Media Create: DS Continues Japanese Dominance

The Nintendo DS and DS Lite handhelds continue to dominate Japanese retail video game hardware sales, jointly accounting for more than 72 percent of the country's hardware market for the month of April, according to a report from official Japanese game chart provider Media Create. According to the report, the recently redesigned DS Lite took an impressive 60.19 percent of April hardware sales, amounting to 690,000 units and the Nintendo DS made up 12.01 percent of the hardware market share, and 138,000 units. The slimmer and lighter version of the Nintendo DS went on sale in Japan on March 2, 2006 for ¥16,800 ($140). The handhelds' closest competitor was Sony's PSP, which amounted to 11.34 percent of the hardware market (130,000 units). The best-selling conventional console was the PlayStation 2, with 112,045 units (9.77 percent), the Xbox 360 struggling to break 10,000 units, and the GameCube down at 4,500 units. Interestingly, Nintendo's other portable handhelds, Game Boy Advance SP, Game Boy Micro, and Game Boy Advance, took 2.69 percent, 2.63 percent, and .02 percent of the hardware market respectively, around 61,000 units. The Nintendo DS also dominated the top ten selling software for April in Japan, with Animal Crossing: Wild World, Otona no DS Training, Tetris DS, Oideyo Dobutsu no Mori, Otona no DS Training Eigo, and Pokemon Ranger ranking as the number second, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and ninth most sold titles respectively during April. However, Konami's Winning Eleven 10 for the PlayStation 2 ranked as the most popular title for the month across all formats, while Nintendo's Mother 3 for the Game Boy Advance (also playable on the DS!) was the third most purchased title. Other top selling titles for the month include Square Enix's DQ Shonen Yangas and Konami's Proyakyu Spirit 3, both for the PlayStation 2, which round out the list as eighth and tenth top selling Japanese games for April.