The almost unthinkable has occurred over in Japan—Nintendo is no longer the nation"s top software company. According to a report released by Japanese publisher Enterbrain, Konami has sold nearly a million more games than Nintendo in the past six months, placing it squarely at the top of the heap in the Japanese games industry.
According to Enterbrain"s figures, Konami sold 3.2 million copies of its games in the six-month period between April and September, far above the 2.4 million games Nintendo managed. (Third, if you"re interested, was Bandai with 1.7 million copies.) This 3.2 million figure was chiefly supported by World Soccer Winning Eleven 6, Konami"s marquee soccer title for PS2, which sold nearly a million during the World Cup tournament earlier this year.
Overall, though, it was a somewhat disappointing six months for the game industry. Hardware sales were down to 3.34 million systems, 29 percent less than the same time last year, mostly due to a downturn in Game Boy Advance sales. Total software sales also dropped 9.0 percent to 21.22 million units—the lack of a single huge hit (like the Final Fantasies of old) definitely hurt the marketplace.