After selling 3 million copies around the world, Gears of War was released in Japan last week and managed to sneak in to the top 10 selling video games for the week, with 33 212 copies sold according to tracking firm Media-Create. Meanwhile, in what must be a worrying turn of events for Sony, the PlayStation 3 is trending downwards after the holiday period, with only 21 105 units sold in the week of 15 to 21 January.

With Gears of War selling over 3 million copies, the Japanese sales are still low, but considering how poorly the Xbox 360 has been received in Japan, to get a game into position 7 on the sales chart is actually a good result for Microsoft, especially considering that the PS3 has no games currently in the top 30. However, it is unlikely that this small success will change the ailing fortunes of the console in Japan, as the game is unlikely to stick around in the top 30 for another week and there are no sure-fire hits coming to the console in the territory until the next Sakaguchi/Mistwalker creation, Lost Odyssey, for which a date is still to be announced.

It is possible to explain the PS3’s current poor sales since no games have been released for the system in January, so the real indication of its popularity will come when such popular games as Virtua Fighter 5 and Gundam Musou are released in the coming months.

For the first time in more than a month, the top 10 was dominated by new releases, with the PS2’s .hack//G.U. Volume 3 taking the top spot with 136 790 copies sold, Wario the Thief (on the DS) in second (91 249) and Sega Shining Force EXA (PS2) in third (72 306 copies). The Japanese top 30 is still dominated by the Nintendo DS, which has 18 titles in the list. Sony’s PS2 and PSP consoles have a combined total of 6, while the Wii has 5. The only new Wii title, Excite Truck, made it into the chart at position 13, while Wii Sports and Wii Play continue their success at positions 4 and 5 respectively.

The DS also continues to dominate hardware sales with 127 647 units sold, while the Wii is not too far behind with 86 395. Nintendo seems to be selling every unit they can manufacture at this point.