Last week reports surfaced that Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara, a large electronics store in Tokyo, had sold out of all the versions of the Xbox 360 console. Amazon of Japan was also sold out of two of the three versions of the 360. Clearly most retail outlets and Microsoft themselves did not anticipate the increased demand for the 360.

Microsoft of Japan has now announced that the Xbox 360 has sold out across Japan and that no new stock will be available until September.

This news comes after the 360 outsold the PS3 in the land of the rising sun last week, thanks largely to the release of Namco Bandai’s Tales of Vesperia. The hardware sales showed that the title was definitely a system seller, increasing Xbox 360 hardware sales from 5 359 units to 24 962 for the week ending the 10th of August.

Tales of Vesperia sold 108 328 copies in its opening week, earning the 360 a rare appearance in the Top 10 at number 4 as well as the title of biggest first week for an Xbox 360 game in Japan. Media Create data shows that the previous best first week of software for the Xbox 360 was Blue Dragon with 80 000.

The Microsoft Japan press release (translated by Kotaku) reads “We truly thank you for all your patronage in the past. Currently, the Xbox 360 is sold out, and retailers are unable to restock their supply. This is a result of our own sales targets being exceeded by the actual customer sales. We deeply apologize for this inconvenience to our customers, retailers and business partners.”

“Here at Microsoft, we are moving forward quickly with console production, and plan to ship the standard Xbox 360 model out this September. Furthermore, we will sequentially be shipping out the Elite and the Arcade models. We ask that you please patiently wait until the console is shipped.”

“We truly thank you for your patronage hereafter,” added the company before signing off as Microsoft Home and Entertainment HQ.