Final Fantasy Tactics' secret position as a bestseller

Handheld games rarely burn up the charts. However, in a crowded month of games like Guitar Hero III, Halo 3, and The Orange Box, Square Enix's PSP remake of Final Fantasy Tactics managed to churn out about 100,000 copies sold in the month of October. Certainly, the launch of the redesigned PSP helped sales of the title. But, it managed to beat out other anticipated PSP titles, such as Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron and Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, according to GameDaily BIZ.

While The War of the Lions enjoys some success in the States, its true victory was in Japan, where a significant marketing campaign (with television ads) helped propel the game to a number one position, selling over 242,000 copies in the territory. The total sales of the game should provide enough proof that the PSP and Square Enix work perfectly together. It'll be interesting to see if Crisis Core can make a bigger splash when it eventually gets released in the States.