Wii outsells PS3 almost fivefold in June quarter

TOKYO (AFP) - The Wii outsold the PlayStation 3 almost fivefold in the quarter to June as Nintendo ratchets up the pressure on Sony in the multibillion dollar video game industry, figures showed Thursday.

Sony said Thursday it had sold 710,000 PS3s worldwide in the three months to June, a day after Nintendo reported Wii sales of 3.43 million for the same period.

The PS3 "sales figure was somewhat weaker than our target but we still believe that the main battle is still ahead of us," Sony's chief financial officer, Nobuyuki Oneda, told reporters.

Nintendo has made an unexpected comeback in home video game consoles with its hit Wii, which has attracted new legions of gamers thanks to its easy-to-use functions, innovative controller and affordable price.

Sony said its game unit made an operating loss of 29.2 billion yen (243 million dollars) in the three months to June, worse than a 26.8 billion yen loss a year earlier, after it cut the price of the PS3 to less than the production cost to try to boost demand.

"Sales of the PS3 have risen but we booked losses due to our strategic decision to price it below the (production) cost," said Oneda.

"Actually, because the number of units sold was not as high as we hoped, the loss was better than our original expectation," he said.

Sony recently announced a 100-dollar price cut for the PS3 in North America in an effort to invigorate its sales in the face of fierce competition from the Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360. It had already lowered the price in Japan.

But even after the cut, the PS3 remains much more expensive than the Wii.

Sony has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into PlayStation 3 and its success is considered vital to the iconic company's future after it fell behind rivals such as Apple with its hit iPod music player.

The company maintained its forecast to ship 11 million PS3s globally this fiscal year.

Sony shipped 5.5 million PS3 consoles in the year to March, below its target for six million due to production problems with its high-definition DVD player.

But Sony said the battle for market dominance was not yet over.

"We will see more game titles as we head into the Christmas season. Software developers will continue to use the PS3 as an important platform to which they are committed," said Oneda.