Japan Charts: No.2 debut for Square Enix' new franchise

Square Enix' new franchise, Code Age, got off to a good start in Japan last week, with the PS2 incarnation of the game, Code Age Commanders, selling around 37,000 units in its first weekend on sale and debuting at number two in the charts.

It's a fairly strong debut for a new IP, and Square Enix is hoping for great things from Code Age further down the line - having already committed to mobile phone game titles and manga comic books for the property.

However, Code Age couldn't knock Bandai's Dragon Ball Z Sparking! off the top spot in the charts, with the latest fighting game to be based on Akira Toriyama's hugely successful manga and anime series holding on firmly for a second week at number one.

Another crossover between manga, anime and games went in at number three, meanwhile, with Konami's latest GBA title in the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, Duel Monsters GX, selling around 35,000 units.

Further down the chart, there were no fewer than four DS titles in the top ten - all of them several weeks old, with both of the Brain Training titles (DS Training for Adults and Gentle Brain Exercises) still in the top ten, along with the anime-themed Jump Super Stars and the highest ranked DS game, Bandai's Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop.

In hardware terms, the Nintendo DS continues to dominate the market, taking some 34 per cent market share this week, compared to 23 per cent for the PlayStation Portable, while the PS2 has 18 per cent and the Game Boy Advance has 23 per cent between all of its iterations combined, with nearly 16 per cent of that accounted for by the Game Boy Micro.