Japanese Charts: PS3 Tops For September, ODST Debuts In Top 10

Weekly unit sales of Sony's PlayStation 3 declined for the third week in a row in Japan, following the debut of the cheaper, slimmer version of the console, which drove a massive sales spike in September. Sales of PS3 hardware for the week ended September 27 were 39,960, according to Japanese tracking firm Media Create, down from 51,055 units last week. When the revised PS3 hardware arrived in September, sales climbed to over 150,000 units in its debut week. Sony recently said that PS3 sold 1 million units worldwide following the introduction of the fit and trim console. Although PS3 sales are on the decline from that spike, Famitsu publisher Enterbrain confirmed in a new Bloomberg report that the PS3 was able to outsell the regularly top-selling Nintendo DS line of hardware during September, besting Nintendo for the first time on a monthly basis. That report said Sony sold 309,939 PS3s from August 31 to September 27, a monthly record for the console. The DS line of hardware, including the DS Lite and new DSi, sold 297,060 units during the same period. The new PS3 sells for ¥29,980 in Japan, down from ¥39,980 for the previous version. Xbox 360 products typically don't perform well in Japan, relative to domestic video game rivals Sony and Nintendo, but Microsoft's flagship video game franchise still has an audience. On the software front, Bungie and Microsoft's Halo 3: ODST debuted at number nine with 30,000 units sold during the week. Xbox 360 hardware sold 4,854, coming in second-to-last place for the week, above the aging PS2. Below are Media Create's hardware and software charts for the week ended September 27, 2009: DSi: 63,342 PS3: 39,960 PSP: 17,334 DS Lite: 15,057 Wii: 11,731 Xbox 360: 4,854 PS2: 2,347