It took a while for the Japanese to warm up, but Japan sales are now looking good for Microsoft's Xbox 360 (8,015), so said Media Create Sales' data released for the week of June 8 to 14, thus moving it up a notch closer to the PS3 (10,009). The PSP stays cozy at number 2 with 26,904 units sold. However, to nobody's surprise, it's still Nintendo (Wii - 18,442. DS - 42,280) who's laughing all the way to the bank.

With all the hardware sales reports we've gotten from Enterbrain and Media Create, it's a pretty well-known fact that the DS has sold very well in Japan. But it takes a simple pic from Nintendo to really rub it in and make us see the bigger picture - one in every five Japanese folks now own a Nintendo DS. Talk about ownage.

It's a hectic one, am warning you now. Introductions will be short cos the rest that goes on after the jump is all jamPACKED.

See for yourself (told ya it's gonna be short).

The old: the music may be decades old but the most successful band in history charges into the gaming world, showing us its box art and its bundle. As for the new, Nintendo's fancy new controller is not looking back - you're gonna have to get the new games if you want to make full use of Wii MotionPlus since Nintendo won't add support for older games. Meanwhile, Nintendo is looking forward to coming months, where they expect the hardware sales that they've enjoyed for a long time.

John Koller likes to talk about the PSP's upcoming games. It does get a little stale at times, but it seems like the man really does mean what he says. The past few months alone have been some of the best to have a PSP, what with one game getting announced after another. Hardware-wise, we're still in Zombieville thanks to the undying PSP2/PSP 4000 rumor, and things even got more interesting this week after the long-awaited portable version of Gran Turismo was rumored to be a launch title for the PSP2. Recap after the jump!

The virus is spreading and Japan is about to be overrun by zombies...in a manner of speaking. The newly-launched Resident Evil 5 (PS3, Xbox 360) took the Japanese gaming scene by storm from March 2nd to the 8th. Figures inside.

The PlayStation Portable proved to be the king of the hardware hill for the week of March 2 to March 8 Japan, while combined sales of the DS Lite and DSi put the Nintendo handheld at second place. On the software side, both versions of Resident Evil 5 made it the top three.

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Wii, DS) came out in Japan two weeks ago, so it'd be interesting to know how those games fared on their first week. Let's take a little trip to Japan and see how the Japanese gamers are spending their gaming cash, shall we?

Lucky for Square Enix, there's nothing like starting the year with a big bang in sales. The figures for Japanese game sales for January 5 to 11 have been published by Media Create. Surprise, suprise, Dissidia: FInal Fantasy is still on top!

A nation in recession, Japan apparently bit its gaming purse tight in 2008 to weather the economic storm. Overall, the market dropped 15% from 2007 with both hardware and software sales experiencing their respective slowdowns. Details inside.