Japanese Hardware: DS Leads As Sales Fall

The Nintendo DS remains Japan’s best selling hardware format this week, as sales of the PSP continue to fall in advance of the launch of the new PSP-3000 model. With software sales at a seasonal low, hardware sales were down across all formats with the Nintendo DS falling 5,000 units to 51,412. PSP sales were down over 7,000 units to 34,462, with the format having no titles in the software top 10 for the first time in several months. Wii sales dipped by over 2,500 units to 33,128 for the week, while PlayStation 3 sales fell by 1,500 units to 8,317 and PlayStation 2 consoles sales dropped by around 800 units, to a total of 8,810 for the week. Stock of the Xbox 360 continued to go un-replenished, ahead of a planned price cut for the format in Japan, with sales dropping by 2,000 units to just 1,044 for the week. Overall in the top 50 there were 26 titles for the Nintendo DS, nine for the Wii, six for the PSP, four for the PlayStation 3, three for the PlayStation 2 and two for the Xbox 360.