Catherine tops Japanese charts

After a period of intense interest amongst certain parts of the online games community, Atlus’ PS3 and Xbox 360 outingCatherine has debuted at the top of the Japanese software charts.

The game is conspicuous by its blatant use of overtly sexual imagery – a surprising rarity in the still often far too prudish games sector.

The game is yet to receive a scheduled European release.

In its first week of release Catherine sold over 160k copies across both formats – double the 80k shifted by Capcom’s Marvel vs Capcom 3. Two Worlds II is another debutant.

In the hardware charts PSP surges miles into the lead with weekly unit sales of 63,330. That’s far more than second place PS3 (25k) or Wii (12k).

Here is Media Create’s software Top Ten in full:

1. Catherine (PS3) – 141,826
2. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (PS3) – 67,187
3. Samurai Warriors 3 Z (PS3) – 58,089
4. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP) – 39,727
5. Radiant Mythology 3 (PSP) – 26,504
6. Two Worlds II (PS3) – 24,324
7. Catherine (Xbox 360) – 21,936
8. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (Xbox 360) – 13,779
9. Hakuouki: Zuisouroku DS (DS) – 13,373
10. Gyakuten Kenji 2 (DS) – 13,186