PS3 Narrows Gap On PS2 In Japanese Sales Chart

Market research firm Media Create has revealed data for weekly hardware sales in Japan for the week ending July 8th, following details of the software top thirty yesterday. Despite a lack of major new software releases hardware sales experienced only a minor drop over the course of the week, although the Nintendo DS saw sales drop by just over 18,000 units to 139,286 – continuing a fall from last month’s high when new hardware colors were introduced. Wii hardware sales rose by over 1,000 units though to 75,279, as the format continues to widen its gap on its other home console competitors. With only two games in the top fifty (Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters at number sixteen and Monster Hunter Freedom 2 at number thirty-six) the PSP saw hardware sales drop by over 5,000 units to 32,946. Despite only a single game in the top fifty (Super Robot Wars: Original Generation at number three) PlayStation 2 sales dropped by only 2,000 units to 14,120. However, with a total of three games in the top fifty (My Summer Vacation 3 at number seven, Rainbow Six: Vegas at number forty-six and Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII at number forty-seven) PlayStation 3 sales increased to a yearly high of 14,120, up by over 2,000 units. With no games in the top fifty Xbox 360 sales fell by almost 1,000 units to 2,370. Sales of the Game Boy Advance family of consoles were up fractionally to 601 units, while the GameCube was also up slightly to 174 units sold.