PS3 tops Wii sales in Japan

For the first time since the seventh generation series of video game system, the Playstation 3 has surpassed Nintendo’s Wii in Japan in sales. Over the past month of November, the PS3 has sold more then 183,000 consoles in Japan, compared to about 159,000 for the Wii. This is a major coup for Sony, which over the past year has been seriously lagging in sales in the two biggest video game markets, Japan and the United States. But with the release of a lower gigabyte $400 console, Sony’s PS3 sales have dramatically increased over the past month and a half.

It seems to me that this is a major change in the gaming market; just a few months ago, the Wii’s lead in Japan over the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 seemed insurmountable. But this month is different. Now that the PS3 has been reduced to a reseaonable price, sales hae taken a major upturn.

Don’t have much time to write at the moment, my apologies-but you can read more about this here: http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTKV00289720071130?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0. Kolametal, signing off.

Beginning of the end for DVDs?

In Europe, Blu-Rays discs have outsold chief rival HD-DVD dics by a stunning margin-73% of all high definition discs sold in Europe this year were Blu-Rays, compared to an anemic 27% for HD-DVDs. Blu-Ray technology is used for Playstation 3 games and high definition movie discs that are not HD-DVDs. More then 1 million Blu-Ray movie discs have been sold in Europe, in addition to 20 million more movie and gaming discs that have been produced for sale on the continent. And this trend is not only in Europe-in the United States, Blu-Rays have outsold HD-DVDs by a nearly two to one margin. Some of the most popular Blu-Ray movies include Spiderman 3, 300, and Pirates of the Caribbean 3.

Developed by Sony, Blu-Rays take home video technology to another level. Just as DVDs were the next step up from VHS, Blu-Rays represent another rung on the ladder reached. One of the reasons I bought a Playstation 3 instead of an XBox 360(though I very nearly did buy a 360, which is a great system), in fact, was that the PS3 is a Blu-Ray player. My prediction is that, in the next five years, Blu-Rays will cement its lead not only over HD-DVDs, but over regular DVDs are well. Blu-Rays represent the future-and DVD may quickly be fading into the past. This is Kolametal, signing off.

MySpace takes from Facebook?

Fox Interactive Media President announced today that MySpace, owned by Fox’s parent company News Corp., will now have news feeds similar to those used on Facebook which alert the user to what his or her friends are doing on the site. MySpace is well aware of the competition offered by Facebook, as shown by this move and the new option on MySpace to let users switch to a more Facebook-like skin for their homepage.

The question posed by recent trends seems to be: will Facebook eventually overtake MySpace as the most popular social networking site? Its possible. If the growth of Facebook continues as it has over the past year, then MySpace could be playing second to a newer, fresher leader in the social networking world. But it will be far from easy. MySpace still maintains an enormous lead over Facebook-289 million to Facebook’s 74 million. And MySpace is making efforts to adopt more Facebook-like qualities. And it certainly will not give up its dominance easily. But as of today, Facebook has officially surpassed MySpace with more page views. Facebook has already won half the battle; the other half will be getting more registered members.

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