Media Centre has released the totals for Japanese hardware sales for the week ending May 1st, 2005. The Nintendo DS was on top this week, outperforming the Playstation 2 and the Playstation Portable.

Here’s the list:

1) Nintendo DS – 64,247 (YTD: 740,557) (Market Share: 38.95%)
2) Sony PlayStation 2 – 40,471 (YTD: 828,824) (Market Share: 24.53%)
3) Sony PSP – 38,778 (YTD: 786,654) (Market Share: 23.51%)
4) Nintendo GBA SP – 14,616 (YTD: 280,038) (Market Share: 8.86%)
5) Nintendo GameCube – 6,125 (YTD: 99,574) (Market Share: 3.71%)
6) Nintendo GBA – 448 (YTD: 9,247) (Market Share: 0.27%)
7) Microsoft Xbox – 271 (YTD: 6,437) (Market Share: 0.16%)

I would have to say that the popularity of the Nintendo DS is due, mostly, to its popular dog simulator Nintendogs. This, while being a really stupid idea for a game, proves to me that the games - not the hardware specifications - sell the system.

Oddly, the game in question is a dog simulator. I guess it’s better than cleaning up after a real dog.