John-ShepardGran Turismo has always been big in Japan, and Polyphony's franchise has always been big for the PlayStation brand.
It's no surprise to see Gran Turismo 5 at the top of Media Create's sales charts for the recent week; after all, GT5 is plenty huge and the competition wasn't exactly stiff. Even so, at 430,707 units in the first week, such a performance translated to a big spike in PS3 hardware sales. In comparison to the week before GT5 arrived, PS3 sales doubled ; they rose from 29,058 to 68,840 on the strength of the ambitious racer. It certainly helped that the available GT5 PS3 bundle was a hot seller; the package was included in Media Create's report. But despite the fresh surge, the PS3 still failed to top the white hot PSP, which rose again in the weekly sales tally (75,689 to 96,601) and has been doing extremely well in Japan recently. Yes, well, they love their handhelds. How many DSs have been sold over there? Don't they give every Japanese baby a DS the instant it's born? Isn't it a law?
Anyway, it'll be interesting to see how GT5 fares in North America and Europe and how it impacts PS3 hardware sales. Right now, all indications are that the new GT made quite the splash, but we'll have to wait for the official numbers.
Related Game(s): Gran Turismo 5
