DS Line Leads Again On Weekly Japan Hardware Sales Chart

Sales of the three-model DS line were steady week-over-week in Japan, where the platform once again led other hardware platforms on a static weekly sales chart, Media Create revealed Friday. The Nintendo DS line -- which includes the DSi LL, DSi and DS Lite -- sold 47,450 units, flat compared to DS sales from the prior week. By model, the DSi LL sold 24,189, the DSi sold 18,202 and the DS Lite sold 5,059 units. While sales of the DS were steady week-on-week -- benefiting from a recent price cut -- Nintendo this week reported a declining handheld business for its first quarter. DS unit sales were down about 45 percent in the quarter to 3.15 million units. Nintendo is expected to reignite its handheld business with the recently-revealed 3DS handheld, which displays a 3D effect without the need for glasses. The company said it would launch the new hardware in the current fiscal year ending in March 2011. While the DS led by a combined basis for the week, the original PSP led the individual platform chart with 28,747 units sold, up from last week's 26,786. Combined with sales of the newer UMD drive-less PSP Go (831 units for the week), total PSP sales hit 29,578, to come in second after the DS on the all-platforms chart. Below are the full sales rankings from Media Create for the week ended July 25, 2010. (The second chart lumps together sales of all models in a given line of hardware.)