Kiss your loved ones, hug your friends, because if this keeps up we've reached the end of days -- the Xbox 360 outsold the PlayStation 3 last week in Japan. We'll break down all the numbers in our weekly Japanese hardware sales post later today. For now (while we pack our towels), the Xbox 360 sold 17,673 fueled by (raise an eyebrow) Namco Bandai's Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, which debuted at the #2 spot behind Super Mario Galaxy.

The PS3 sold 17,434 units compared to Xbox 360's 17,673, a slight 200 unit separation. But to just give an idea how dramatic the increase in sales was, the previous week Xbox 360 only sold 3,718 units, increasing its sales almost five fold. Repent while you still can.

Media Create's Japanese sales data for the past week has just been released, revealing a PS3-free Top 30 that is headed by a monster hit (yes) for the PSP at Number One. For more mixed signals, set your dials to receive this week's Top Ten:

1. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd - 705,281 units sold last week (new entry / Capcom, PSP)
2. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - 80,002 (new entry / Alchemist, PS2)
   
3. Fire Emblem: Dawn Goddess - 75,359 (new entry / Nintendo, Wii)
   
4. Sim City DS - 50,826 (new entry / EA, DS)
   
5. Professor Layton and the Mysterious Town - 49,979 (186,716 sales to date / Level-5, DS)
   
6. Wii Sports - 47,503 (1,090,736 / Nintendo, Wii)
   
7. Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen EX - 45,792 (new entry / Tomy, Wii)
   
8. Dragon Quest Monsters Joker - 40,507 (1,174,576 / SquareEnix, DS)
   
9. Wii Play - 35,811 (944,586 / Nintendo, Wii)
   
10. Picross DS - 26,693 (183,357 / Nintendo, DS)

And here are some lessons we can learn from the big figures:

• The PSP is ALIVE, and Monster Hunter is the WINNER
  
• EA has had a place in Japan, after all (see also: firing the whole Japanese studio was a really clever thing for EA to do)
• There are as many Wii titles as there are DS games in this week's Top Ten -- Japan is bowing to its Nintendo duarchy

"Japanese gamers suffer from motion sickness when attempting to play first-person shooters, and that's why the genre doesn't sell well in Japan."

Fallacy?

According to Media Create sales data released today, Gears of War ranks at number seven in this week's Top 30 Japanese sales chart. This is remarkable for two reasons: a) Gears of War is an Xbox 360 game, b) Gears of War is a first third-person shooter. 33,212 Japanese gamers have either decided to try one last time to conquer their motion sickness or, more likely, they've never had a problem with nausea and think Gears of War looks like a beauty*. (Last week's review in Famitsu, which awarded the game a score of 37/40, will have provided some reassurances.)

[Update: *Or, even likelier still, they're cleverer than this blogger is when he first wakes up.]

There are times when reading the Japanese sales charts can be a decidedly odd and disturbing experience, as if your mind suddenly becomes aware that all is not right in the universe. Like a homicidal clown lurking in a dark corner, this week's situation is certainly amusing, but it's not something you want to come into contact with on a regular basis. It's just wrong. The ranking, according to number of units sold:


- DS Lite: 149,454 4,112 (2.68%)
- PSP: 31,959 6,024 (23.23%)
- PS2: 23,332 199 (0.86%)
- GBA SP: 2,818 101 (3.46%)
- Xbox 360: 1,610 287 (15.13%)
- Game Boy Micro: 1,379 64 (4.44%)
- DS Phat: 1,009 2,495 (71.20%)
- Gamecube: 934 68 (6.79%)
- GBA: 20 3 (17.65%)
- Xbox: 13 5 (62.50%)

Looking at the opposite ends of the list is like glancing into the cackling face of madness (it bears a vague resemblance to Groucho Marx). The DS Lite endures a minor slip, its older sibling takes a complete fall down a set of stairs and the original Xbox experiences the biggest improvement percentage-wise out of the whole lot. Did we enter into some sort of zone where normal things don't happen very often?

[Source: Media Create]

... the harder they fall. The Japanese population's brief rekindling of their romance with the DS Phat, showing a massive 1559% increase in sales last week, seems to have died out for now. Our obese friend takes the sharpest fall this week, with slimmer, trimmer machines like the Game Boy Micro and DS Lite faring better. The ranking, according to number of units sold:

- DS Lite: 157,022 15,535 (10.98%)
- PS2: 25,467 4,730 (22.81%)
- PSP: 24,737 84 (0.34%)
- DS Phat: 10,132 12,616 (55.46%)
- GBA SP: 3,784 858 (18.48%)
- Game Boy Micro: 1,502 208 (16.07%)
- Gamecube: 1,197 195 (19.46%)
- Xbox 360: 1,169 238 (16.92%)
- GBA: 25 5 (25.00%)
- Xbox: 10 5 (33.33%)

The rest of the chart seems intentionally unremarkable, with the Lite reigning on top and the spinless Xbox sweeping the ground floor. Very soon, it will be expected to clean up the explosion of confetti and glitter accompanying the launch of the Noble Pink DS Lite.

[Source: Media Create]

The sheer volume of words being displayed on the front page of this blog is, quite frankly, entirely ridiculous. It's time for a change. It's time we inundate you with the accountant's best friend and the alphabet's greatest foe. It's time we unleash the Japanese hardware sales charts for the week ranging from 5 June to 11 June and thoughtfully observe their effects on the human body. The ranking, according to number of units sold:

- DS Lite: 132,027 3,587 (2,65%)
- PSP: 21,656 2,939 (11,95%)
- PS2: 18,981 468 (2,53%)
- GBA SP: 4,116 248 (5,68%)
- Game Boy Micro: 1,654 384 (30,24%)
- DS Phat: 1,371 212 (18,29%)
- Xbox 360: 1,100 145 (11,65%)
- Gamecube: 961 163 (20,43%)
- GBA: 30 6 (20,00%)
- Xbox: 20 23 (53,49%)

For those perplexed by the friendly arrows, rest assured that their intention is only to indicate whether a platform's sales have increased or decreased since the last week (followed by the exact difference and a percentage). For those perplexed by the previous sentence, we politely suggest that you try attending school for once.

[Source: Media Create]