Nintendo seems to be losing a bit of its momentum if the current Japanese hardware and software sales are anything to go by. Judging by the latest figures from Media Create, both the Nintendo DS and Wii sales have taken a dive and their two major titles, Wii Play and Wii Sports, have all but fallen out of the top ten.

Hardware sales plummet

The two Nintendo consoles still lead the pack with the Nintendo DS selling 77 488 units this week and the Wii 29 088 in Japan. Although these figures still place them well ahead of Sony and Microsoft, it is hard not to notice the downward trend that both the Nintendo DS and Wii are experiencing at present. Last week the Nintendo DS sold 94 339 units while the Wii sold 39 371 units. The low sales have been attributed mainly to the seasonality of the video games industry despite Nintendo previously claiming to be impervious to this trend.

Sony’s PSP comes in third place this week with sales of 15 564, down from last week’s 22 196. The PS2 takes fifth place with 13 360 units, marginally lower than last week’s 14 280, but still ahead of its successor the PS3 which only manages to sell 13 248 units, also down from last week’s 18 068. Microsoft settles in sixth place with the Xbox 360 selling just 1 286 units, much the same as last week’s 1 635 units sold. The almost extinct GBA and GameCube bring up the rear with 500 and 82 units sold respectively.

Software charts ahoy

Banpresto’s Another Century’s Episode 3: The Final for the PS2 debuts in the top spot on the Japanese software charts. This title is miles ahead of the pack, selling 186 422 units, with the nearest contender being Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fate by Square Enix for the Nintendo DS at 35 696 units. Nintendo’s Mario Party 8 for the Wii is in third place with 28 237 units sold while Koei’s Sengoku Musou 2: Moushouden for the PS2 settles in fourth place with 25 250 units sold.

Koei’s Bladestorm for the PS3 is in fifth place with 16 972 while Bandai-Namco debuts at number six with Haro Ichiza: Gundam Mahjongg + Z selling 16 545 units. Capcom’s Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories for the PS2 enters the charts at number seven with 15 674 units sold while Nintendo’s My Housekeeping Diary for the Nintendo DS scrapes in to number eight with 14 993 units sold.

The sales of Nintendo’s Wii Play and Wii Sports titles seem to have slowed down somewhat with Wii Play in ninth place with 13 995 units and Wii Sports rounding off the top ten with 13 255 units sold.

It remains to be seen whether the low sales of the Nintendo Wii will continue this week but many are anticipating another record low week for the Wii. It is expected that until the big releases such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Wii Fit and Super Mario Galaxy hit the shelves later this year, the low sales trend of the Wii will continue.

Look out for Pokémon Mysterious Dungeon 2 (NDS) and Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core (PSP) on this week’s charts which are out this week in Japan.

Hardware chart

Software chart

Special thanks to: Media Create, Play-asia.com, NeoGAF, Dengeki and Google for the information and translations of Japanese game titles

Source: Media Create