Big in Japan March 7-13: Dynasty Warriors 7

The Koei Tecmo Dynasty has a new heir to the throne. In its retail debut, Dynasty Warriors 7 easily topped Media Create's Japanese software sales charts with the PlayStation 3 historical beat-'em-up selling 253,090 copies for the week of March 7-13.

Known as Shin Sangoku Musou 6 in Japan, Dynasty Warriors 7 introduces a new clan to the long-running series, allowing players to rewrite the history of ancient China with the Jin kingdom in addition to the Shu, Wu, and Wei factions. In another break from the series' tried-and-true formula, the game also lets characters wield multiple weapon types, switching between them on the fly in the middle of combat. Interested gamers in the West won't have to wait long to get their hands on the game, as it launches for the Xbox 360 and PS3 in North America on March 29, and in Europe in April.

That pushed the previous week's best-selling game, Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy, to second place with sales of 64,996. However, there was a steep drop-off in unit sales after that, with 3DS launch title Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle clinging to third place for the third straight week despite selling just 29,157 copies. Similarly, Nintendogs + Cats managed to retain its hold on fifth place for the third week running, selling 23,885 copies in the process.

On the hardware front, the 3DS once again sat atop the charts, more than doubling its closest competition. Nintendo's glasses-free 3D handheld added another 96,463 systems to its installed base, while the PSP trailed in second place with 44,646 units sold for the week. The PS3 finished in third place with 32,406 systems sold, while the rest of the market trailed behind, with the remaining systems selling fewer than 10,000 new units each.

JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF MARCH 7-13, 2011
Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1. Dynasty Warriors 7 / Koei Tecmo / PS3 / 253,090
2. Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy / Square Enix / PSP / 64,996
3. Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle / Level Five / 3DS / 29,157
4. Rurouni Kenshin Roman / Namco / PSP / 24,344
5. Nintendogs + Cats / Nintendo / 3DS / 23,885
6. Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity / Sega / PSP / 20,884
7. SD Gundam G Generation World / Namco / PSP / 20,410
8. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd / Capcom / PSP / 18,554
9. Portable Fairy Tail Guild 2 / Konami / PSP / 18,134
10. Way of the Samurai 4 / Spike / PS3 / 17,143

Hardware:
3DS - 96,463
PSP - 44,646
PS3 - 32,406
Wii - 9,519
DSi LL - 6,836
DSi - 5,888
Xbox 360 - 1,796
PS2 - 1,348
PSP Go - 931
DS Lite - 531