14 DAY TRIAL // The Nintendo DS is now celebrating a month at the top of the Japanese hardware sales chart, as provided by Media Create. The hardware market is awfully quiet, with overall sales going slightly down while players are awaiting the launch of the PSP-3000 from Sony and the unveiling of the rumored new Nintendo DS handheld.
The Nintendo made device benefited from the release of Rhythm Heaven which managed to get sales to rise by about 500 units with overall sales going past 56,000 console sold. Meanwhile, the PlayStation Portable, which is manufactured by Sony, lost around 6,000 units in sales and managed to sell just over 41,000 units.
The Nintendo Wii is pretty much at the same level as last week, with 35,775 units sold. The PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation 2 managed to increase their sales only marginally, with their numbers reaching 9,775 and 8,810 respectively.
The Xbox 360 from Microsoft only sold 3,124 consoles during last week with supplies constrained by the fact that Microsoft wants the consoles that are in store to be sold before it introduces the new ones with a reduced price. Basically, the Xbox 360 Arcade version is going to be cheaper in Japan than the Nintendo Wii.
Rhythm Tengoku Gold for the Nintendo DS is the best seller as far as videogames go, but the highest new entry is Afrika from Sony, which was finally launched after a long delay. Unfortunately, Afrika only managed to sell about half of what Rhythm Tengoku Gold sold in one week. J-League Winning Eleven 2008: Club Championship for the PlayStation 2 is at third spot.
In the top 50, you can find 23 titles developed for the Nintendo DS, 10 titles for the Nintendo Wii, six for the PlayStation Portable, four for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 and just three for the Xbox 360.