Japan: PSP-3000 boosts sales, but overall game market declines

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The numbers in Japan for the month of October are now in from Famitsu. Data shows strong sales of the PSP-3000, which was released during the month, boosting overall PSP sales.

The industry as a whole seems to be suffering in the region though; the data says that sales keep falling since last year. Compared to the same period from last year, hardware sales declined 29.1%.

No shocker there - almost everyone there probably has a console by now. Software sales are falling as well, 14.9% less than last year. Small wonder, since the region's leading console is the Wii, and Nintendo's been pretty quiet for the platform lately. Here are the hardware sales numbers for the month of October:

* PSP: 267,000
* DS: 140,000
* Wii: 98.285
* PS3: 22,343
* Xbox 360: 27,224

Note that the Xbox 360 beat the PlayStation 3 by a small margin, but looking at the region's all in all gamerbase, the PlayStation 3 has 1% of the market, while the Xbox 360 doesn't even blip on the radar. The DS continues to be the most widespread console commanding 42.6% of the market, followed by the PS2. The PSP and the Wii tie with 16% each.

Source; QJ.Net