JAPAN: Strong debut for Dragon Quest VI

Square Enix’s cherished RPG series Dragon Quest has once again lived up to the hefty expectations placed upon it in the publisher’s homeland with news that Dragon Quest VI sold nearly 1m copies on its first week of release.

The title is actually a remake of the mid ‘90s SNES classic, which has been revamped for Nintendo’s current handheld.

In total it shifted just over 900,000 units at retail, far ahead of second place Resonance of Fate, which sold 118k. Sony’s ambitious online shooter MAG sneaked into the top ten on its first week of release, too, despite the genre’s relative lack of popularity in Japan.

In the hardware charts PSP remains top dog with sales of nearly 48k – though note that those numbers are for the UMD-equipped PSP-3000 model. The digital-only PSPgo continues to prop up the rest with weekly sales of just 1,645 units.