With Sony banking heavily on the ‘Final Fantasy XIII’ version for bringing about a turnaround for its competition-hit PS3 console, there is apparently good news in terms of initial post-launch sales of the game released yesterday in Japan!

Going by the figures forwarded by Kotaku, the Final Fantasy XIII, published by Square Enix, has already managed to surpass the one-million unit sales mark – selling roughly 1.1 million copies within 24 hours. These figures exclude the copies sold as part of the Final Fantasy PS3 ‘Lightning Edition.’

Given the fact that the Final Fantasy series is one of the most popular games in Japan as well as in the domestic market, Square Enix has reportedly shipped as many as two million copies of the XIII version to retailers.

While the new version will only be available for the Sony PS3 in Japan, the game will be released in the Western countries on March 9 both on the PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

Though the presently $299-priced PS3 is arguably better value than Xbox 360, the Sony console has still lagged far behind the market leading Nintendo Wii. As such, with the recent Final Fantasy XIII, and other exclusive titles, like Uncharted 2, along with the forthcoming adventures God of War 3, Heavy Rain and The Last Guardian, Sony apparently has games that can help improve its console sales!