Hype surrounding the launch of the PlayStation 3 and Wii consoles led to a huge boost in traffic to both Sony’s and Nintendo’s websites during November and December, according to data published on Wednesday.
Just under 1.6 million home PCs visited the PlayStation site in November, a 75 percent jump over the previous month, and 4.7 million went to the Nintendo site in December, which represents a rise of 42 percent, the data from NetRatings Japan said. Sony launched the PlayStation 3 on November 11 and Nintendo followed with its Wii console on December 2.
The comparative popularity of Nintendo's website over Sony’s has in part been mirrored in sales of the consoles. Nintendo, which has been able to supply more products to the marketplace, has sold 1.2 million consoles in Japan since launch, according to Media Create. That's more than double the estimated 550,000 consoles that Sony has seen sold to consumers.
Nintendo also has an advantage over Sony when it comes to web access because its handheld DS Lite device is easily outselling the rival PlayStation Portable in Japan.
