Media Create Japanese Sales for week ending August 22, 2010

Bandai Namco’s Another Century’s Episode R for the PS3 is this weeks Japanese video game sales chart topper according to tracker, Media Create, selling about 220,000 copies and beating previous entries in the series first sales weeks by a fair margin. The game is the fourth entry in the action series featuring mechs and robots from various Japanese anime series like Mobile Suit Gundam, Macross Zero and Code Geass, and is the first entry on the PS3 Media Create

After the success of Sengoku Basara 3 a few weeks ago and this week’s Another Century’s Episode R, Japanese publishers of smaller franchises such as these must be more optimistic about achieving success on PS3 as their recent PS3 instalments have sold more copies in their first weeks on sale than their previous PS2 ones.

Wii Party continues selling well for Nintendo, dropping 45% to 69,000 copies this week and falling to second place in the chart. Meanwhile Compile Heart’s Super Dimensional Game Neptune for PS3 sneaks in at number 3 with 23,000 copies sold in its first week. This game is certainly interesting and… different. It features four continents named Planetune, Lastation, Rinnebox and Ruwii in the world of Game Industry and is an RPG in which the goddesses of these continents battle each other in human form, hardware form or hardware personification form.

Level 5’s Inazuma Eleven 3 (NDS) continues selling well, dropping just 36% (remember last week was Obon, so most games got a boost to sales) to 18,000 for a total of almost 800k so far. Capcom’s Sengoku Basara 3 (PS3) continues its strong run with 18,000 copies sold this week for a total of just over 350 000. The rest of the top 10 is pretty uneventful, with most games falling one or two spots because of the new entries.

You can see the entire chart below:

Another Century’s Episode R (Bandai Namco) - PS3 - 220 000
Wii Party (Nintendo) - Wii - 69 000
Super Dimensional Game Neptune (Compile Heart) - PS3 - 23 000
Inazuma Eleven 3 (Level 5) - NDS - 18 000
Sengoku Basara 3 (Capcom) - PS3 - 18 000
Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X (Bandai Namco) - PSP - 16 000
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo) - Wii - 14 000
Art Academy (Nintendo) - NDS - 13 000
Hatsune Miku: Project Diva 2 (Sega) - PSP - 13 000
Friend Collection (Nintendo) - NDS - 10 000

More numbers, including this week's hardware sales, after the break..

11. Taiko no Tatsujin DS: Dororon! Youkai Daikessen!! (DS)
12. Dragon Quest Monsters Battle Road Victory (DS)
13. Jikkyou Power Pro Baseball 2010 (PSP)
14. Tetris Party Premium (DS)
15. Wii Fit Plus (Wii)
16. Bokujou Monogatari: Futago no Mura (DS)
17. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
18. Fire Emblem: Shin Monshou no Nazo Hikari to Kage no Eiyuu (DS)
19. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)
20. Heart Catch PreCure! Oshare Collection (DS)
21. Lilpri DS: Hime-Chen! Apple Pink (DS)
22. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (the Best) (PSP)
23. Kamen Rider Battle: Ganbaride Card Battle Taisen (DS)
24. Jikkyou Power Pro Baseball 2010 (PS3)
25. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
26. Sengoku Basara 3 (Wii)
27. Pokemon HeartGold / SoulSilver (DS)
28. Shin Hisui no Shizuku: Hiiro no Kakera 2 Portable (PSP)
29. Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 3rd Story (DS)
30. Wii Sports Resort (Wii)

Over in the hardware arena, the PS3 was the biggest-selling console in Japan for the week ending August 26, according to figures from Media Create.

Sony's console sold just under 30,000 units, with the Wii managing just over 18,000 and the Xbox 360 just 3,842.

The PSP was the country's best selling handheld with 27,554, although combined sales of the DSi, DSi LL and DS Lite would total over 45,000 units. Almost every platform saw a reduction in sales this week, apart from Sony's struggling PSPgo, which shifted 631 units - up from last week's 608

Hardware top ten: Japan 16-22 August, 2010. Last week's sales figures in brackets.