Japan Charts: GT Prologue still on top as market settles down

Sony's Gran Turismo 4 Prologue is still the best selling game in Japan this week, driving the PS2 to the top of the table in hardware sales terms once more as the market declines overall following the busy New Year period.

Sales for the week were down massively compared with the previous week, but were still up slightly when compared with last year's figures, and aren't far below the annual weekly average, with around 820,000 units shifted.

Although it's two Sony games which top out the chart, with Hot Shots Golf 4 at number two, Nintendo is still performing well, with five of its first party titles in the top ten.

Mario Kart and Donkey Konga are at three and four respectively, while Mario Party 5 and Pokemon Colosseum at seven and nine finish out the GameCube line-up, and Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga holds on at number ten.

Perennial favourite Taiko no Tatsujin: 3rd Generation is at number five this week, while Hudson's railway game Momotaro Railway 12 enters the top ten for the first time at number six. Square Enix' latest major RPG franchise Full Metal Alchemist is back into the top ten as well, at number eight this week.

No new releases make it into the top ten, and in fact there are only two in the top 100 - with Sammy's Seven Samurai 20XX managing to shift 17,000 units on the PS2, while EA's Lord of the Rings: Return of the King sold around 17,000 on the PS2 and Cube combined.

In hardware terms, PS2 is out in front again with just shy of 42 per cent market share, helped no doubt by the hugely popular PS2 Driving Pack, which includes a white console and a copy of GT4 Prologue. The GBA isn't far behind, with 39 per cent share, but the Cube has dropped below 20 per cent again - with just 17.6 per cent share.

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