Media Create, a Japanese sales tracking organization, claims that the number of PlayStation 3 units has reached nearly 188 thousand in Japan, meanwhile, Microsoft could sell only about 178 thousand throughout the whole year, reports Spong web-site. At the same time, Nintendo Wii enjoyed shipments of 350 thousand units, not significantly less than Sony’s and Microsoft’s consoles combined.

Japan, the domestic market for Sony, has been anticipating the PlayStation 3 much more than the Xbox 360, which is no surprise, as Microsoft’s game titles for the Xbox 360 are mainly aimed at gamers in the U.S. and, perhaps, Europe. The slow launch of the PlayStation 3 and undersupplies allowed Nintendo Wii to become the best-selling console in the country, which is a good sign for its producer.

Generally, the PlayStation 3 is a much more anticipated game console than the Wii and Xbox 360, however, its tight supply, potential issues, such as notorious upscaling problem, and higher price may catalyze gamers to look at competing platforms from Microsoft and Nintendo.

Sony PlayStation 3 console is based on the Cell processor developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba, the RSX graphics chip by Nvidia Corp. and will be equipped with Blu-ray optical disk drive, a hardware part, which is merely available today.