The Japanese hardware chart is showing a steep fall in sales of the PlayStation 3 in the territory, as players who are interested in one of Sony's gaming consoles are holding off so that they can pick up the new PlayStation 3 Slim when it comes out at the beginning of September.

The main reasons behind the waiting period is the price of the new console, which has been down by about a third, but gamers might also be interested in the smaller profile or in the lower power consumption. Sony has also decided that the older version of its console will not be getting a reduced price to get rid of the stock and it will continue to sell for 39,980 Yen, which is quite a bit more than the 29,980 of the new device.

The best selling piece of hardware for the week has been the Nintendo DSi handheld, which managed to move close to 60,000 units, with the effect of the launch of Dragon Quest IX apparently beginning to wear off, followed by the PlayStation Portable from Sony, which sold a bit less than half of what the DSi managed, at 27,187. The older DS Lite model has also managed to sell more than 5,000 units.

The Nintendo Wii is the best sold home gaming console, with 26,972 units, followed by the Xbox 360 with 8,979 and by the PlayStation 2 which sold 3,295 consoles. The PlayStation 3 is dead last with only 2,052 sold in one week.

When it comes to videogames Tomodachi Connection from Nintendo for the DS has managed to sell 82,000 copies to take number one, just ahead of Dragon Quest IX, which is down one spot with sales of 79,000. The distant third place goes to Monster Hunter 3 from Capcom for the Wii, at 51,000. Melty Blood: Actress again takes fourth with 44,000 units sold, while Wii Sports Resort is fifth with 32,000 copies moved to gamers.