GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.

Big in Japan Jan. 25-31: Dragon Quest VI DS

Square Enix's portable RPG dominates the week's sales as Tri-Ace's Resonance of Fate charts on both PS3 and Xbox 360.

53 Comments

The latest stint atop the charts for New Super Mario Bros. Wii was a brief one. After dethroning Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, the Nintendo platformer lasted just a week in the top spot before being supplanted by another handheld Square Enix hit.

"Just a few more experience points and I can level up my trigger finger!"

According to Japanese tracking firm Media Create, Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie was the country's best-selling game for the week of January 25-31. The DS remake of the series' Super Nintendo swan song sold a whopping 906,458 copies for the week, coming just shy of doubling the rest of the top 10 combined. Square Enix has confirmed a North American release for the final installment in the role-playing game franchise's Zenithia trilogy (which has never received an international release) but has yet to specify a launch window.

The only other game to break the six-digit mark for the week was another RPG, Sega's Resonance of Fate (pictured), called End of Eternity in Japan. The latest effort from Star Ocean studio Tri-Ace racked up sales of 118,088 on the PlayStation 3 for the week, good enough for second place on the charts. The Xbox 360 version of the game also cracked the top 10, landing in eighth place with 27,048 units sold.

Those weren't the only new arrivals on the software charts. Namco's latest entry in the Ar tonelico RPG series sold the fourth most copies of the week, finishing just behind New Super Mario Bros. Wii with 81,633 units sold. Sony's 256-player online shooter MAG also established itself with a top 10 performance in its debut week, selling 19,139 copies.

The hardware numbers were similar to those of previous weeks, with the standard PSP being the best-selling system of all (47,875 units sold) and the PSP Go bringing up the bottom of the chart (1,645 units sold). The Wii was the best-selling console of the week (42,309 units sold), while sales of Nintendo's various DS models were all up week-over-week, thanks in part to the big Dragon Quest VI debut. The finishing order of the systems was identical to the previous week, except for the DSi XL (34,863 units sold) barely pulling ahead of the PS3 (34,431 units sold) to swap third and fourth place with the Sony console.

JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF JANUARY 25-31, 2010
Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1) Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie / Square Enix / DS / 906,458
2) End of Eternity / Sega / PS3 / 118,088
3) New Super Mario Bros. Wii / Nintendo / Wii / 83,930
4) Ar tonelico III: Sekai Shuuen no Hikigane wa Shoujo no Uta ga Hiku / Namco / PS3 / 81,633
5) Tomodachi Collection / Nintendo / DS / 45,474
6) Wii Fit Plus / Nintendo / Wii / 32,888
7) Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep / Square Enix / PSP / 30,225
8) End of Eternity / Sega / Xbox 360 / 27,048
9) Valkyria Chronicles 2 / Sega / PSP / 24,048
10) MAG / Sony / PS3 / 19,139

Hardware:
PSP - 47,875
Wii - 42,309
DSi XL - 34,863
PS3 - 34,431
DSi - 24,783
DS Lite - 6,811
Xbox 360 - 4,089
PS2 - 2,182
PSP Go - 1,645

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.
This video has an invalid file format.
00:00:00
Sorry, but you can't access this content!
Please enter your date of birth to view this video

By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's
Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

Join the conversation
There are 53 comments about this story