Sony - PlayStation 3 sales hit the one million mark in Japan some six months after Nintendo’s popular Wii did the same. To date, the much cheaper Wii is sells more than four times faster than Sony’s PS3.

Sony launched the PS3 in Japan on November 11 while the Wii debuted on December 2. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has been on sale since December 2005 in the country.

The news comes amid rising publisher interest in Wii due to its strong sales and cheaper development costs. Reuters added that the once dominate Sony is struggling to sell PS3s “due to its high price and scarcity of strong game titles,” two culprits that are often cited for the system’s soft demand.

Sony dropped the price of the 60GB PS3 to US$499 last week while adding a new $599 80GB model. It was later revealed that the cheaper model would be discontinued suggesting that the price drop was more of a clearance. Sony is expected, however, to drop the price of the 80GB PS3 to $499 once the 60GB inventory is depleted.

NPD, which tracks North American console sales, is expected to release total June sales for both hardware and software next Monday. (source: PCWorld.com)