There is at least one truism when it comes to the Japanese hardware market and it’s that the introduction of new colours drives console sales. Both PS3 (41 069 units) and PSP (40 085 units) enjoyed substantially improved sales thanks to the introduction of ‘splash blue’ and ‘scarlet red’ PS3s, and ‘red/black’ PSPs.

The 3DS remains way ahead of the competition with another 96 219 units sold during the last week, while its big brother (the Wii) sold a couple of thousand more units than usual to take fourth spot.

This week’s combined console sales are up by 17% thanks to the PS3 and PSP’s improved fortunes.

With the PS Vita’s Japanese launch just over three weeks away, things are about to get very interesting on the Media Create hardware chart!

Be sure to head over here for this week’s software numbers.

Hardware Chart

• 3DS – 96 219
• PS3 – 41 069
• PSP - 40 085
• Wii – 13 613
• DSi LL – 1 813
• Xbox 360 – 1 763
• PS2 – 1 291
• DSi – 897
• DS Lite – 31

Source: Media Create