In fact, during the week of the launch, which occured December 17, Sony sold over 240,000 PlayStation 3 units.

Final Fantasy XIII will be released in other territories on March 9, 2010, but in Japan the game remains a PS3-exclusive. Final Fantasy game launches are always big news in Japan, and undoubtedly Japanese consumers are snatching up Sony’s console in order to play the new game.

Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata explains:

“As you probably know, the current situation of Wii cannot be defined as healthy … It is our urgent mission to recover the momentum of Wii during the holidays utilizing Nintendo’s strength.”

The Wii still holds the lead in terms of total sales overall, and the price cut has done more to boost sales outside of Japan, but the past few months have seen a decline in sales, giving the competing Xbox 360 and PS3 to gain some ground.

Adding up its second-quarter results, Sony reports 3.2 million sales, a 1.1 million increase over the same quarter a year earlier. The same period also saw a signficant increase in game sales for the PS3 console.

Meanwhile, Sony’s little-engine-that-could, the PlayStation 2, is finally showing signs of decline. The system has been selling comparably to the PS3, as well as other current-generation competitors, the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. Now, the PS2 has declined to 1.9 million in sales with only about half of the total games sold compared to the previous year.

The PSP also had a bit of a decline, dropping from 3.2 million to 3 million in sales, though game sales are up.

Sony bet heavily on the long-term adoption of its technically-superior PS3 console when it realased the device in November 2006. The console had to compete with the Xbox 360, which was out a year earlier, and Nintendo Wii–both of which had lower price-tags and comparable, or arguably superior, game libraries.

Adoption of the PS3 has been slower than Sony expected, but if sales continue to rise there’s hope for the PS3 yet.

“We believe the role of a new console, a new system, is to bring great new entertainment ideas to life … We will consider the launch of new consoles when we have got great new entertaining ideas that can only be done with a new console.”

There’s certainly no need to push forward yet.  Nintendo’s current strategy puts casual gameplay above graphic and technical marvels, and the Wii continues to deliver on that front.  The NPD recently reported that Nintendo continued to top the charts with the Wii and DS holding the first and second spots in sales, with the Xbox 360 coming in third.

The Nintendo Wii is expected to continue to top the charts through the holidays, while the Nintendo DSi repackaging will hit North America and Europe by the summertime.

The U.S. market will be a much closer race, according to EA. American gamers are more loyal to the Xbox 360, which is developed in the U.S.–just as Japanese customers prefer their home-grown Sony (and Nintendo) consoles. The Xbox 360 also features more Western influence in its games.

Contributing to the PS3′s success is an expected price drop for the system over the next year. The price of the PS3 has always been its biggest obstacle to sales. The system itself is technically superior to its competition, and the library of available games is expected to grow considerably in 2008. Analysts recently estimated that Sony was able to cut PS3 production costs in half with changes it has made the process, which fuels the expectation for a price drop.

Of course, EA expects the Nintendo Wii to continue to dominate in sales over both consoles — even after Microsoft invited Wii owners to graduate from casual gameplay to the more sophisticated Xbox 360.