Japan: Nintendo DS on the Rise, Still Trails the PSP

The figures released by tracking firm Media Create for the week that ended on May 29 show an increase in sales of the Nintendo DS handheld on the Japanese market, although the new device is still lagging behind the PlayStation Portable from Sony.

The PSP has managed to sell 33,685 units during the seven days period, which is about 10 percent more than the 30,528 it managed during the previous period.

The Nintendo 3DS has posted sales of 24,284 devices during the same time frame, a significant increase over the 17,240 of the week before, mainly because of the launch of One Piece: Unlimited Cruise SP, a video game published by Bandai Namco.

When it comes to home consoles the best performer continued to be the PlayStation 3 from Sony, which has also improved its figures, going from 12,935 to 15,987.

Nintendo must be pretty unhappy to see that the Wii home console has continued to stay under the 10,000 units sales mark while the DS line of handhelds managed to move 10,442 units during the week.

The Xbox 360 sold 2,303 consoles while the PS2 managed to move 1,274 to gamers.

When it comes to video game One Piece: Unlimited Cruise SP has managed to take the top position, with 80,488 copies sold during its debut week with yet another new entry, Warriors: Legends of Troy, from Koei Tecmo and for the PlayStation 3, has managed to take over the second position in the chart, with sales of 31,428.

Third place in the software chart went to Pandora's Tower: Until I Return to Your Side, from Nintendo, which sold 21,455 units for the Wii.

The rest of the top ten is made up of: Akiba's Trip, Nobunaga's Ambition: Way of Heaven with Power-Up Kit, Treasure Report: Kikai Jikake no Isan, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 – Professional, Patapon 3, Iza, Shutsujin! Koisen and Pro Baseball Spirits 2011.