Japanese Hardware: PSP Still Leads As Market Dips

Sony’s turnaround in Japan continues in this week’s hardware sales figures, with Nintendo’s previous iron grip on the market still looking shaky. But with fewer prominent new releases in the software chart this week, hardware sales fell almost across the board. The PSP was still the best-selling platform, even as sales fell by 16,000 units to 43,463. Boosted last week by the release of two new hardware colors, the console is likely to get another jolt next week as two additional "Carnival Colors" are released. The Nintendo DS regained its number two position this week, although combined sales fell by over 4,000 units to 39,135 (DSi: 27,564 and DS Lite: 11,571). The PlayStation 3 continued to perform well though, despite a nearly 11,000 unit drop in sales to 28,014 – a total still above that of the DSi alone. The Wii was the only major platform to see an increase this week, up just over 1,000 units to 17,941. The Xbox 360 followed the week’s general trend though, down over 6,500 units to a recent low of 8,378. The PlayStation 2 was down slightly to 4,844 units. Overall in the software top 50, there were 22 titles for the Nintendo DS, nine for the Wii, six for the PSP, five each for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2, and three for the Xbox 360.