All Game Consoles Post Sales Losses In Japan

The last software and hardware charts for January paint a bleak picture for all developers and publishers. The Japanese market continues to shrink as 2009 gets going. It's not clear yet whether this is just a slump after the big holiday sales, which is to be expected, or whether we are seeing the effects of the economic crisis, which leads potential buyers to put off getting a game console or some new videogames.

Still, the Nintendo DS has managed to be the best selling console, with 65,304 units sold in one week, which is 16,000 units less than the previous week. The newer DSi model is accounting for the most sold console and, by the middle of the year, the DS Lite will probably be only seen in museums in Japan.

The PlayStation Portable from Sony failed to capitalize on the fact that three titles for it are in the Top 10 for videogame sales and languishes at number two in the hardware chart, with sales of 42,559. The interesting fact is that the handheld only dropped 4,000 units in sales, which might mean that if the Nintendo DS continues its drop, we might just have a new best sold console in the coming weeks.

The Nintendo Wii is the best selling home console, posting sales of 26,770 units, which is 5,500 less than in the prior week. The PlayStation 3 sold 17,708 consoles, while the Xbox 360 only managed to move 9,576 to gamers.

The Nintendo Wii remake of the old GameCube success Mario Power Tennis is the best selling videogame in Japan but it has only managed to sell 32,000 copies, which is quite low. Fragile, a Namco Bandai created role playing game for the Nintendo Wii, is at number two, while Taiko Drum Master Wii is at number three, with sales of 26,000 units.