Japan Charts: Resident Evil Outbreak 2 debuts at No.1, but sales disappoint

Resident Evil Outbreak File 2, the sequel to Capcom's online foray for the Resident Evil series, has debuted at number one in the Japanese leisure software rankings - but first week sales of the title were disappointing regardless.

The game sold some 91,000 units in its first week on sale, which is a fairly decent number, but compares unfavourably with the 227,000 units sold in the same timeframe by its predecessor - suggesting that the online version of the game may not have legs as a franchise after all.

The rest of the market remained depressed this week, with only a slight comeback over the previous week as a number of new releases - including Sega's Dororo (No.2), Spike's King of Colosseum II (No.4) and Capcom's Viewtiful Joe: A New Hope (No.9) - failed to make a significant impact on sales figures.

Most bizarre release of the week has to be Hudson's GBA action title BoBoBoBo BoBoBo: Bakutou Hajike Taisen, which is based on a crack-fuelled anime series in which an afro-sporting hero battles evil with the power of his prehensile nasal hair. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.

The PlayStation 2 topped the hardware sales rankings this week, with 52 per cent market share, overtaking the GBA which slid back to around 39 per cent share, while the GameCube dropped just a notch below eight per cent.

The market is expected to pick up next week, with Koei's Samurai Warriors: Mosho Den and Nintendo's Pokemon Emerald both hitting stores. Pokemon Emerald looks likely to top the chart, but the Samurai Warriors / Dynasty Warriors series has been going from strength to strength in the past few years, and could yet provide an upset for Nintendo's long-established franchise.