DigitalBattle.com

Generally this was a weird week for Japan. After a busy holiday season, hardware sales have dropped across the board, with only PS2 basically remaining level. All consoles suffered, especially the Wii, which for once is precariously close to a Sony platform. Of course, the Nintendo DS refused to budge from its gigantic lead, but it still suffered it’s own drop.

(Pictured Right - Nintendo should probably just have all of their cover art featuring their characters laughing their way to the bank from now on.)

- DS Lite: 100,430
- Wii: 46,283
- PSP: 26,089
- PS3: 16,393
- PS2: 15,139
- Xbox 360: 2,044

The software side of things was equally interesting, once again being dominated by the Nintendo DS, Final Fantasy Rings of Fate has hit the DS to fairly strong sales, as can be expected. Probably the most surprising game is still Mario Party 8, which despite mediocre reviews, and being released several weeks ago is simply selling by the boatloads in Japan. It’s already moved over 650 thousand copies in Japan alone, and seems likely to break one million in that territory. And this is exactly why Nintendo continues to focus on this franchise year after year. Read on for the top ten in software last week.

1. Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends (Koei) – 182,000
2. Ring of Fates (SquareEnix) – 178,000
3. Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Capcom) – 57,000
4. Mario Party 8 (Nintendo) – 49,000
5. My Housekeeping Diary (Nintendo) – 24,000
6. Dragoneer’s Aria (Nippon Ichi Software) – 24,000
7. SD Gundam G Generation Cross Drive (Bandai) – 20,000
8. Winning Eleven 2007 (Konami) – 19,000
9. DK Jungle Climber (Nintendo) – 19,000
10. Wii Sports (Nintendo) – 18,000