During February video games sales dropped 15% in the United States. Most credit goes to a large drop in sales of Nintendo Wiis after their post-holiday shortage, and therefore a continuation of the normal post-holiday gloom in the video game market as a whole.

Even with big name titles like Bioshock 2, market performance did not meet expectations. Bioshock 2 arguably helped Xbox 360 sales take the lead in February. The down and dirty information is below.

Here’s the February 2010 hardware sales breakdown, with growth compared to February 2009.

Sales - Item - % change

Four new games arrived in Media Create's top 10 weekly sales rankings, including Spike's action game Kenka Bancho 4: Ichinen Sensou and Namco Bandai's Super Robot Taisen OG: Saga Endless Frontier Exceed.

The PSP action game Kenka Bancho 4: Ichinen Sensou debuted at the top spot, selling 72,000 units for the week ended February 28, Media Create said Thursday. The game took the lead from Capcom's Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition for PlayStation 3, which dropped from number one to three, selling 48,000 units this week.

Namco Bandai’s God Eater manages to hold on to the number 1 spot for a second week. The PSP title sells 110 000 copies for the week ending the 14th of February, after having debuted in the top spot with 295 405 copies last week.

Dragon Quest IV: Realms of Reverie continues to sell well in second place with 79 000 copies while New Super Mario Bros. Wii climbs one spot to number 3 with 59 000 copies. Prince of Tennis: Prince of School Festival for the DS debuts at number 4 with 44 000 copies and Friend Collection is still at number 5 with 38 000 copies.

Quiz Magic Academy DS is new at number 6 with 32 000 copies while Wii Fit Plus drops to number 7 with 29 000 copies. Star Ocean: The Last Hope for the PS3 drops to number 8 with 26 000 copies after debuting at number 3 last week with 72 026 copies.

Zangeki no Reginkleiv for the Wii enters the charts at number 9 with 22 000 copies and Sacred 2: Fallen Angel for the PS3 is also new at number 10 with 22 000 copies, bringing the total number of Top 10 new entries this week to four.

More, including the charts along with hardware data, after the break..

Namco Bandai's God Eater for the PSP is off to a good start in Japan, giving 295,000 PlayStation Portable owners another taste of Monster Hunter-like hack and slash action.

God Eater's number one debut pushes last week's software winner, Dragon Quest VI: Maboroshi no Daichi for the Nintendo DS to second place, beating out the PlayStation 3 port of Star Ocean 4. That leaves long-legged bestsellers New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Tomodachi Collection settling for lower spots on the chart, but both titles are still selling like the Japanese equivalent of hotcakes.

This week's new debuts, Pop 'n Music Portable and Kunio-kun Nekketsu! Daiundoukai, didn't make much of a stir, but they've got some decent competition.

For Media Create's top 30 games for the week of February 1 to 7, 2010, read on.

01. God Eater (PSP) - 295,000 / NEW
02. Dragon Quest VI: Maboroshi no Daichi (DS) - 190,000 / 1,096,000
03. Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope International (PS3) - 72,000 / NEW
04. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) - 62,000 / 3,263,000
05. Tomodachi Collection (DS) - 38,000 / 2,780,000
06. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) - 27,000 / 1,610,000
07. End of Eternity (PS3) - 25,000 / 144,000
08. Pop 'n' Music Portable (PSP) - 19,000 / NEW
09. Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (PSP) - 15,000 / 730,000
10. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 13,000 / 1,735,000

Much more, including hardware data, after the break..

It was a big, big week for the role-playing game in Japan, with the release—and immediate success—of Dragon Quest VI for the Nintendo DS and, to a lesser degree, Sega's latest effort End of Eternity.

Dragon Quest VI: Maboroshi no Daichi debuted to more than 900,000 copies sold in Japan this week, according to Media Create. Its nearest competitor was Sega's aforementioned futuristic RPG End of Eternity (known as Resonance of Fate around these parts) with more than 145,000 copies sold across the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Ar tonelico III: Sekai Shuuen no Hikigane wa Shoujo no Uta ga Hajiku also repped the RPG genre, debuting in the top ten with 82,000 units sold.

The PlayStation 3 was thrice represented in Media Create's top ten by Zipper Interactive's MAG, adding another 19,000 players to the war. Top software sales in Japan for the week of Jan 23 - Jan 30, 2020 are as follows:

01. Dragon Quest VI: Maboroshi no Daichi (DS) - 906,000 / NEW
02. End of Eternity (PS3) - 118,000 / NEW
03. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) - 84,000 / 3,201,000
04. Ar tonelico III: Sekai Shuuen no Hikigane wa Shoujo no Uta ga Hajiku (PS3) - 82,000 / NEW
05. Tomodachi Collection (DS) - 45,000 / 2,742,000
06. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) - 33,000 / 1,583,000
07. Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (PSP) - 30,000 / 713,000
08. End of Eternity (Xbox 360) - 27,000 / NEW
09. Valkyria Chronicles 2 (PSP) - 24,000 / 118,000
10. MAG (PS3) - 19,000 / NEW

Full listing and hardware data after the break..

After giving up the first place spot to Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep for a couple weeks, Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros. Wii returns to the top of the weekly Media Create sales charts.

It was still a pretty good week for PSP software, however, with Sega's Valkyria Chronicles debuting in second place with 94,000 copies sold, followed by Namco Bandai's Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Battle of Aces. Kingdom Hearts and Monster Hunter helped the PlayStation Portable snag four of the top ten spots, the rest occupied by Wii and DS software.

Valkyria Chronicles 2 debut, by the way, was better than that of its PlayStation 3 predecessor. While the Japanese install base for each PlayStation platform was markedly different for each game's release, I wouldn't be surprised to see future Valkyria games sticking to a handheld platform.

Here are the top thirty games in Japan, according to Media Create, for the week of January 18 to 24, 2010.

01. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) - 111,000 / 3,117,000
02. Valkyria Chronicles 2 (PSP) - 94,000 / NEW
03. Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Battle of Aces (PSP) - 76,000 / NEW
04. Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep (PSP) - 60,000 / 683,000
05. Tomodachi Collection (DS) - 45,000 / 2,696,000
06. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) - 34,000 / 1,550,000
07. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (Wii) - 23,000 / 96,000
08. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (the Best) - 16,000 / 102,000
09. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 16,000 / 1,707,000
10. Inazuma Eleven 2: Fire / Blizzard (DS) - 14,000 / 1,047,000

More, including hardware numbers, after the break..

Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep managed to maintain its bestselling status in Japan this week, fending off the triple platinum seller New Super Mario Bros. Wii in it second week.

The newest Kingdom Hearts for the PSP didn't have much in the way of competition, with the exception of top ten debuts Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles for the Wii, Tekken 6 for the PSP and Last Window: Mayonaka no Yakusoku for the Nintendo DS.

A handful of games already released in the West managed to secure top thirty spots on Media Create's weekly sales chart. The Japanese debut of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising can be spotted on this week's chart.

For the bestselling games in Japan for the week of January 11 to 17, 2009, look no further..

01. Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (PSP) - 177,000 / 623,000
02. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) - 139,000 / 3,006,000
03. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (Wii) - 73,000 / NEW
04. Tomodachi Collection (DS) - 55,000 / 2,651,000
05. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) - 42,000 / 1,516,000
06. Tekken 6 (PSP) - 25,000 / NEW
07. Last Window: Mayonaka no Yakusoku (DS) - 25,000 / NEW
08. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS) - 22,000 / 489,000
09. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 22,000 / 1,691,000
10. Inazuma Eleven 2: Fire / Blizzard (DS) - 22,000 / 1,033,000

All the rest as well as hardware data after the break.

The nominations are in for the 10th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, with Uncharted 2, Flower, and Assassin's Creed II dominating the nominating.

Naughty Dog could win big at the 10th annual awards show, held every year during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has been nominated for no less than seven awards, including Best Game Design, Best Visual Art, Best Technology, and the coveted Game of the Year award. In fact, the only four categories Uncharted 2 isn't up for are the ones it doesn't qualify for - Best Debut, Best Downloadable, Best New Social / Online, and Best Handheld.

Check out the full list below to see if your favorite game got a nod. Keep in mind, these nominations are made by game industry professionals, so these are the best games as picked by the folks that make them.

Only the combined power of Disney and Square Enix can put Mario's video game sales dominance in Japan on pause. For now, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep is the country's bestselling game.

The latest Kingdom Hearts game—this one for the PSP—sold 446,000 more UMDs to Japanese gamers, the week's only new release to make Media Create's top thirty software sales chart. New Super Mario Bros. Wii was well behind Square Enix's newest crossover RPG, another 159,000 copies sold.

The rest of the top ten should be familiar, with Tomodachi Collection, Wii Fit Plus and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks rounding out the first five spots. Square's other game, Final Fantasy XIII moved another 42,000 during the slow week of January 4 to 10, 2009, pushing it ever closer to the 2 million mark.

For the rest of the top 30, where nothing much has changed, and this week's hardware data, read on..

01. Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (PSP) - 446,000 / NEW
02. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) - 159,000 / 2,867,000
03. Tomodachi Collection (DS) - 94,000 / 2,596,000
04. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) - 54,000 / 1,474,000
05. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS) - 49,000 / 466,000
06. Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) - 42,000 / 1,844,000
07. Pokemon HeartGold / SoulSilver (DS) - 37,000 / 3,577,000
08. Inazuma Eleven 2: Fire / Blizzard (DS) - 37,000 / 1,013,000
09. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 33,000 / 1,669,000
10. Phantasy Star Portable 2 (PSP) - 27,000 / 533,000

More after the break..

With no new releases charting in Japan, it's another week for New Super Mario Bros. Wii to dominate the competition with another quarter million plus sold. What other Nintendo games are selling like gangbusters in Japan this week?

The rest of the chart that isn't New Super Mario Bros. Wii looks like familiar stuff — Tomodachi Collection, Final Fantasy XIII, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Wii Fit Plus, et al. On a more exciting note, it looks like FFXIII will cross the 2 million sold mark in Japan before January ends, New Super Mario Bros. Wii passing 3 million, probably within the next five to ten minutes.

And look! It's the return of Animal Crossing DS and Wii Play to the top thirty bestselling games in Japan, according to Media Create! Those are some legs...

Anyway, here's the games that Japan snapped up for the week of December 28 to January 3, 2009. Hardware data to follow.. Also look forward to our year end totals due around the 14th of Jan.

01. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) - 268,000 / 2,708,000
02. Tomodachi Collection (DS) - 186,000 / 2,502,000
03. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS) - 126,000 / 418,000
04. Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) - 112,000 / 1,802,000
05. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) - 105,000 / 1,421,000
06. Pokemon HeartGold / SoulSilver (DS) - 75,000 / 3,539,000
07. Inazuma Eleven 2: Fire / Blizzard (DS) - 69,000 / 976,000
08. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 68,000 / 1,636,000
09. Phantasy Star Portable 2 (PSP) - 44,000 / 506,000
10. Layton Kyouju to Majin no Fue (DS) - 43,000 / 602,000