Software for Sony Corp.'s Playstation 2 (PS/2) game console took back the top slots on the February bestseller list in Japan, helped by strong demand for "Monster Hunter 2" by Capcom Co. Ltd. and "Samurai Warriors 2" by Koei Co. Ltd.
Enterbrain, which publishes weekly and monthly retail sales data for games and game devices, said overall software unit sales in February were down 3 percent from a year earlier, when figures were boosted by sales of another "Samurai Warriors" title as well as "Dragon Ball Z3".
The publishing and market research firm said Capcom sold more "Monster Hunter 2" games in the first four days of sales than the combined cumulative unit sales of two previous "Monster Hunter" PS/2 titles. The hunting action game went on sale on Feb. 16.
Nintendo Co Ltd., which dominated the bestseller list in January, took the No. 3 spot with a sequel to "DS Training to Strengthen Your Brain", a popular brain-training game developed under the guidance of a brain-imaging professor.
Hardware sales in February were down 35.4 percent, according to Enterbrain, hurt by the continued scarcity of Nintendo DS, the portable dual-screen game machine whose popularity has been growing over the last few months.
Enterbrain said it expected Nintendo DS hardware sales to be strong in March after it introduced a lighter version called "Nintendo DS Lite" last Thursday.
Software sales in March are also likely to be strong with the introduction of the much-anticipated "Final Fantasy XII" by Square Enix Co. Ltd. on March 16, it said.
