Dragon Quest and PSP still top Japanese charts

Software and hardware sales have seen an expected slump in Japan, following the Golden Week series of public holidays, as the PSP continues to outsell the 3DS.

Hardware sales experienced a major drop across all formats, but there was no change in the usual hierarchy. PSP sales fell by more than a third to 34,665, with 3DS down by a similar proportion to 18,324.

All the other consoles saw comparable drops, with PlayStation 3 sales down to 13,789, the Nintendo DS family of consoles down to 10,858 and Wii sales dropping to a particularly miserable 6,336.

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 Professional on DS remained the number one selling title, but it achieved this feat with just 20,722 sales - one of the lowest results for a number one title in recent memory.

Despite the game now enjoying four non-consecutive weeks at number one it has done so at a slow time of year for Japanese sales and its lifetime total still stands at only 475,503.

The highest new entry of the week was anime tie-in Suzumiya Haruhi no Tsuiso, with the PlayStation 3 version at number two with 18,831 sales and the PSP version at number four with 14,953 sales.

Nintendo 3DS title entered the charts at number three with 17,408 units sold, while an earthquake charity edition of the previously released visual novel Planetarian: Chiisana Hoshi no Yume on PSP debuted at number seven with 9,222 sales.