Japan Charts: Third week at the top for Dragon Warrior remake

Square Enix' PS2 remake of SNES classic Dragon Warrior V has retained its position at the top of the Japanese sales charts for a third week running, but it dominates a market which is at rock bottom after a fortnight-long release drought.

Only 567,000 units of software were sold by the top 100 titles in Japan last week, a drop of some 44 per cent on the week before and a figure which represents less than half of the annual weekly average.

Despite the continued success of Dragon Warrior V - which is well on its way to breaking the 1.5 million unit sales mark - software retail has been affected by a complete absence of key new titles over the past fortnight.

Only two new games make it into the top ten this week, and they're both anime franchises - with Marvelous' Gunslinger Girl Vol.1, based on a somewhat disturbing series about brainwashed children trained to work as assassins, at number three, while Bandai's Shaman King: Funbari Spirits, based on the popular Shonen Jump manga and subsequent TV series, at number four, both registering around 21,000 sales.

Aside from that, it's all familiar titles in the ranking - three GBA games make it in, with super-budget priced Famicom Mini title Super Mario Bros. leading that platform at number two, and the rest is all PS2 titles, including Koei's twin historical franchises, Nobunga's Ambition and Dynasty Warriors, at numbers six and seven.

In hardware terms, not a lot has changed since last week - the PS2 still dominates with just a touch over 48 per cent market share, followed by the GBA which has just under 45 per cent. GameCube is still languishing on around six per cent market share, and desperately needs a couple of solid exclusive titles to drive it back into the running in sales terms.

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