PlayStation 3 Beaten By Wii In Home Market

Sony's long-awaited PlayStation 3 may have missed its global shipment target and been beaten in its home market by rival Nintendo's surprise hit Wii video game system, new figures show.

The results herald more bad news for Sony Corp., which is struggling to maintain its dominance in video gaming amid a three-way battle with Nintendo and the Xbox 360 of U.S.-based Microsoft.

Sony sold 466,716 PlayStation 3 units in Japan from its Nov. 11 domestic launch date to the end of December, according to a market survey released Tuesday by Japanese computer game publisher Enterbrain Inc. The figures fall short of the 1 million consoles Sony predicted it would ship domestically by year's end.

Earlier this week, Sony said it met its shipping target of 1 million PS3s in the United States in 2006. But the combined U.S. and Japan total puts the company well below its global shipping goal of 2 million.

Tokyo-based Sony is banking on the PS3 to spark a turnaround from tumbling profits and a costly worldwide recall of 9.3 million laptop computer batteries. Lackluster PlayStation sales would be further cause for concern for a highly hyped product launch already off to a rocky start with two delays.

News of a possible shortfall in Japan helped send Sony shares plummeting as much as 2.7 percent Wednesday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The stock ended 1.8 percent lower at 5,450 yen (US$45.79) amid an overall decline in the market.