PS3 Registers Second Consecutive Hardware Low In Japan

Market research firm Media Create has revealed data for weekly hardware sales in Japan, for the week ending April 15th, following details of the software top thirty yesterday. Despite the traditionally slow period of sales in the run up to the Golden Week series of holidays at the end of the month, Nintendo hardware has seen a boost in stock availability, further pushing the Nintendo DS and Wii above their nearest competitors. Nintendo DS hardware sales rose by 22,536 units to 133,471, the format’s highest figure for several weeks. Wii hardware sales rose by 23,176 units to 75,759, also a recent high despite the console’s availability still being severely constrained at retail. The PSP continued its slow fall back to its previous sales levels, following the release of the hugely successful Monster Hunter Portable 2nd, with a drop of 6,653 units to 24,850. The PlayStation 2 also fell, by 1,362 units, to 12,872. Mirroring its sluggish sales in North America, the PlayStation 3 fell to another new low, dropping by 2,572 units to just 11,948. This poor performance also saw its sales drop below that of the PlayStation 2, although it’s year-to-date figure still remains significantly higher at 380,291 units to 285,807. The Xbox 360 fell by only 63 units to 2,900, while the Game Boy Advance family of consoles also remained largely static at 1,297 and the GameCube dropped by 88 units to 167.