Current Wii U sales are on the small side in Japan

Some things seem to be ever-lasting in the Japanese video game charts, one of which is continued dominance for the 3DS. It goes like this — the two models outsell every other platform combined, and rivals or those not inclined to like the system curse the skies and wonder how it came to such a position of dominance in Nintendo's homeland. The answer's rather simple — must-have games — which may explain why Wii U has had a week bad enough to see it drop behind the regularly struggling Sony handheld, the Vita.

The hardware sales below show that all Nintendo platforms had a dip, with Sony's latest both enjoying a small increase. The Vita's improvement saw it overtake Nintendo's home console, reinforcing the fact that the big N is reliant on upcoming releases such as Dragon Quest X, The Wonderful 101 and Pikmin 3 to change its fortunes. As we saw with the 3DS in Japan — and elsewhere — games really do sell systems. The figures for 18th-24th February are below, with the previous week's sales in parenthesis.

3DS LL – 49,317 (66,139)
3DS – 25,412 (31,832)
PlayStation 3 – 18,529 (16,934)
PlayStation Vita – 11,456 (8,044)
Wii U – 9,633 (10,744)
PSP – 8,981 (10,501)
Wii – 1,317 (1,655)
Xbox 360 – 473 (506)

On the software side it was another good week for games on Nintendo systems, with Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance jumping in at top spot on PS3; lifetime sales are in parenthesis.

1. [PS3] Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance – 308,681 (New)
2. [3DS] Dragon Quest VII: Warriors of Eden – 75,427 (1,088,341)
3. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf – 74,438 (2,666,040)
4. [3DS] Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic – 29,402 (New)
5. [PSP] Toaru Majutsu no Kagaku no Gun Sou Katsugeki – 13,894 (New)
6. [Wii] Taiko Drum Master Wii Super Wonderful Edition – 9,825 (406,050)
7. [3DS] New Super Mario Bros. 2 – 9,664 (1,932,156)
8. [3DS] Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Best Price! edition – 8,230 (235,465)
9. [3DS] Fantasy Life – 5,870 (236,341)
10. [3DS] Taiko Drum Master: Chibi Dragon and the Mysterious Orb – 5,799 (429,163)

Until big releases arrive on Wii U, meanwhile, we may see more grisly sales results in Japan and elsewhere. That said, from March onwards there are some notable games coming, so it'll be interesting to see how that's reflected in hardware sales.

[source gematsu.com]