Kotaku's Brian Ashcraft translated Famitsu's report on the 2008 year end sales data for Japan put together by Enterbrain. Overall the combined market for hardware and software declined a substantial 15 percent

The figures also overwhelmingly show that when Japanese gamers do spend on games, that money predominantly winds up going to Nintendo. Its handheld hardware rolled on, racking up combined sales 4,029,804 units of the DS, Lite, and new DSi. Likewise, the Wii topped the home console arena with 2,908,342 sold in 2008. That story repeats in software sales where Nintendo games nabbed four of the top five spots with Pokemon Platinum, Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Despite the Nintendo avalanche, Sony managed to land the top selling software of 2008 on its PSP platform, but from a third-party developer. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G took those honors with 2,452,111 sold. Buoyed by its popularity, the PSP hardware also sold well, coming in second in total sales for the year at 3,543,171 sold. Meanwhile PS3 failed to crack a million sold for the year, coming in at 991,303. And Microsoft brought up the rear moving an estimated 317,859 Xbox 360s in Japan for 2008. That only brings its estimated total lifetime sales in Japan up to 866,167, but given its struggles there this could be an indication that with the right software titles Microsoft's console may have some hope of carving out a little market space. Then again, the PS3 still outsold that number in just its 2008 sales.

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