Ah Japan. Land of the rising sun, unique cuisine, anime, time honored traditions, and ground zero for the console war. Yes ladies and gents, a war is going on beneath this serene exterior, because game companies are locked in a pitched battle for supremacy in the Japanese market. For everything Nintendo does Sony must attempt to either meet or exceed it, sometimes that’s good for us — it keeps the developers dropping prices and trying to fit more features into their hardware. Other times it’s bad for us — I’m sure there are plenty of DS owners who’d love to play Wild Arms XF but alas sometimes eggs must be broken to skin a cat….wait…moving on.

So here they are kids. The facts. Now I’m not going to say you’re going to like it but hey it’s a tough world out there, and everyone wants a piece of the pie. In Japan demand for the DS Lite is much like the demand for the Wii here. Translation? You’re going to have about as much luck finding a DS in Japan as Arnold Schwarzenegger finding a Turbo Man Doll. Yet here in the States the battle remains a fight to the bitter bitter end. Official reports are Sony has sold “more than 4 Million” units and Nintendo stands at a respectable “3.97 Million”. These numbers are a year old but are all that have been reported by the companies themselves. If software sales are any indication though things are looking up for the handheld market overall, in 2006 it was reported by The NPD Group portable hardware sales increased by 42% for a final total of 1.4 billion while console hardware sales had a 12% decline.

Could some of these figures be attributed to the very nature of handheld itself? Think about it. As videogame technology becomes more sophisticated you might very well find yourself seeing graphics on the little screen that match what can be put out by a console, remember the PSP and DS are only one generation behind as far as graphics go, how long before all consoles are portable with the ability to just plug into your TV when you want? PSP slim owners can do this arelady.

Now as figures also show, the games account for much of the highs and lows of sales. When Zelda: Phantom Hourglass came out there was a significant increase in DS sales for an obvious reason. I like the fact that corporate people will always be at the mercy of artists for their sales, because I don’t care if your system can display 76800 pixels, if I’m playing a rehash of things I’ve seen before I’m not buying. For now though, I’m going to reap the benefits of the handheld wars. Free GPS system, please direct me to the nearest Taco Bell!