Fire Emblem 3DS makes an exceptional debut in Japan, as PS Vita sales dwindle

Fire Emblem: Awakening for Nintendo 3DS moved nearly a quarter million copies after launching in Japan last week, while PS Vita's hardware sales continued to sink to a new low. Fire Emblem: Awakening had one of the best debuts in the Intelligent Systems-developed strategy RPG's 22-year history. The franchise's last two DS entries sold around 147,000 copies each in their opening weeks, while 2007's Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn for Wii sold only 73,337 copies in its first week. The new Fire Emblem game helped boost 3DS hardware sales from 63,796 units in the previous week to 84,760 -- that's more than ten times PS Vita's 8,206 (down from 8,250) system sales last week, a record low for Sony's struggling handheld. Some have blamed PS Vita's poor sales on its price and have called on Sony to discount the system, but others believe its lack of must-have software is the main culprit. The portable isn't expected to receive any major titles until mid-to-late June with Persona 4: The Golden and Metal Gear Solid HD Edition. Sales for PSP's seven-year-old hardware, which reached 11,779 last week, continue to outperform PS Vita. It also has several games on the top 20 software sales chart for Japan, while PS Vita has had none on the list for three consecutive weeks. Nintendo 3DS and DS titles dominated the top ten of that chart, taking nine spots with evergreen games like Super Mario 3D Land (14,491 copies sold) and Capcom's Monster Hunter 3G (13,069). Namco Bandai's 2nd Super Robot Wars Z for PSP (13,560) was the only non-Nintendo handheld game in the top ten. Fire Emblem: Awakening was the top-selling title last week, followed by another new 3DS release, Agatsuma Entertainment's beat'em up Code of Princess with 19,554 units sold. A single Western game managed to crack the top 20: WBIE's The Lord of the Rings: War in the North at #18 for PlayStation 3 with 4,199 copies sold. Full software and hardware sales charts for the April 16 to 22 period in Japan, provided by Media Create and translated on the NeoGAF forums, are available here.