Japan Charts: Tales of Symphonia tops ranking again with PS2 release

Namco's RPG title Tales of Symphonia has gone back to number one in the Japanese software charts thanks to a release on the PS2, selling some 265,000 copies despite following on the heels of a Cube release last year.

The game has sold around 332,000 units on the Cube since its launch (and has also performed well in the USA, where it launched a few weeks ago ahead of a European launch later this year), so sales on the PS2 boost it past the half million mark in total.

Tales of Symphonia's success pushed Pokemon Emerald down to number two this week after its strong debut last week, while a number of other new titles kept the market buoyant - albeit showing a small decline from last week's high sales figures.

Genki's PS2 samurai battle title Kengo 3 entered the chart at number three, selling around 73,000 units, ahead of Square Enix' latest Fullmetal Alchemist PS2 title, Demon of the Red Elixir, which sold around 66,000 units and came in at number four, and Sega / Red's new instalment in the Sakura Wars franchise, Sakura Wars V Episode Zero, which sold 57,000 units to rank fifth in the chart.

The only other new release in the top ten marked a bit of Britsoft success, as Sony's UK-developed Formula One 2004 came in at number seven in the ranking, just behind Koei's Samurai Warriors Mosho Den, which slipped to number six in its second week in the chart.

In hardware terms, the Game Boy Advance SP continues to absolutely dominate the market in terms of unit sales, with the success of Pokemon Emerald still driving sales while PS2 sales are depressed following the announcement of the new redesigned unit.

The GBA SP took over 62 per cent market share last week, compared to just over 30 per cent for the PlayStation 2, with the GameCube making up the remaining seven per cent.