I'll start this by pasting a neat piece of information from Gamespot News:

The following is the list of the 10 best-selling games in Japan for 2005:
1. Animal Crossing: Wild World for the DS
2. Gran Turismo 4 for the PS2
3. Nou wo Kitaeru Otona no DS Training for the DS
4. Nintendogs for the DS
5. World Soccer Winning Eleven 9 for the PS2
6. Dynasty Warriors 5 for the PS2
7. Yawaraka Atama Juku for the DS
8. Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop for the DS
9. Kingdom Hearts II for the PS2
10. Mario Kart DS for the DS

Well, I dare say these are strange figures.

Six out of ten, including the top seller game of 2005, are handheld games. I never expected to see that in my entire life, as handheld gaming was supposed to be a complimentary form of gaming, not the mainstream in my point of view.

Aside that six out of these ten games (two for DS, all PS2 games) are sequels or remakes. Nothing new here, as "everybody" know a sequel to a good game isn't just a good thing for gamers but also for developers and publishers; but seeing four new franchises on the top ten bestsellers is something quite interesting.

The Japanese market is always referred to as quirky, with new and weird stuff being successful there, but most of the time, after a few months or years, the same happens to the rest of the world. Can we expect the western market to grow towards handhelds and new franchises in the near future? Well, it would be interesting at least.