Halo 3 big in Japan

It's the Xbox 360 title that has become the fastest-selling game ever in the US and already made developer Bungie a cool $300 million. It's everywhere, and it even has its own drink. It's Halo 3, of course, and even the Japanese, it seems, can't resist.

The game was released on September 27 in the region and burst straight into the Japanese charts at number one, according to figures released by Media Create for the week of September 24 to 30. Halo 3 sold 58,672 units in its first week on sale, some 3,000 more than the next best-selling title.

Media Create states that this is the first time an Xbox 360-exclusive title has entered the chart in the number one slot. The 360 itself also saw a relative spike in sales to 5,215 units--as compared to the 1,687 reported last week--no doubt another part of the Halo 3 effect.

In other news, the PlayStation Portable was on top of the hardware charts for the third week running, having sold 102,809 units. The new PSP slim and the release of exclusive Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII have been attributed as the driving forces behind the surge in sales. In comparison, the Nintendo DS Lite sold 72,895, the Wii 24,143, the PS3 13,105, and the PS2 12,980.