Nintendo Co. Ltd. has sold more than 3 million units of its Wii game console in Japan, three times the sales of Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3, game magazine publisher Enterbrain said.

Sales of the Wii since its debut in Japan on December 2 totaled 3.01 million units as of July 15, compared with 1.01 million units for the PlayStation 3, which hit Japanese store shelves on November 11, data from Enterbrain showed on Thursday.

The publisher announced the sales figure for the PS3 on Wednesday, but the latest data for the Wii was not available then.

Nintendo has so far seen strong demand for the Wii, helped by its affordable price and motion-sensing controller, which enables users to direct on-screen action by swinging it like a racket or sword.

The Wii sells for 25,000 yen ($205) in Japan, half the price of the basic version of the PS3.

Enterbrain also said sales of Nintendo's popular handheld DS device reached 18 million units in Japan as of July 15. The DS has been on sale in Japan since December 2004.

Japan Nintendo