PS Vita sales finally pick up in Japan as software trickles out

Retail game sales in Japan last week offered two surprises: Sony's oddball Tokyo Jungle title for PlayStation 3 was the top-selling game, and hardware sales for the troubled PS Vita nearly doubled. PS Vita has struggled to push meaningful numbers in recent months, trailing behind the seven-year-old PSP -- many have blamed its poor sales on a drought of compelling software for the handheld. But its sales grew from 7,551 units two weeks ago to 13,383 last week, and it outsold PSP (10,038) for the first time in five months. It was likely helped by Namco Bandai's Kidou Senshi Gundam Seed: Battle Destiny, which was the third best-selling title last week, moving 40,297 copies. Very few PS Vita games have appeared on the country's top 20 software sales chart since the portable's launch, but two more titles that could boost sales are set to ship soon: Atlus' Persona 4: Golden (releasing this week) and Konami's Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (June 28). The other notable item from last week's sales chart is Tokyo Jungle selling 110,309 copies, more than what some expected from such a strange concept -- it's easily the fastest-selling game out of Sony's PlayStation C.A.M.P. program (Echochrome, Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman!). Tokyo Jungle is a survival sim in which players control animals roaming a post-apocalyptic Tokyo. Sony announced at E3 last week that it will release the title in North America and Europe, too, but it did not specify when. Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland 3D, the second fastest-selling 3DS game in Japan, sold 83,329 copies in its second week in stores and has now sold 596,512 total copies. It was likely supply constrained, considering it sold through 94 percent of its initial shipment. Hardware sales for 3DS, which have outperformed all other consoles every week since the console's price cut last summer, fell from 101,074 units to 64,875. It still managed to outsell all other consoles combined, though, and 3DS games accounted for half of the top 20 software sales chart. This week's notable releases include the aforementioned Persona 4: Golden for PS Vita, and Grasshopper Manufacture's Lollipop Chainsaw for PS3 and Xbox 360. Full software and hardware sales charts for the June 4 to 10 period in Japan, provided by Media Create and translated on the NeoGAF forums, are available here.