Japan: PSP Again Performs Better than the Nintendo 3DS

Nintendo has been publicly talking about how a new line up of releases for the Nintendo 3DS handheld will allow the platform to bounce back in terms of sales all over the world and the leading release in that effort was set to be the three-dimensional remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

But despite the increase in sales that the Nintendo 3DS saw during the previous week on the Japanese hardware market, the impact was minimal and, for the week that ended on June 26, the research firm Media Create has released figures that show the PlayStation Portable from Sony again heading the hardware chart.

The PSP has managed to sell 29,168 units, which is not a great number but still better than the 27,905 device that the Nintendo 3DS has managed to get in the hands of players.

It's unclear how Nintendo will manage to make its own handheld better in the long term, but rumors are that the company is already thinking about cutting the price to attract more customers.

The PlayStation 3 home console from Sony managed to take third place in the hardware chart with sales of 16,993, keeping ahead of the Nintendo Wii, which managed to see an increase in its own fortunes and got nearer the 10,000 units sales mark.

The DSi LL sold 4,903 devices, the normal DSi sits on 4,503 while the rest of the hardware charts is made up of the Xbox 360, the PS2, the DS Lite and the PSP Go, which managed to sell just 21 devices.

When it comes to video games the best performer was Atelier Meruru: Alchemist of Arland 3, which sold 82,585 copies in its first week on sale, followed by another new entry, Stein's Gate, which managed to move 63,558 units.

Third place went to Gundam Memories: Memories of Battle while The Legend of Zelda only managed to take fifth place, with sales dropping to 38,326 units from more than 200,000.