Japanese Hardware: Sony Falls Behind Nintendo DS, Xbox 360

As game sales reach a recent high in the Japanese software sales charts, the hardware charts have finally seen a change in the status quo. It hasn’t spelled good news for Sony, though, as the DS unseats the PSP and the Xbox 360 surges ahead of the PlayStation 3. Although DS and PSP sales have been close for weeks, this marks the first time that the Nintendo portable has outsold its Sony rival all year. DS sales were up by 3,000 units to 60,434, while PSP sales dipped by around 2,500 units to 58,501. This was despite PSP title Phantasy Star Portable being the best selling game of the week. Wii sales also fell by around 2,500 units to 38,506, but it was the Xbox 360 which saw the most significant change from the previous week. Sales rose by almost 20,000 units to a total of 24,962. This is the format's highest total outside of its launch week in Japan and one of the first times it has ever outsold the PlayStation 3. The almost five-fold increase in sales was due entirely to the release of Namco Bandai’s Tales Of Vesperia, which also became the fastest selling Xbox 360 title ever in Japan. By comparison, PlayStation 3 sales dropped by just over a hundred units to a total of 9,508 for the week, edging it ever closer to the PlayStation 2’s total of 9,045 units - which was up over 500 units on the previous week. Overall there were 25 Nintendo DS titles in the top fifty, with 12 for the Wii, five for the PSP, three each for the PlayStation 3 and 2, and two for the Xbox 360.