Nintendo DSi Leads Shrinking Japanese Market

For the second week in a row, the Nintendo made DSi is the best sold videogame console in Japan as the entire market is seeing a slowdown in sales. One of the main reasons is probably the lack of big videogame releases to drive up demands for consoles but the overall economic downturn could also be blamed for the loss in sales.

The DSi sold 34,152 units during the week that ended May 18. According to the numbers revealed by Media Create, a Japanese firm that tracks sales, second spot in the chart is taken by the PlayStation Portable from Sony, which reached 28,683 handhelds. It seems that whatever happens, the Sony made device cannot overtake the DS for long periods of time.

The Nintendo Wii managed to outsell the PlayStation 3 again, taking third spot in the charts and being the leading home console in Japan. The Wii sold 15,116 consoles, while the PS3 only moved 11,605. The PlayStation 2 managed to outsell the Xbox 360 by 4,020 to 3,233. Things seem to be back to normal following quite a long period in which the PlayStation 3 dominated the home console sales.

Even if the Nintendo DSi led the hardware charts, the PlayStation Portable dominated the software charts with two new entries taking over the two top spots. Bleach: Heat the Soul 6 from Sony Computer Entertainment sold 42,000 units to be the best sold videogames, while Growlanser from Atlus was second with 23,000 units. Dragon Ball took over the third spot for the DS and Namco Bandai with 20,000, followed by Pokemon Fushigi no Dungeon: Sora no Tankentai and the WarioWare title Made In Ore.

The positions held by the key players will likely remain unchanged in the following week, as no big releases are planned to shake things up.