Increased success for PSP in this week's Japanese hardware chart

If you were expecting surprises from the latest Japanese hardware sales chart, we admire your enthusiasm. Alas nothing has changed, with PSP still comfortably at the top with little danger of Wii or DS catching up any time soon.

Which isn't obviously a negative thing but there's always a little being inside us that craves a little sizzle. That and the fact that it makes it very difficult to write an attention-grabbing headline when the situation remains identical, week-on-week.

But there could have been a change, you see. The demise of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G from the top of the software sales chart earlier this week could have had an effect on PSP sales. (Monster Hunter is now at fifth place in the chart so its popularity is finally dropping after over two months on sale. However, the top of the chart has been taken over by another PSP title, Powerful Pro Baseball Portable 3, which has presumably contributed to the handheld's continued success.)

For the week ending June 1st, then, PSP sold 71,986 units in Japan, which is up on the 64,449 of the previous seven-day period. Wii is second in the chart with 50,851 consoles, and DS third with 38,355.

So, once again, it's a week of reporting the success of PSP in Japan. It's just a shame this doesn't necessarily translate into confidence in the format from western publishers, as demonstrated with comments from Ubisoft this week. The saga continues…