Nintendo up, but Microsoft down in Japan

Demand for the Xbox 360 has grown in the West as the Christmas-holiday shopping season enters its final leg, but the same can't be said for MS's new console darling in Japan.

For the week of December 12-18, the Xbox 360 only sold 8,623 hardware units (capturing a mere 1.39% of the Japanese market), a huge drop-off from even the relatively better first-week sales of 43,970 during launch. Having Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Final Fantasy IV, and more Pokemon and brain-training games for Nintendo's portable systems probably didn't help any.

Now you can trust a site called Cubed3.com to highlight the 360's sales shortfalls in the home of the DS, GBA, and PS2, but only a 0.03% share for the original Xbox? That has got to hurt the ego.

[Thanks, Cameron]