Japanese Hardware: DS Sales Soar On Dragon Quest IX Release

Japan's Media Create confirmed reports earlier this week that sales of Nintendo DS hardware ballooned to nearly 130,000 on phenomenal reception of the Square Enix RPG Dragon Quest IX. Media Create said sales of the newer DSi hardware reached 118,202 units for the week ended July 12, while sales of the older DS Lite hardware were 10,161, for a grand total of 128,363 across the DS hardware line. Comparatively, during the week prior to Dragon Quest XI's release, the DSi sold 46,855 units, and the DS Lite sold 7,507. The Japanese release of Dragon Quest IX garnered long lines of franchise fans at Japanese retailers, as the game sold over 2.3 million units during its first week. The game launched July 11, and a bundle including Dragon Quest IX with a red Nintendo DSi hit retail at the same time. A US date is to be announced. Meanwhile, non-DS platforms exhibited lower sales compared to the prior week, aside from the PlayStation 2, which saw a mild increase. The full Japanese game hardware charts for the week ended July 12 are as follows: DSi: 118,202 PSP: 26,527 Wii: 22,141 DS Lite: 10,161 PS3: 9,864 Xbox 360: 3,561 PS2: 3,508