14 DAY TRIAL // The big news from the hardware front on the Japanese market is that the PlayStation Portable handheld from Sony has almost caught up in terms of sales with the newly launched 3DS device from Nintendo, probably boosted by the launch of a new Final Fantasy title for it.
The numbers offered by Media Create, the tracking firm that is watching the market, say that the Nintendo 3DS has managed to sell 50,710 units in seven days, which is more than 10,000 less than it did during the previous week.
The PlayStation Portable registered a pretty impressive increase, reaching 50,479 units sold coming from 23,511, which shows just how important big video game launches are when it comes to hardware sales.
The PlayStation 3 has gone from second to third place in the hardware chart, seeing sales increase only slightly from 26,623 to 28,973.
The Nintendo Wii again sits in fourth spot, with sales of 11,808, on the rise after falling below the 10,000 mark.
The rest of the chart is made up of: the DSi LL handheld, the DSi, the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, the DS Lite and the PSP Go.
When it comes to video games, the biggest seller of the week which ended on March 27 is Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection, an updated version of the classic Japanese role-playing game that arrived on the PSP and managed to sell 104,173 copies in its debut week.
Second place was taken by Dynasty Warriors 7 from Koei Tecmo, for the PlayStation 3, which managed to move 36,548 units to gamers while third place went to a 3DS game, Gundam the 3D Battle, from Namco Bandai, which managed to sell 23,500 copies.
The rest of the top ten includes Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy, Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle, Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity, Nintendogs + cats, SD Gundam G Generation World and Pokemon Black and White.