JAPAN: PlayStation takes control

After several weeks undisturbed at the top of the Japanese hardware charts, Sony’s PSP has finally been toppled – by none other than the PS3.

Sony’s control at the top of the listings is perhaps as good a signifier as any of the changing times in the traditional video games homeland of Japan, with much of 2008 and 2009 being dominated by Nintendo’s DS and Wii.

Chart-topper PS3 sold 50k units last week, according to MediaCreate figures, with the PSP close behind on 38k units – or nearly 40k if the 1.5k sales of the PSPgo are added. Wii came third with 31k sales.

The various iterations of the DS occupy the next few slots, lead by the DSi XL (21k), then DSi (14k) and DS Lite (4k). Of course, were these numbers were added together it would amount to around 39k sales.

Rounding off the listings, the Xbox 360 sold 2,419 units and the PS2 sold 1,711k.