If you're curious as to what our Japanese counterparts over at the land of the rising sun are with their video games and all, then you might want to pay attention to a news update we have. Famitsu publishing firm Enterbrain has just released their predictions for the Japanese videogame industry, and things are looking pretty rosy in the future indeed. All the details in the full article.

Remember the speculation that told of a new DS that will be possibly revealed in the upcoming E3 event? Well, Nintendo just called it as it is: pure "rumour and speculation." But since it came from the head honcho of one of Japan's top gaming publications, we are free to think that Hirokazu Hamamura may have picked it up from a reliable source, if it's true. More in the full article.

What's next for Nintendo's world-famous handheld? After the DS Lite, is it possible for them to come up with a revised version, or an entirely new platform? Well that seems to be the rumor circulating now, and this year's E3 Summit is supposed to be when the revelation will be made. Find out more by following the jump.

Curious how the game industry is performing over in Japan? We've got some answers right here straight from Media Create. As expected, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS titles are dominating the competition. Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Wii Fit, and a bunch of others are selling big in a week's span. Full rankings can be viewed after the jump!

Last week, we had a mammoth of a game release with Devil May Cry 4. It's not going to be any different this time around, with the much-awaited Lost Odyssey by Mistwalker finally making its US debut. Other noteworthy games in this batch are Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of Ancient Arts, RPG Maker VX, and a slew of other titles. Hit the full article for the rest of the list.

* Article originally posted Feb 11, 2008 at 01:12AM

In a report made by Enterbrain on the hardware and software sales figures, Nintendo rose to the occasion by outselling their competitors in Japan with the Wii and Wii Sports. With millions of units sold for both console and gaming title, Nintendo is a force to be reckoned with for the upcoming year.

Details on Nintendo's sales figures after the jump!

Square Enix and Enterbrain have published a must-have book for all Final Fantasy enthusiasts: the Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary History Book. The book contains a lot of details, images, and articles about all the Final Fantasy games released the past years. Check out the full article to find out more about this awesome book.

Here's a new update on the recent Japanese hardware and software sales reports from Japanese publication Enterbrain. This latest update bring into focus the exact figures that Japan's choice hardware and software garnered for the period of March to September.

As was previously reported, the DS leads hardware sales with 3.47 million for the time period, with the Sony PSP tailing in at 1.07 million sales. For the next-gen consoles, the chart's leader was the Nintendo Wii at 1.60 sales, followed by the Sony PlayStation 3 at 385,000 sales, and the Xbox 360 at 82,000.

Nintendo's Mario Party 8 (Wii) took the top position, at 819,327 copies sold. Second goes to The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the DS (it's out now, by the way) at 789,091 sales, followed by Wii Play with 771,421 sales, and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2 (DS) with 602,819 sales. Square Enix's Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII appears to be the lone PSP title for the top five, with 602,819 sales.

The video game market in Japan rose 21.7% from last year thanks to sales of local favorite, the Nintendo DS. Sales of its bigger brother the Wii and its handheld competitor the PSP also helped to expand the market. This information comes from magazine publisher Enterbrain.

Hardware sales rose 33.5% from last year and is currently up to JP¥ 138.3 billion (US$ 1.2 billion), amounting to 3.478 million DS unit and DS units sold in the first half of this fiscal year. Software sales rose 12.8% and is currently up to JP¥ 154.5 billion (US$ 1.3 billion).

We should expect to see the numbers keep on growing with the sales of the PSP Slim, which sold more than every other console combined for the week of September 23, boosted by sales of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Nintendo stocks were also reported to be the second highest in Japan last September 25.

Famitsu publisher Enterbrain just released their report on hardware sales in Japan for the month of May. What's the overall verdict, you ask? Well, if you compare the total hardware sales of May 2007 to that of last year's, there's actually a 10% increase. That means more people in Japan are buying handhelds, consoles, or both. One could then assume that there are more gamers this year then there have been last year. Now, on with the specifics; it's pie chart time!

The DS Lite still reigns supreme in Japan, munching off around 55.8% of the market. Their half of the pie consists of 600,000 units sold, thus totalling overall DS unit sales (both Lite and Phat) to a whopping 17,152,000 units sold in Japan. The Wii claims the second spot, with 22.7% of total hardware sales.

Around one fifth of the pie is occupied by Sony. Their PSP, PS2, and PS3 are holding steady at 11.1%, 4.8%, and 4.1% respectively. Following Nintendo, Sony's handheld and console units have a firm grasp of the next top three spots. Rounding up the rest of the hardware sales are the Xbox 360 at 1% and the GBA at .2%.

On the software side of sales though, Sony is king. The PSP's Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War is sitting at the top with 241,901 copies sold during the month of May. Here are the top 10 games sold in Japan:

1. Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions - 241,904 (PSP) Square Enix
2. Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings - 180,260 (DS) Square Enix
3. Super Paper Mario - 156,642 (Wii) Nintendo
4. Wii Sports - 140,704 (Wii) Nintendo
5. Momotarou Dentetsu DS: Tokyo & Japan - 124,223 (DS) Hudson
6. Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree - 113,035 (Wii) Nintendo
7. New Super Mario Bros. - 112,486(DS) Nintendo
8. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day - 103,610 (DS) Nintendo
9. Shining Wind - 101,138 (PS2) SEGA
10. Yoshi's Island DS - 97,331 (DS) Nintendo