Enterbrain.

While some suggest it could signal the end of Nintendo's dominance, others think it is unlikely that the PS3 will threaten the Wii's popularity globally.

Meanwhile, Nintendo's revamped DSi console sold 92,000 units in the UK during its first weekend of sales. It makes it the fourth biggest ever console launch.

Experts see the dominance of the PS3 during March as a temporary blip rather than a sign of Nintendo's decline.

Microsoft however only shifted 43,172 units of its Xbox 360 during the same period. Games such as Resident Evil 5 and the latest version of action adventure Ryu Ga Gotoku 3 are credited with driving demand for the PS3 in Japan.

But Wii sales remain extremely buoyant. During March global sales of Nintendo's Wii console passed 50 million, making the Wii the fastest-selling games console in history, surpassing the PlayStation 2.

"PS3 hardware sales picked up due to brisk-selling software. But I don't see any drastic change in the industry landscape," Okasan Securities analyst Masashi Morita told the AFP news...

216w ago - Last week, word spread that Microsoft would soon reach one million Xbox 360s sold in Japan... and that is what has been announced today.

According to sales figures from Famitsu publisher Enterbrain, lifetime sales for the Xbox 360 have crossed the million sold watermark in Japan with 1,001,191 units as of March 29.

The Xbox 360 went on sale in Japan on December 10, 2005.

Enterbrain has also released lifetime domestic sales figures for the PS3. The Sony console has sold 3,008,395 units since going on sale November 11, 2006. Wii sales figures were not released, however.

220w ago - The PlayStation 3 outsold the Wii and Xbox 360 in Japan this week. It also outsold the Nintendo DSi, PSP, DS Lite and PlayStation 2, not something we've seen happen too often.

The hardware boost, propelling the PS3 out of its regular fourth place finish, can be chalked up to the release of Yakuza 3 (AKA Ryu Ga Gotoku 3) for the platform which sold 372,000 copies during the week.

A bundled version that shipped with a white, dragon-emblazoned PlayStation 3 likely helped move more hardware than normal--enough to outsell the Wii and Xbox 360 combined.

We'll be interested to see how the newly released Resident Evil 5 affects hardware sales next week, as it will be available on both hi-def console platforms.

The bestselling hardware in Japan for the week of February 22nd to March 1st is...

• PlayStation 3 - 36,513
• Nintendo DSi - 35,827
• PSP - 35,588
• Wii - 17,876
• Xbox 360 - 11,795
• Nintendo DS Lite - 11,774
• PlayStation 2 - 5,099

221w ago - Nintendo, Square Enix and Capcom have won their battle against the R4 cartridge for the Nintendo DS. It is now officially illegal to sell the R4 anywhere in Japan, and Nintendo has vowed to fight against other similar products.

To quote: Today, the Tokyo District Court has found in Nintendo's favour and granted an injunction against sales of the R4. Most outlets had already stopped selling it due to the lawsuit's pressure, but it's now officially against the law to sell it in Japan.

Nintendo, Square Enix and Capcom have released a statement crowing about the victory, highlighting that the R4 is a "violation under Japan's laws" and declaring that the 54-strong company coalition will continue to bring the fight to any manufacturers of similar devices.

What repercussions this will have for the R4 in the wider world is unknown as yet, but we wouldn't be surprised if the battle went global.