14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that the Japanese console market is settling into a pattern when it comes to hardware sales, with the PlayStation Portable from Sony taking the first place in terms of sales when it comes to platform segregated charts while the DS line up from Nintendo took first place when all models are taken into account.
The PSP managed to sell 29,766, which is lower than the 37,000 units it managed in the previous week while second place went to the PlayStation 3, which also saw a slowdown from close to 39,000 to 28,973.
The Nintendo Wii home console is part of the trend as well, going down to 25,345 while the LL version of the DS, which has the biggest screen in the family, succeeded in moving 19,372 units. The DSi shipped 13,738 copies in the same period while the DS Lite, even if slowing down, is still doing better than the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, the PSP Go and the PS2.
For the week that ended on April 11, Media Create, the firm, which watches the videogames market in Japan, is saying that New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Wii, initially launched towards the end of 2009, managed to top the sales chart, with 37,000 units moved to gamers. The reason for the surprising number one is the lack of new releases. Etrian Odyssey III for the Nintendo DS, which had the top position during the previous seven-day period, only sold 19,000 more units and dropped down to seventh place.
Second place seems glued to Fist of the North Star Warriors from KOEI for the PlayStation 3, with sales of 34,000, while third and fourth spot went to Pro Baseball Spirits 2010 from Konami that launched on both the Sony home console and on the PlayStation Portable handheld. Friends Collection from the Nintendo DS is in fifth place with sales of 23,000 units.