Japan Charts: Gundam scores another number one for Bandai

The Japanese software market continues to perform well in the run-up to Christmas, with a number of new launches driving sales well above last year's levels on both PS2 and GameCube.

Bandai tops the charts with another number one from its massively popular Gundam franchise, this time in the form of Mobile Suit ZGundam: AUEG vs Titans, a PS2 title which is also part of a new console bundle. Another Gundam title, the GBA strategy title SD Gundam GGeneration Advance, is at number ten this week.

Also performing well for the PS2 is Gran Turismo 4 Prologue, which is at number two - helped no doubt by the fact that although it's described as the world's biggest game demo, it's retailing for a budget price of 3,000 Yen (â'¬22).

The GameCube continues to perform well at retail, with hardware sales close to 20 per cent market share this week thanks to the launch of several key new titles including Tomy's Naruto 2, based on the successful anime series Naruto. Nintendo's own GC titles Mario Party 5 and Pokemon Colosseum continue to sell strongly, at numbers seven and nine respectively.

Namco also has a new GC title in the ranking, with Baten Kaitos at number eight - the game is a card battling RPG from Monolith, the team who created cult favourite RPG Xenosaga.

One slightly surprising appearance in this week's chart is EA's Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, which debuts at number five. We're sure there's a good reason why Japanese customers are buying a (not very good) shoot 'em up game in which you play as an American fighting against the Japanese forces in World War II, but we're at something of a loss to imagine what it might be.

In hardware terms, the PS2 extends its dominance of the marketplace with 54.5 per cent market share, pulling well ahead of the GameBoy Advance which has 24 per cent share. As previously mentioned, the GameCube continues to sell strongly and has almost 20 per cent market share this week.

The Xbox however has now lost the majority of its momentum from the price cut at the end of last month, and is languishing on 1.5 per cent market share.

Data courtesy of Media Create Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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