The Japanese software charts are littered with new releases this week, although the almost total market dominance of the Nintendo DS remains unchecked - with the titles for the handheld accounting for more than half of the all-formats top ten.

In all, 20 new releases made their debut in the top 100, generating 62.82 per cent of overall software sales. Sony's PlayStation 2 was the only other platform to feature alongside the DS in the top ten, with four titles including this week's number one.

Series spin-off Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII claimed the top spot for Square-Enix, racking up sales of 392,000 units, while Capcom's Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams achieved sales in excess of 100,000 units, taking third place in the all-formats top ten.

Banpresto's RPG title, Ar Tonelico, sits in seventh place, and the only remaining PS2 title is Konami's Winning Eleven 9 bonus pack, which scraped in at number ten. As in previous weeks, the remainder of the chart belongs solely to the DS, the only noticeable decline in sales coming from Animal Crossing: Wild World (previously shifting in excess of a million units in the first fortnight on sale) which slipped from two to five, and Mario Kart DS, which dropped four places from five to nine.

Nintendo's efforts to diversify the content for its handheld and include educational elements doesn't appear to have affected sales in the slightest, as English Training DS jumps into second place with sales of approximately 240,000 units.

Brain Age 2 and Brain Age continue the trend, both titles performing well at retail and resting in the charts in fourth and sixth place respectively. SEGA's Bleach DS completes the strong performance for the device, entering the charts at number eight.

Sales of the DS and the plethora of innovative and original software titles have been considerably increased thanks to the availability of connected gaming via Wi-Fi hotspots in locations such as cafes, pubs and transport stations. Almost 50 per cent of US users took advantage of the online service in its first week of availability, and the service currently boasts over 3 million users worldwide. ...

An article in Variety claims that Sony is cutting back on UMD releases. While comedies are doing well, other genres simply aren't getting much traction." From the article: "Some have reasoned that sales may have slowed recently because of a shortage of new titles in the last month and because users may be illegally copying films from DVDs onto a memory chip the PSPs can read. Sony is hoping to combat online piracy starting in March when it begins selling movies online via its Connect digital media store. Users will be able to download a pic and watch it on PSP without a disc.

Via Slashdot ...

An article in Variety claims that Sony is cutting back on UMD releases. While comedies are doing well, other genres simply aren't getting much traction." From the article: "Some have reasoned that sales may have slowed recently because of a shortage of new titles in the last month and because users may be illegally copying films from DVDs onto a memory chip the PSPs can read. Sony is hoping to combat online piracy starting in March when it begins selling movies online via its Connect digital media store. Users will be able to download a pic and watch it on PSP without a disc.

Via Slashdot ...

An article in Variety claims that Sony is cutting back on UMD releases. While comedies are doing well, other genres simply aren't getting much traction." From the article: "Some have reasoned that sales may have slowed recently because of a shortage of new titles in the last month and because users may be illegally copying films from DVDs onto a memory chip the PSPs can read. Sony is hoping to combat online piracy starting in March when it begins selling movies online via its Connect digital media store. Users will be able to download a pic and watch it on PSP without a disc.

Via Slashdot ...

Big News article from Lik Sang

Nintendo held a DS conference yesterday where a couple of noticeable good things were talked about. The Nintendo DS Lite was on display and did of course steal the show, but there were many other topics that are of interest! Before digging into them, let's keep our attention a bit on the Lite, as we have received videos from our friends at GameTrailers of the TV commercial that is currently getting rolled for the promotional campaign over Japan:

Hit Games to Come

The first ever screenshots of Winning Eleven DS were revealed by Konami, which, software wise, was certainly the highlight of the show. The quality of graphics seems to be close to what the series was on PlayStation, and that's one title soccer fanatics for sure are waiting for with high expectations. Other software titles that gathered quite a bit of attention on the showfloor were Super Robot Wars DS, Shin Sangoku Musou DS, Mario Basket 3 on 3, Final Fantasy III, Gyakuten Saiban 4, Tales of the Tempest, A.S.H. and the next Tamagotchi. It's been a good week on the Nintendo DS software front of things, as, already earlier this week, Metroid Prime Hunters Voice Chat feature was unveiled, while we received a release date (May 2006), new movies and new screenshots of Mario Bros DS (all this, and more, is covered in details in our latest Weekly Gaming Update)!



Nintendo DS Internet Browser

Nintendo has teamed up with Opera to deliver Nintendo DS users with an Internet browser. You'll be able to surf the world wide web on the go, using the Wi-Fi connection, thanks to a software cartridge from Opera. The cart will retail for 3800 Yen in Japan, which approximately converts to US$ 32. It's coming out in Japan in June 2006. There is no firm release date announced yet for the western world, but there is no doubt that this product will have the international market on target sooner or later.



Nintendo DS TV Tuner

Codenamed "1-Seg" or "1-Segment", the TV Tuner kit for Nintendo DS has also been confirmed and the final design has been revealed. Much less bulky and much simpler than what was shown on the initial picture a year ago, the TV Tuner now comes under the form of software cartridge to which a receiving antenna has been attached. Light and slim, as we all like it with handheld add-ons. You can select channels on the touchscreen, while you're watching shows on the main panel. Release date has to be fully confirmed but rumors are mentioning April 2006 as the aimed launch window. Final Yen price is unknown at press time.

...

Big News article from Lik Sang

Nintendo held a DS conference yesterday where a couple of noticeable good things were talked about. The Nintendo DS Lite was on display and did of course steal the show, but there were many other topics that are of interest! Before digging into them, let's keep our attention a bit on the Lite, as we have received videos from our friends at GameTrailers of the TV commercial that is currently getting rolled for the promotional campaign over Japan:

Hit Games to Come

The first ever screenshots of Winning Eleven DS were revealed by Konami, which, software wise, was certainly the highlight of the show. The quality of graphics seems to be close to what the series was on PlayStation, and that's one title soccer fanatics for sure are waiting for with high expectations. Other software titles that gathered quite a bit of attention on the showfloor were Super Robot Wars DS, Shin Sangoku Musou DS, Mario Basket 3 on 3, Final Fantasy III, Gyakuten Saiban 4, Tales of the Tempest, A.S.H. and the next Tamagotchi. It's been a good week on the Nintendo DS software front of things, as, already earlier this week, Metroid Prime Hunters Voice Chat feature was unveiled, while we received a release date (May 2006), new movies and new screenshots of Mario Bros DS (all this, and more, is covered in details in our latest Weekly Gaming Update)!



Nintendo DS Internet Browser

Nintendo has teamed up with Opera to deliver Nintendo DS users with an Internet browser. You'll be able to surf the world wide web on the go, using the Wi-Fi connection, thanks to a software cartridge from Opera. The cart will retail for 3800 Yen in Japan, which approximately converts to US$ 32. It's coming out in Japan in June 2006. There is no firm release date announced yet for the western world, but there is no doubt that this product will have the international market on target sooner or later.



Nintendo DS TV Tuner

Codenamed "1-Seg" or "1-Segment", the TV Tuner kit for Nintendo DS has also been confirmed and the final design has been revealed. Much less bulky and much simpler than what was shown on the initial picture a year ago, the TV Tuner now comes under the form of software cartridge to which a receiving antenna has been attached. Light and slim, as we all like it with handheld add-ons. You can select channels on the touchscreen, while you're watching shows on the main panel. Release date has to be fully confirmed but rumors are mentioning April 2006 as the aimed launch window. Final Yen price is unknown at press time.

...

Big News article from Lik Sang

Nintendo held a DS conference yesterday where a couple of noticeable good things were talked about. The Nintendo DS Lite was on display and did of course steal the show, but there were many other topics that are of interest! Before digging into them, let's keep our attention a bit on the Lite, as we have received videos from our friends at GameTrailers of the TV commercial that is currently getting rolled for the promotional campaign over Japan:

Hit Games to Come

The first ever screenshots of Winning Eleven DS were revealed by Konami, which, software wise, was certainly the highlight of the show. The quality of graphics seems to be close to what the series was on PlayStation, and that's one title soccer fanatics for sure are waiting for with high expectations. Other software titles that gathered quite a bit of attention on the showfloor were Super Robot Wars DS, Shin Sangoku Musou DS, Mario Basket 3 on 3, Final Fantasy III, Gyakuten Saiban 4, Tales of the Tempest, A.S.H. and the next Tamagotchi. It's been a good week on the Nintendo DS software front of things, as, already earlier this week, Metroid Prime Hunters Voice Chat feature was unveiled, while we received a release date (May 2006), new movies and new screenshots of Mario Bros DS (all this, and more, is covered in details in our latest Weekly Gaming Update)!



Nintendo DS Internet Browser

Nintendo has teamed up with Opera to deliver Nintendo DS users with an Internet browser. You'll be able to surf the world wide web on the go, using the Wi-Fi connection, thanks to a software cartridge from Opera. The cart will retail for 3800 Yen in Japan, which approximately converts to US$ 32. It's coming out in Japan in June 2006. There is no firm release date announced yet for the western world, but there is no doubt that this product will have the international market on target sooner or later.



Nintendo DS TV Tuner

Codenamed "1-Seg" or "1-Segment", the TV Tuner kit for Nintendo DS has also been confirmed and the final design has been revealed. Much less bulky and much simpler than what was shown on the initial picture a year ago, the TV Tuner now comes under the form of software cartridge to which a receiving antenna has been attached. Light and slim, as we all like it with handheld add-ons. You can select channels on the touchscreen, while you're watching shows on the main panel. Release date has to be fully confirmed but rumors are mentioning April 2006 as the aimed launch window. Final Yen price is unknown at press time.

...

Hi,

I've added support for the M3SD card to fmsxDS_006, see attached zipfile.

Regards,

Marcel ...

Hi,

I've added support for the M3SD card to fmsxDS_006, see attached zipfile.

Regards,

Marcel ...