New Baseball Game Drives the PlayStation Portable Forward

It's Monday, so it's time we saw how things are going on the Japanese videogame market. Media Create released the charts regarding both hardware and software sales and it seems that, while more games were released and more videogames were sold, the rise of actual gaming devices sold in Japan was modest, with only the PlayStation Portable managing to move significantly more units during this time frame.

The Sony made handheld console sold almost 72,000 units, which means that it managed to push to customers 7,500 more than in the previous week. The Nintendo Wii stayed in second place, with a modest increase in sales bringing it to over 50,000 units sold in one week. The DS continues to be third, after enjoying several weeks at the top earlier in the year, with just over 37,000 consoles sold, as Media Create informs.

The more "hardcore" gaming consoles are far behind this top trio. The PlayStation 3 sold 9,169 units, beating the PlayStation 2, which still sells despite being "last gen" because of its videogame library and because of the new releases for the platform. The Xbox 360 from Microsoft continues to have precious few fans in Japan, with only 1,947 units sold in one week.

As far as software sales are concerned, the big news is that a new baseball game for the PSP is taking the lead. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu Portable 3 sold 117,000 copies during the release week, coming just ahead of Mugen no Frontier: Super Robot Taisen OG Saga for the Nintendo DS, which sold some 98,000 copies. Mario Kart Wii continues to hold on to third spot, with sales that are roughly half of the top two, while Wii Fit maintains a strong showing in fourth place.

An interesting debut is Family Trainer from Namco Bandai at number 6, a game that provides an experience similar to that of the Wii Fit and comes complete with an exercise mat.