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Japan Charts: Third week at the top for Dragon Warrior remake

Square Enix' PS2 remake of SNES classic Dragon Warrior V has retained its position at the top of the Japanese sales charts for a third week running, but it dominates a market which is at rock bottom after a fortnight-long release drought.

Square Enix' PS2 remake of SNES classic Dragon Warrior V has retained its position at the top of the Japanese sales charts for a third week running, but it dominates a market which is at rock bottom after a fortnight-long release drought.

Only 567,000 units of software were sold by the top 100 titles in Japan last week, a drop of some 44 per cent on the week before and a figure which represents less than half of the annual weekly average.

Despite the continued success of Dragon Warrior V - which is well on its way to breaking the 1.5 million unit sales mark - software retail has been affected by a complete absence of key new titles over the past fortnight.

Only two new games make it into the top ten this week, and they're both anime franchises - with Marvelous' Gunslinger Girl Vol.1, based on a somewhat disturbing series about brainwashed children trained to work as assassins, at number three, while Bandai's Shaman King: Funbari Spirits, based on the popular Shonen Jump manga and subsequent TV series, at number four, both registering around 21,000 sales.

Aside from that, it's all familiar titles in the ranking - three GBA games make it in, with super-budget priced Famicom Mini title Super Mario Bros. leading that platform at number two, and the rest is all PS2 titles, including Koei's twin historical franchises, Nobunga's Ambition and Dynasty Warriors, at numbers six and seven.

In hardware terms, not a lot has changed since last week - the PS2 still dominates with just a touch over 48 per cent market share, followed by the GBA which has just under 45 per cent. GameCube is still languishing on around six per cent market share, and desperately needs a couple of solid exclusive titles to drive it back into the running in sales terms.

Pos. Platform Title Publisher Released
1. PS2 Dragon Warrior V Square Enix 25/03/2003
2. GBA Famicom Mini: Super Mario Bros Nintendo 14/02/2003
3. PS2 Gunslinger Girl Vol.1 Marvelous 08/04/2003
4. PS2 Shaman King: Funbari Spirits Bandai 08/04/2003
5. PS2 Pokemon Fire Red Nintendo 29/01/2003
6. PS2 Nobunga's Ambition: Tenka Sousei Koei 01/04/2003
7. PS2 Dynasty Warriors 4: Empires Koei 18/03/2003
8. PS2 Monster Hunter Capcom 11/03/2003
9. GBA Dragon Ball Z: Bukutou Geki Banpresto 26/03/2003
10. PS2 Necchu! Pro Baseball 2004 Namco 25/03/2003

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Rob Fahey avatar
Rob Fahey is a former editor of GamesIndustry.biz who spent several years living in Japan and probably still has a mint condition Dreamcast Samba de Amigo set.