Xbox 360 still ahead of PlayStation 3 in Japan

Microsoft's Xbox 360 is still outselling Sony's PlayStation 3 in Japan, but the 360's lead over its competitor decreases with each passing week.

In September, the Xbox 360 saw a startling leap in sales, going from 843 to 28,681 thanks to price cuts and some exclusive J-RPGs, and wound up outselling the Wii and PS3 by 1,000 units.  A week later, it remained ahead of Sony's media-machine but fell behind Nintendo's endearing casual console.

Now, less than a month later, we see the Xbox 360 clinging to its declining glory, ahead of the PlayStation 3 by just 1,000 units.

Not surprisingly, Nintendo's handheld sits on top of sales charts, despite the upcoming Japanese release of the DSi.  All platforms sales took a drop this week, with the exception of Sony's PSP, which saw a modest increase of just a few hundred units.

Of Japan's top 50 games this week, 23 were for the Nintendo DS, nine for the Wii, eight for PSP, five for PS2, three for PS3, and two for Xbox 360.