Big in Japan Aug. 30-Sept. 5: Metroid: Other M

In a Game Developers Conference session earlier this year, Metroid creator Yoshio Sakamoto said his sci-fi adventure series was seen as a niche title in Japan. Be that as it may, the latest franchise iteration for the Wii finished a respectable third place on Media Create's Japanese sales charts for its debut week.

The Team Ninja-developed Metroid: Other M moved 45,398 copies for the week, outsold only by the latest entry in Capcom's phenomenally successful (in Japan) Monster Hunter series and Nintendo's latest minigame collection for the phenomenally successful (everywhere) Wii. In its second week of release, MonHun Nikki topped the chart with 88,405 copies sold. Wii Party was a distant second with 55,837 copies sold.

Beyond Metroid, the only other new release to crack the top 20 was the Sony-published PSP fighter Bleach: Heat the Soul 7 in fifth place with 25,374 sold. Technically, Activision's 2009 blockbuster Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 could be considered a new release on the charts, as the bargain-priced rerelease of the game sold 9,162 copies in its first week on shelves, good enough for ninth place.

There were few notable trends in hardware sales for the week, with most consoles and handhelds roughly flat with the previous week's performance. The most notable exception to that would be PSP sales, which saw a dramatic uptick for the week of MonHun Nikki's launch and dropped about 37 percent week-over-week to a more reasonable 34,839 systems sold. Even with the drop, the PSP remained the best-selling system of the week.

JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF AUGUST 30 - SEPTEMBER 5, 2010
Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1. MonHun Nikki: Poka Poka Ailu Mura / Capcom / PSP / 88,405
2. Wii Party / Nintendo / Wii / 55,837
3. Metroid: Other M / Nintendo / Wii / 45,398
4. Ace Combat: Joint Assault / Namco Bandai / PSP / 27,560
5. Bleach: Heat the Soul 7 / Sony / PSP / 25,374
6. Super Mario Galaxy 2 / Nintendo / Wii / 11,933
7. Art Academy / Nintendo / DS / 10,248
8. Inazuma Eleven 3: Sekai e no Chousen!! Spark and Bomber/ Level Five / DS / 10,022
9. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Bargain Edition) / Square Enix (Japanese publisher) / PS3 / 9,162
10. Another Century's Episode R / Namco Bandai / PS3 / 8,880
11. Tomodachi Collection / Nintendo / DS / 8,052
12. Wii Fit Plus / Nintendo /Wii / 7,902
13. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite / Capcom / PSP / 7,783
14. Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes / Capcom / Wii / 7,342
15. Dragon Quest Monsters: Battle Road Victory / Square Enix / Wii / 6,468
16. Taiko no Tatsujin DS: Dororon! Youkai Daikessen!! / Namco Bandai / DS / 6,359
17. Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes / Capcom / PS3 / 6,010
18. Mario Kart Wii / Nintendo / Wii / 5,858
19. Hatsune Miku: Project Diva 2nd / Sega / PSP / 5,676 20. Hakuouki: Zuisouroku Portable / Idea Factory / PSP / 5,518

Hardware:
PSP - 34,839
PS3 - 22,227
DSi LL - 18,929
DSi - 16,968
Wii - 16,080
DS Lite - 4,039
Xbox 360 - 2,860
PS2 - 1,370
PSP Go - 927