How did Microsoft manage to sell more Xbox 360s than the competition this week in Japan? With a little help from Square Enix's Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope.

The role-playing game shot the Xbox 360 from its regular second-to-last place showing to third—it was still behind the Nintendo DSi and PSP—besting sales of both Nintendo and Sony's console hardware. The 360 had previously kicked its console competition to the curb thanks to strong sales of Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, Tales of Vesperia and Infinite Undiscovery.

This represents the fourth week that Microsoft has managed to outsell its competition in Japan.

• Nintendo DSi - 41,839
• PSP - 29,552
• Xbox 360 - 25,334
• Wii - 16,973
• PlayStation 3 - 16,149
• Nintendo DS Lite - 9,975
• PlayStation 2 - 5,029

As you can see there was much to compete with, as weekly sales of the Wii and PS3 were on the lower end of Media Create's numbers. Still, it keeps things interesting in a regularly dull hardware race.

Send an email to Michael McWhertor, the author of this post, at mike@kotaku.com.