The nation of Japan started 2009 off rather slowly in hardware sales terms. Buying slowed to a crawl overseas, as they tend to do, at the turn of a new year.

Japan's best-selling Dissidia: Final Fantasy helped the PSP outsell the Wii this week, even though it couldn't muster enough sales to dethrone the Nintendo DSi. Also seeing a big boost was the PlayStation 3.

The holidays were very good to Nintendo in Japan, with hardware sales big enough to translate to a second bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas Eve. We're talking 380,000 game machines moved in a week.

Weekly sales of the Nintendo DSi in Japan have doubled over where they were just two weeks prior, moving an impressive 173,000 this week. Overall, Nintendo sold almost 300,000 hardware units to Japanese consumers.

Sales of the Nintendo DSi on its home turf were way up this week after dipping into "just awesome enough" territory the week prior. Nintendo moved another 126K, according to Media Create.

The Nintendo DSi is still the best-selling platform in Japan, with its camera-less predecessor similarly selling in the tens of thousands. But Sony's PlayStation 3 saw the biggest gains this week, thanks to Konami.

Nintendo DSi sales are still HOT in Japan, with the camera-equipped revision moving another 88,000-plus units last week. The PSP also got a major shot in the arm, thanks to the latest Gundam release.

It was a down week for hardware sales in Japan, with the Wii the only platform to see an uptick in sales week-to-week. The recently launched Nintendo DSi still tops the charts and is in no danger of losing its position to any of its hardware competitors. It does about half of the total hardware sales for the week of…

After last week's exciting new hardware debuts, the Japanese hardware sales charts calm down a bit. Sure, the Nintendo DSi is still selling like gangbusters, but the PlayStation 3 starts its journey downward into more normal territory, moving less than half of what it did the week prior. On the flip side of the hi-def…

The PlayStation 3 hasn't had a good couple of weeks, with sales bottoming out at just 3,931 according to Media Create. Fortunately for Sony, the PS3's fortunes have changed in a major way with the introduction of a new 80GB model and bundles featuring LittleBigPlanet and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III, with a ten…

Sales of the PSP-3000 model in Japan have cooled considerably since it launched in the region, but Sony's portable sells far more than enough to retain the top spot on the Media Create hardware charts. The PSP's hardware peers all took a hit this week; the Nintendo DS drops to third, with the Xbox 360 holding steady…

After taking a breather from consuming video game hardware last week, Japanese gamers return to the electronics stores of their choosing, snapping up almost 160,000 new PSPs. That's substantially more than Famitsu estimated. The PSP-3000 model took Japan by storm, outselling every other platform combined. And…

Man, things are tough all over. This week's Media Create sales charts show that Japanese gamers basically took the week off from buying hardware. It's possible they were simply concerned about the volatility of the global market, as the softer side of sales failed to blow our socks off, too. More surprising is the…

The Media Create weekly hardware charts show some minor shifting, not unlike the earthquake we experienced in Tokyo this week. Fortunately, our hotel didn't crumble as Nintendo DS sales did this week, even though Pokémon Platinum continues to top software sales charts. The Wii and PSP swap places, as do the…

For the third week in a row, Microsoft has outsold Sony again on its home turf, continuing to move Xbox 360s at a respectable clip. Nintendo remains undaunted in the console wars, as combined sales of both the 360 and PS3 are well below that of the Wii and account for about a third of Nintendo DS sales. In other…

For the second week in a row, Microsoft outsold Sony on its home turf, with the Xbox 360 beating out the PlayStation 3 on the Media Create weekly sales charts. That's likely due to the console's recent price drop in Japan and the effects of the one-two software punch of Tales of Vesperia and Infinite Undiscovery. Xbox…

In the world of console sales, a thousand unit discrepancy here or there isn't really a big deal. But when the Xbox 360 makes headlines for being the best selling console in Japan for the week, those numbers matter. While Famitsu publisher Enterbrain calls Microsoft the winner for the week of September 8 to 14,…

...because it only moved a thousand units last week. That's with two Xbox 360 titles charting in the top fifty (Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin and Tales of Vesperia). Sure, it was a slow week for hardware sales across the board, with Wii sales bottoming out at 33K, but it certainly reads like Microsoft's supply is at…

The Nintendo DS looks like its back on pace in Japan, outselling the PSP in the country for the fourth week in a row. With no major software releases for Sony's portable platform in the coming weeks, it appears it will stay that way for a while. Not much in the way of change for the week of August 25 to 31, as we…

No relief in sight for the 5000 or so Japanese gamers who might be on the weekly hunt for an Xbox 360. With a limited supply, those looking for a Microsoft brand console on which to play a copy of Tales of Vesperia or a second game will be left wanting until such time as supplies are replenished. That means that only…