14 DAY TRIAL // In Japan, the Xbox 360 is gaining ground on the PlayStation 3, with the gap for the week ending on June 14 being of about 2,000 units. Of course, the dominant gaming devices are still handhelds, with the Nintendo DSi, updated and improved, selling 36,872 units, leading the hardware chart, again pushed forward by a new videogame release.
Second place goes to the PlayStation Portable, which managed to move 26,904 units and Sony must be hoping that new releases of videogames for the gadget will push it past Nintendo's platform.
The Nintendo Wii is the best selling home gaming console, which is no surprise, with sales of a little over 18,400 units. Although bigger than those of the home console made by Microsoft and Sony, sales of the Wii are still lower than those registered in the same period of 2008, which must be a little concern for Nintendo.
The PlayStation 3 has managed to sell around 10,000 units and the Xbox 360 is a little over 8,000; this means that Sony, which must content with the domination of Microsoft in North America, might soon need to watch its console being beaten even on its home market.
Usually, the increase in sales of the Xbox 360 is linked to the release of an important Japanese Role Playing Game for the platform, although this is not the case now. The DS Lite is still selling around 5,400 units in a week, while the PlayStation 2 moves about 3,400.
When it comes to videogame releases, the biggest seller was Infinite Space for the Nintendo DS, from SEGA, which moved 38,000 units, while second place went to Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days from Square Enix, with around 28,000 copies sold. Sloan to MacHale: Nazo No Monogatari from Level 5, also for the DS, is in third spot, with the first PSP game, Koei's Shin Sangokumusou 5: Empires, only coming in at number five.