Japan Charts: Top ranking for Nintendo's Made in Wario

Leading publisher Nintendo has scored yet another number one in the Japanese software charts, with quirky GameCube title Made in Wario taking the top spot as Cube hardware sales were boosted by a price cut.

Made in Wario, which is the GameCube's spiritual successor to the popular and highly unusual GBA title Wario Ware, Inc., sold some 91,000 copies in its first week on sale - low for a Japanese number one, but a very decent showing for a Cube title such as this.

In fact, it was a good week all round for the GameCube - as well as having the number one software title in Japan, the console also boosted its hardware sales and market share, realising some 14.5 per cent of the hardware market, which climbed significantly following the price cut to the Cube.

Made in Wario was the only new release in the top ten, which perhaps explains the decline in overall software sales this week - in fact, the total sales for the top 100 titles was below 417,000 units, making this into one of the slowest weeks of the year.

In hardware terms, aside from the boost in the Cube's fortunes, things remained broadly unchanged from the previous few weeks, with the GBA ruling the roost with nearly 50 per cent market share by units, followed by the PS2 with around 35 per cent.

Languishing still below the one per cent mark, the Xbox clocked up 0.57 per cent market share - slightly ahead of Bandai's SwanCrystal (0.54 per cent) but behind the PSone (0.85 per cent).

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