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Japanese Six-Month Hardware Sales: PSP Leads The Pack

Everyone, say hello to the best selling video game platform in Japan for the first half of the fiscal year: it's the handheld that nobody thought could compete with Nintendo's DS; the PSP.

According to Gamasutra and gathered statistics by Famitsu and Enterbrain, the PSP sold 1,583,731 units during the first six months of the year in question, and that brings the total number to well over 10 million (10,157,757) in the land of the Rising Sun. Not surprisingly, the DS was second with 1,314,919 units sold, and of course, still holds a substantial lead with a total of 23,484,680 units sold overall. The Wii still dominated with 1,105,174 units moved (lifetime figure of 6,800,753), the PlayStation 3 sold 352,457 (lifetime: 2,361,949), and the Xbox 360 – once again – brings up the rear with 138,740 units sold. Believe it or not, throughout its entire tenure in Japan so far, Microsoft has only sold a not-so-grand total of 741,298 consoles in Japan. But the big winner for the first half is the PSP, so break out the champagne and party favors; Sony's portable remains super popular just about everywhere.

But it's also important to mention that the Japanese market shrunk by 21.3% during the six-month period, which marks the first year-to-year interim decline in four years. On the other hand, gaming in the Western markets continues to flourish…are we looking at a shift in the balance of power? Many analysts and game designers seem to think so.

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Scarecrow
Scarecrow
16 years ago

PSP!

Reccaman18
Reccaman18
16 years ago

PS3 aint too far behined anymore.

Qubex
Qubex
16 years ago

This is great news!

Q!

"aLL RoAds LeAd ToO HoMe"

AceTatsujin
AceTatsujin
16 years ago

f yea sony!

Wage SLAVES
Wage SLAVES
16 years ago

Japanese know quality. I wonder why their gaming market is faltering? Here EVERYONE, even my Dad, is into gaming. He's even gonna get his own Ps3!

bamf
bamf
16 years ago

Maybe its because they're not willing to broaden their gaming styles and they're getting bored of playing Dynasty Warriors for the millionth time.

www
www
16 years ago

Smaddy tell me why i should get a PSP,when i could just get robbed off it as soon as i step outta ma house,threatenin people with guns/matchetes/knifes is errday thang in ma hood,u could loose any gadget as soon u go outside.

Scarecrow
Scarecrow
16 years ago

aha! But that's when you buy the psp to play at home.

I know it sounds bad but I play my psp/DS at home. Rarely outside since I really don't have enough solo time to play it.

So yeah it's an option, the good thing 'bout psp is that it's a ps2 in essence. It's getting many of the good games the ps2 would get, and a lot of good rpgs too.

Maz
Maz
16 years ago

GO PSP!!!!!!

Daedusian
Daedusian
16 years ago

Ok now that just about everyone has a PSP, the games seriously need to start flowing. Yeah we are getting some awesome games next year and maybe the tail end of this year, but cmon… Pipe Mania?? The PSP is capable of some really awesome games but it seems no one wants to put in the effort of doing so. I haven’t played my PSP since FF7 was released and GoW right before.

So I really hope Sony isn't celebrating yet, while it is a great achievement, they still need to think of the gamers.