Final Fantasy XIII ships 1.8 million for launch
UPDATE: PS3 hardware sales reach 250,000 following game's release
Square Enix has shipped 1.8 million copies of the highly anticipated Final Fantasy XIII and expects to sell two million during the game's opening days on sale, according to Square president Yoichi Wada,
"We've already shipped 1.8 million copies and hope sales will reach two million soon," said Wada, speaking at an event held at the Shibuyo Tsutaya store in Tokyo to mark the game's launch.
The company's bullish sales expectations are based on brisk sales of DS title Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, released in July, reports Mainichi Japan.
Final Fantasy's release on Wednesday, which follows relatively soon after the PlayStation 3's price reduction to JPY 29,980, is expected to boost PlayStation 3 sales in the country significantly.
In the most recent Japanese hardware chart Wii led with 135,898 units sold while PlayStation 3 held the second position with 75,086.
UPDATE: According to Famitsu, 1,516,532 copies of the game were sold during its first three days on sale. PlayStation 3 hardware sales reportedly stand at almost 250,000 for the week ending December 20.