Japanese Hardware: DS Celebrates Four Weeks On Top

The Nintendo DS is celebrating a full four weeks of outselling the PSP in Japan, although it continues to do so in a relatively quiet retail period. With Rhythm Heaven again at number one DS sales rose slightly this week, up just under 500 units to 56,439. The PSP did lose further ground, though, with its own sales slipping by just under 6,000 units to 41,664 as big sellers Monster Hunter Portable 2 G and Phantasy Star Portable both begin to tumble down the charts. With no significant new releases for several months, the Wii has seen little positive movement for some time, rising by only 500 units this week to 35,755. The PlayStation 3 saw sales increase by a similar amount, up slightly to 9,775. PlayStation 2 sales also increased fractionally, up to 8,810 units for the week. Although it has three games in the top 50 this week (Too Human at 17, Clannad at 25 and Tales of Vesperia at number 32) the Xbox 360 continued to experience a sales drop to 3,124 units as stock runs low. It now seems unlikely that it will be replenished before the recently-announced price cuts come into effect in Japan. Overall in the top 50, there were 23 titles for the Nintendo DS, 10 for the Wii, six for the PSP, four each for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 and three for the Xbox 360.