Compared to the previous week, most Nintendo Hardware saw an increase in sales for the week ending April 22. The only other system to see an increase in sales is Sony's handheld, the PSP. The number of PSP units sold this week is even higher than the PS3s and the PS2s combined. Ogle the Media Create sales numbers yourself:

• DSL:  172,359  (+39,034)
• Wii: 77,913  (+2,154)
• PSP: 29,459  (+4,609)
• PS2: 11,398  (-1,474)
• PS3: 11,000  (-948)
• Xbox360: 2,307  (-593)
• GBASP: 860  (+206)
• GBM: 449  (-168)
• GC: 266  (+99)
• DS: 81  (-65)
• GBA: 55  (+29)

The bigger high-definition consoles, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3, saw a dip in sales this week. PlayStation 2 sales also slowed down a bit.

What's good to see is that the PSP is getting some much needed love. We see Final Fantasy I 20th Anniversary Edition near the top of the Media Create Software charts (at number 5 actually). Perhaps that had something to do with it?

Finally, this week marks one of the biggest selling weeks for the DS lite since it sold past the 200,000 mark sometime last February, but you all know that everyone and their dog owns a DS lite in Japan, so that's like saying that the sky's blue.

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Please note that these numbers are slightly different from the ones released by VGChartz. These of are obviously from Media Create while the ones Gino D reported on, are from the site he sourced. Different as the numbers may be, the trends they displayed are quite similar. Ninty stuff are on the rise and so is the PSP while the PS3, the Xbox 360, and the PS2 aren't doing so well.

 

As promised, here's an entirely different review for the M3 DS Simply than combining it with the R4 DS. I apologize for taking a long time to publish this review; however it is better late than never! These are in fact the same product, just different casing (sticker) and internal firmware. It all comes down to whether or not you like the R4's logo over the M3 DS Simply logo and their respected internal firmware. The M3 DS Simply offers an excellent solution to current NDS owners looking for a flashcart to enter the "scene" with. Read the review after the jump!

Click on the "Full Article" link below to read the full review.

Vist: [Official Website]

Buy: [M3 DS Simply Slot 1 (MicroSD) for Nintendo DS (Lite)]
Buy: [M3 DS Simply Slot 1 (1GB MicroSD) for Nintendo DS (Lite)]
Buy: [M3 DS Simply Slot 1 (2GB MicroSD) for Nintendo DS (Lite)]

Discuss: [Forum Discussion Topic]

It's 2007 ladies and gentlemen, and for the people in the Land of the Rising Sun, New Year has been a quite a spending spree. As Media-Create noted, the DSL and Wii sales figures constitute for almost 70% of the market sales. As they have conveniently jotted down:

• DSL -  344,878
• Wii - 195,331
• PSP - 118,186
• PS3 - 69,944
• PS2 - 52,037
• Xbox360 - 18,235

As usual, we can see that Nintendo is continuing to ride the waves of success even in its native country, with the DS Lite still maintaining its popularity. So, under the basis of this old belief that the beginning of the year will pretty much signify the trend for the rest of the year, is it possible that 2007 will be Nintendo's year? Or will the PSP or the PS3 bounce back to the top once other PS3 titles are released later this year?

Another week in Japan has passed and the software list isn't as DS dominated as usual. A bunch of new PS2 games were released last week and the PSP got a new Ridge Racer game which made the list a bit more balanced between Sony and Nintendo.

1. (PS2 | SCE) Minna no Tennis - 226,976 [NEW]
   
2. (PS2 | Banpresto) Rurouni Kenshin: Enjou! Kyoto Rinne - 75,007 [NEW]
3. (NDS | Square Enix) Final Fantasy III - 57,057 [655,533]
4. (NDS | Nintendo) New Super Mario Brothers - 53,089 [3,080,126]
5. (PS2 | Capcom) God Hand - 48,280 [NEW]
6. (NDS | Nintendo) Brain Training 2 - 34,959 [3,186,871]
7. (PSP | Bandai Namco) Ridge Racer 2 - 28,232 [NEW]
8. (NDS | Sega) Atama Scan - 27,890 [NEW]
9. (NDS | Nintendo) Animal Crossing Wild World - 24,792 [3,230,554]
10. (NDS | Nintendo) Cooking Navigator - 20,766 [465,958]

The software shift didn't stop the DS from being the "Dominating System" in Japan. The hardware sales were nothing out of the ordinary with the DS Lite easily outselling everything else put together!

1. DSL - 134,885
2. PS2 - 34,189
3. PSP - 26,995
4. GBASP - 2,330
5. GBM - 1,244
6. 360 - 928
7. GCN - 630
8. NDS - 478
9. GBA - 27
10. XBX - 7

The Game Boy Advance SP isn't even selling the 10k units or so it used to do. Neither is the Game Boy Micro. The 360, GCN, and original DS have all dropped below a thousand units. Let's see how everything looks once the Pokemon games hit Japan!

The M3 Lite is, without a doubt, the best flashcart I have ever laid eyes on right now. It stands out from the crowd of previous generation flashcart adapters, and even beats all of the competition in my personal opinion. The M3 Lite was released on the 25th of last month and is available for purchase at various online retailers. Even with a rather high price point compared to the competition, the extra few bucks pays off in the end with several advantages over other adapters. You can read my review of this great product after the jump!

 

PS: The product was sent to me over a week from release so, sorry for the delay.

Purchase: [M3 Lite Retailers]
Info: [M3 Lite English Webpage]

The Japanese sales numbers are in, and guess what? A PSP game is in first place! It's true! Check it out for yourself:

01. (PSP | Bandai Namco) Tales of Phantasia Full Voice Edition - 66,263 [NEW]
02. (NDS | Nintendo) New Super Mario Bros. - 53,011 [3,027,038]
03. (NDS | Square Enix) Final Fantasy III - 49,475 [598,476]
04. (NDS | Nintendo) A Fresh Picked Tingle's Rose Coloured Rupee Land - 32,792 [NEW]
05. (NDS | Nintendo) Brain Training 2 - 32,054 [3,151,912]
06. (NDS | Nintendo) Shaberu! DS Cuisine Navi - 25,458 [445,191]
07. (GBA | Nintendo) Rhythm Tengoku - 24,676 [148,108]
08. (NDS | Nintendo) Animal Crossing Wild World - 24,027 [3,205,762]
09. (PS2 | Sega) Phantasy Star Universe - 20,431 [140,633]
10. (NDS | Nintendo) Mario Basket 3 on 3 - 20,372 [288,136]

DSL: 113,831
PSP: 29,141
PS2: 19,882
GBASP: 2,104
GBM: 1,801
360: 1,094
DS: 1,058
GCN: 696
GBA: 13
XBX: 5

There's a PSP game in first, but the hardware sales are just the same as usual. What's interesting to note is that the DS Lite sells over a hundred thousand units every week. There's only been one week this entire year that the DS didn't sell over a hundred thousand units. However, Sony is only going to put out 100,000 PS3s on launch day in Japan! Expect to see massive damage in Japan. Massive.

Read more of the article after the jump!

The most anticipated DS flashcart of this fall was recently priced for European customers at Divineo's European website. This upcoming flashcart will retail for €99.95. We previously reported a price tag of 124.99$ for the North American market, and now we bring you this new price from Divineo! The DS-Xtreme flashcart will be released this fall and will revolutionize flashcart design. This summer we have beared witness to several DS-sized flashcarts such as the DS-Link (MicroSD adapter), Ultra Flash Pass, NinjaDS and many more DSL-specific flashcarts.

The DS-Xtreme will feature 4gbit of internal flash memory (512mb) with a built-in USB-B port to allow quick transfers directly to the cart. The best thing about this cart - no PC software required. It features a drag-and-drop system that will allow you to run un-patched files! If a file is found to be incompatible, the DS-X team may release a quick firmware update to the DS-X flashcart to fix the problem, a very simple procedure to do! Also, it acts as a no-passs device so you can play it on any NDS, whether it be an old one or a brand new one!

Pre-order: [Germany]
Pre-order: [Spain]

This is the first Japanese sales post we'll be doing in a monthly format. It makes it much easier to compare with the USA sales posts. The trends are very different in Japan as you can see. For example, compare the DS numbers with the USA! And of course, our wonderful friend the Xbox 360 isn't seen the same way in the Land of the Rising Sun...

• DSL: 719,716
• PSP: 121,576
• PS2: 106,831
• NDS: 38,914
• GBASP: 19,825
• GBM: 7,163
• 360: 6,818
• GCN: 4,960
• GBA: 98
• XBX: 53
  

The numbers are for May 29th - July 2nd, as were the NPD USA numbers. That's five weeks of sales. Three titles reached new milestones last month. New Super Mario Bros. passed the 2 million sold mark and both Brain Training games passed 2.5 million! A few PSP games also made the weekly Top 10s, such as Itadaki Street Portable: Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. GBA and Xbox are missing a week of sales because we couldn't find the numbers, but I don't think anybody really minds... Uh, add 10 - 20 for both?