Enterbrain, the publishing house behind legendary Japanese gaming news outlet Famitsu, has released its estimates of videogame console hardware sales in Japan for the past six months, and the news is actually rather surprising. Sony’s PSP holds the number one position among all consoles sold in the period, tallying up to just short of 2-million units. The Wii ranks as the top home console with 1.7-million units shipped, which just outstrips Nintendo’s portable, the DS, which moved 1.6-million pieces of hardware.
The DS has been generally believed to be unstoppable in Japan after years of sell-out demand. The system’s lack of a Japanese megahit in recent months has obviously set it back however, while the PSP has ridden a sudden surge in popularity stemming from Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, a JRPG we’ll likely never see stateside. Regardless, the news should certainly enliven the spirits of the Sony faithful, as it proves the Nintendo monolith is not entirely unstoppable.
