Street Fighter IV Comes Second in Japan

In Japan, two big videogames were released last week, in the form of Street Fighter IV, the eagerly awaited new entry in what probably is the biggest fighting series in the world, and Mario & Luigi RPG 3. As a result, hardware sales were also up, even if marginally.

The Nintendo DS is still the best sold entertainment console, with 68,293 units moved in one week, which represents a rise of 6,000 over the previous period. The market share of the newer DSi model is increasing, at the expense of the older DS Lite, which is seeing its stock being depleted. The PlayStation Portable is down by a few hundred units last week, selling no more than 34,256 units. The Nintendo Wii sits at third spot in the hardware chart, being the best sold home console, with 21,016 units sold, an increase of more than 500 over the previous week.

The Sony made PlayStation 3 is at number four in the hardware chart, reaching 18,656 units sold. The gap to the Nintendo Wii is not bigger than 2,000 consoles and if the current trends hold, we might see the Sony gaming console overtake the Nintendo made one in the following weeks. The Microsoft made Xbox 360 sold 9,833 units, while the PlayStation 2 sold just 5,332 consoles.

The best sold game of last week was Mario & Luigi RPG 3 created by Nintendo for the DS. The game moved 193,000 units in its first week of sales mainly because of the success of the main characters. The PlayStation 3 version of Street Fighter IV is at number two in the videogame chart, with 86,000 units sold. The Xbox 360 version of the same title sold 38,000 games. Kidou Senshi Gundam: Giren no Yabou - Axis no Kyoui V, a new Namco Bandai game in the Mobile Gundam series, is occupying the third and fourth spot in the charts, being released for both the PlayStation 2 and the PSP.