Gundam Gives PS3 Second Number One In Japanese Charts

The release of Gundam Musou has seen the PlayStation 3 enjoy its second number one since its release in Japan. The game’s sales of almost 171,000 units have also given it a far more commanding lead over the rest of the chart, compared to the less than 49,000 unit first week sales of Sega’s Virtua Fighter 5 three weeks ago. Developed by Koei, the game is a variant of the company’s Dynasty Warriors series (known as Sangoku Musou in Japan) using the Mobile Suit Gundam brand from Namco Bandai – apparently after a deal to use the Star Wars license was rejected. The second highest new entry of the week is also giant robot related, with Banpresto’s latest DS iteration in the long running Super Robot Taisen series selling over 139,000 units, with the usual mix of mecha from various different Japanese anime and manga series in the one game. The third new entry in the top ten is Namco Bandai’s latest attempt to profit from the success of Nintendo’s Brain Training games, with a sequel to what is essentially a virtual version of spot the difference. Subtitled Iron Left Brain, the game recorded only a moderate 28,500 sales in its first week – with all the games in the top ten showing a larger than normal drop-off from the top three selling titles of the week. Gundam Musou at number one was the only PlayStation 3 title in the top fifty, while Monster Hunter Portable 2nd was the only PSP title in the top thirty – illustrating the increasing gulf between the bestselling titles on each format and the majority of other games. No Xbox 360 titles charted in the top fifty. Hardware sales were down almost across the board this week, with the Nintendo DS’s total reduced to 111,926 unit sales. The PSP was down on its previous high last week, although the continuing success of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd kept it above the Wii at 66,156 units versus 57,972. Sales of the PlayStation 3 more than doubled, thanks to the success of Gundam Musou, but still left the console in fourth place with 44,000 unit sales. The Xbox 360 fell further to 3,379 unit sales, with the Game Boy Advance family of consoles at 1,568 units and the GameCube at 303.

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