Sega Breaks Nintendo's Japanese Chart Domination

The Nintendo DS has not quite been able to repeat its clean sweep of the Japanese top ten this week, although seven of the ten titles remain as first party Nintendo releases. The biggest success of the week, though, is Sega’s Phantasy Star Universe, which has enjoyed a strong opening on the PlayStation 2 at over 120,000 units sold - with the PC version not included in Media Create’s top forty. (A Japanese release for the Xbox 360 version has not yet been confirmed.) The other new entry for the week is The Legend of Zelda spin-off Tingle RPG, which, despite considerable skepticism of the concept in the West, has had a respectably strong opening at number five, with over 45,000 units sold. Although the rest of the chart is composed of the usual suspects, continued stock problems have seen Final Fantasy III plummet quite precipitously from its debut last week, as the game continues to remain largely unobtainable. In a similar vein, Rhythm Tengoku, from the Wario Ware team, renters the top ten for the second time following unexpected demand. Ironically, despite the software shortages, stock for the Nintendo DS has improved this week, for a total of 229,259 units sold. PSP sales, though, fell again to 27,499, with the PlayStation 2 up slightly at 22,703 units. The Game Boy Advance family of consoles sold 4,564 units in total, the Xbox 360 1,250 units and the GameCube 855.

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