14 DAY TRIAL // For the week that ended on January 1, 2012 the Japanese video game market, both in terms of hardware and software, declined sharply as customers pulled back after spending serious amounts of money during the holiday period.
The Nintendo 3DS handheld is still the best selling device on the market, according to data compiled by Media Create, selling 197,952 devices during the seven day period, down from over 480,000.
The newly launched PlayStation Vita from Sony continued to disappoint and has only attracted sales of 42,648 units in seven days, which is another big drop over the 72,479 it managed previously and only captured fifth place in the hardware chart.
Second place went to the PlayStation 3 home console, which jumps from fourth to second place, selling a declining 67,199 consoles but registering a smaller decrease than rival devices.
The normal, older PSP is still selling well and has moved 62,748 units to players, down from 101,121, while the Nintendo Wii has also seen a big decline, slowing down to 33,208 units from just over 91,000.
The older versions of the DS have sold close to 6,000 units, more than the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the PlayStation 2.
When it comes to actual video games the leader of the top ten is unchanged, with Mario Kart 7 for the 3DS again besting its rivals, with sales of 109,000 copies for the week that ended on January 1 of the year.
Second place was taken over by Monster Hunter 3G, again for the 3DS, from Capcom, which sold exactly 100,000 units, while the last place on the podium went to Warriors Orochi from Koei Tecmo and for the PS3, with sales of 73,000 units.
The rest of the top ten is made up of: Super Mario 3D Land, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Inazuma Eleven Go: Shine/Dark, Just Dance Wii, Kirby's Return to Dream Land, Wii Party and SD Gundam G Generation 3D.