Japanese charts - PSP and One Piece sail to the top

News by Stephany Nunneley-Jackson News Editor

Published on June 1, 2011

Media Create has released the unit sales chart for Japanese hardware and software for the week ending May 29, and it finds PSP still the clear winner and Namco Bandai's One Piece: Unlimited Cruise SP debuting in first place on the software chart.

One Piece cruises to the top of the charts

Namco's One Piece: Unlimited Cruise SP, which is the 3DS port of Wii's Unlimited 1: Treasure Beneath the Waves and Unlimited 2: Awakening of a Hero, was the clear winner for the week moving an outstanding 80,488 units. The game is pretty much exactly the same as on Wii, only it includes new content exclusive to 3DS, as well as the addition of characters Boa Hancock, Diamond Jozu, Emporio Ivankov, and Marco The Phoenix. Obviously, the control scheme is a bit different as well.

Another Koei Tecmo title debuted in second place once again this week, but instead of being filled with bikini clad maidens or otherwise, it was a game full of hacking and slashing which took silver on the charts. All in all, Warriors: Legends of Troy moved a respectable 31,428 units on PS3, with its predecessor from last week falling to number 17 with a 78 percent decrease in sales.

Nintendo's beast-eating Pandora's Tower: Until I Return to Your Side debuted in the third spot with 21,445 units sold, and last week's number one, the vampire slaying Akiba's Trip fell to fourth place with 16,582 units sold - a 71 percent drop over the week prior.

Other debuts this week included: Nobunaga's Ambition: Way of Heaven with Power-Up Kit, Treasure Report: Kikai Jikake no Isan, Iza, Shutsujin! Koisen, Memories Off: Yubikiri no Kikou, Red Stone DS: Akaki Ishi ni Michibikareshi Monotachi, Akai Katana Shin, and Atelier Totori: The Alchemist of Arland 2.

Pokemon Black and White, which was back in the top 10 last week at number nine, fell to the 16 spot, while sales of Nintendo's other constant seller Wii Party were up 57 percent - despite falling to 11th place from last week's eight spot.

All in all, there were ten new offerings in the top 20.

Below is Media Create’s top 20 sales chart for the week ending May 29, 2011. Last week’s figures can be found here.

One Piece: Unlimited Cruise SP (3DS) 80,488 (New)
Warriors: Legends of Troy (PS3) - 31,428 (New)
Pandora's Tower: Until I Return to Your Side (Wii) - 21,445 (New)
Akiba's Trip (PSP) - 16,582
Nobunaga's Ambition: Way of Heaven with Power-Up Kit (PS3) - 15,456 (New)
Treasure Report: Kikai Jikake no Isan (NDS) - 14,304 (New)
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 - Professional (NDS) - 13,974
Patapon 3 (PSP) - 9,134
Iza, Shutsujin! Koisen (PSP) - 9,008 (New)
Pro Baseball Spirits 2011 (PSP) - 8,394
Wii Party (Wii) - 7,925
Battle & Get! Pokemon Typing DS (NDS) - 6,443
Memories Off: Yubikiri no Kikou (PSP) - 6,310 (New)
Red Stone DS: Akaki Ishi ni Michibikareshi Monotachi (NDS) - 6,062 (New)
Akai Katana Shin (360) - 5,603 (New)
Pokemon Black / White (NDS) - 5,197
Dead or Alive: Dimensions (3DS) - 5,072
Atelier Totori: The Alchemist of Arland 2 (PS3) - 4,660 (New)
Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 4,518
Gungnir: Mayari no Gunshin to Eiyuu Sensou (PSP) - 4,515

Software top 20 chart offerings per system:

PSP - 6
NDS - 5
WII - 3
PS3 - 3
3DS - 2
360 - 1
PS2 - 0

Hardware sees slight increase over last week

Sales for most hardware devices were rather flat with each seeing just a slight increase over the prior week. The only hardware to show a decline, was Nintendo's DS Lite which was down 19 units in sales.

PSP continued to top the hardware charts again this week, with sales up 3,057 units over the week prior. Combined unit sales for all hardware came in at 95, 412 for the week, compared to 80,559 last week.

Other Sony devices, PS3, PS2,and PSPgo moved 15,987 units, 1,274 units, and 76 units, respectively.

3DS sales were up considerably over last week, moving a little over 7,000 units more than last week. With 24,283 units moved for the week, it was only 9,402 units behind PSP thanks to the debut of One Piece. The handheld's life-to-date is currently sitting at 1,037,542 units moved – which is also it’s year-to-date total.

Other, older, DS family members moved a combined 10,442 units for the week, with DSi XL moving the most with 5,197 units sold.

Wii sales were a bit flat as well, as the console moved an extra 1,169 units over last week’s 6,269 units.

Xbox 360 sales were up 117 units for the week thanks to Cave's release of Akai Katana Shin.

Japanese hardware, January 3 – May 29, 2011 (combined SKUs, ytd):