Japanese Hardware: DS Continues To Benefit From Dragon Quest IX

The July 11 release of Square Enix's RPG Dragon Quest IX continued to drive sales of Nintendo DS hardware in Japan, with total sales of DS hardware topping 90,000 units for the week. Sales of the Nintendo DSi were 80,362 for the week ended July 26, Japanese tracking firm Media Create said Friday. That's a drop from the prior week, which saw sales of 96,986, but the levels were still about double the unit sales reported just prior to Dragon Quest IX's release. Older DS Lite hardware saw a week-on-week boost to 12,385 units, up from 7,507. Combined, DSi and DS Lite hardware sales amounted to 92,747. Dragon Quest IX brought masses of fans out to Japanese retailers when it launched. The game has sold 3.2 million units in about two weeks in Japan. Sony's PSP was a distant second place this week, selling 30,523, a slight week-on-week decrease from 32,849. Wii was once again the top-selling home console, moving 23,995 during the week, down from 24,971 a week ago. PlayStation 3, PS2, and Xbox 360 rounded out the list with week-on-week sales declines. The full Japanese game hardware charts for the week ended July 26 are as follows: DSi: 80,362 PSP: 30,523 Wii: 23,995 DS Lite: 12,385 PS3: 8,997 PS2: 3,305 Xbox 360: 3,080