Satoru Iwata Reckons The PS3 & Wii Are Neck & Neck In Japan.

Chalk this down to a phenomenal turn-around in fortunes for SCE worldwide, or a drop in demand for Nintendo's wildly popular Wii system — Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata reckons that in their current climates the Wii and Playstation 3 are "neck and neck" in Japan.

"A notable dip can be seen in sales of Wii this year; which is approximately half the size of last year. On the other hand, Sony's PS3 showed a good transition and they increased the unit sales by about 50%," said Iwata.

"Although we held more than a 60% hardware market share through last year - Wii has 42% and PS3 40% share thus far this year - so both machines are neck and neck in Japan."

It'll be concerning news for Nintendo, especially with the impending launch of Final Fantasy XIII looking to absolutely snatch away Nintendo's dominance in their home land. On the other hand, it'll be pats on the back all around at Sony's worldwide studios, as it seems 2009 really has been the turning point in Playstation 3 perception.