Japan Charts: Summer sees weekly sales at lowest point in 2004

The software market in Japan has hit a low point for the year to date as summer rolls on, with sales of games in the top 100 dropping below 400,000 units for the first time this year, and the number one title selling only 27,000 units.

Sega's Let's Make J-League Pro Soccer Club! '04 is still at the top of the charts, while Sammy's Pachinko Slot: Fist of the North Star is back up at number two, followed by two of last week's new releases - Sony's Gacha Mech Stadium Saru Batore and Nintendo's Donkey Konga 2: Hit Song Parade.

Two new games make it into the ranking this week, although neither debut with particularly impressive sales; Asmik Ace's Doka Don DX (PS2) is at number five, while Marvelous' female-oriented version of its popular farming RPG, Harvest Moon: Wonderful Life For Girl (Cube), is at number nine.

In terms of hardware, the PS2 overtakes the Game Boy Advance to take its place at the top of the market share table, with 47 per cent share for PS2 as against 43 per cent for the GBA, while the Cube is at just over 8 per cent share this week - although, as you might expect, hardware sales were somewhat slow across the board.