PSP sales beat DS in Japan for the first half of 2008

Nintendo might have dominated the news for the last two days after announcing new DS hardware and a whole load of new games, but that doesn't mean we've forgotten you, PSP.

And good news for PSP owners comes today from just-released Japanese hardware sales figures for 2008 (courtesy of Enterbrain, publisher of Weekly Famitsu).

Those numbers go: PSP – 1,583,731 ; DS – 1,314,919 .

So PSP has significantly outsold DS this year. Up until now, of course. What's going to be interesting is what happens to those figures when DSi launches on November 1st.

You might be thinking what will happen will involve a cackling Iwata in a big pair of boots stomping all over PSP's bloody carcass, but then you might have forgotten PSP is about to receive new hardware of its own – the PSP 3000, complete with sexy new extra-bright screen, which launches in Japan prior to DSi on October 16th.

PSP, of course, already does everything DSi will do and more – it already plays MP3s, it already has a store where you can purchase games and a built-in internet browser and it already has a better camera (a 1.3-megapixel job, which admittedly needs to be bought separately).

The released figures also put PSP game Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G on top – it's the best-selling handheld game of the year so far, having managed 1,602,386 copies.

One thing's certain: the Japanese hardware charts next month are going to be more exciting to watch than an X Factor final.