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• Monster Hunter Frontier Online boosts Xbox 360 sales in Japan

  

  The combination of new hardware and a "newish" Monster Hunter gave the Xbox 360 a considerable sales bump in Japan last week. Media Create reports that 17,000 Xboxes were sold in that time (versus 2,060 the previous week); 15,000 being the new model. That hardware sales rise coincides with the sale of 92,807 copies of Monster Hunter Frontier Online Beginner's Package. Neither the new Xbox owners nor the existing ones saw any need to round out their game collections with additional games -- there were no other 360 games among the top 50 bestselling software for the week.

  Though Xbox 360 sales were much higher last week relative to the console's typical performance in Japan, the clear winner was the DSi LL, thanks to a combination of several factors: a price cut, the release of three new colors of the system, and Love Plus+, the latest version of Konami's breakout hit dating game ... which also coincided with three more special-edition DSi LL systems. See the rest of the top ten bestsellers after the break.

  Update: changed "Freedom" to "Frontier" in the headline.

  [Image credit: GAME Watch]

  Japanese Top 10 Software Sales (June 21 - 27):

  Monster Hunter Frontier Online Beginner's Package (Xbox 360) - 92,807 units

  Love Plus+ (including hardware bundles) (DS) - 84,364 units

  Atelier Totori: The Alchemist of Arland (including special editions) (PS3) - 53,871 units

  Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 3rd Story (DS) - 52,245 units

  Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii) - 42,153 units

  Hatsune Miku - Project DIVA - Ohaidoku-han (PSP) - 28,938 units

  White Album (PS3) - 25,672 units

  Starry Sky in Spring Portable (including special editions) (PSP) - 22,423 units

  Ghost Trick (DS) - 20,362 units

  Artistic Taste Classroom (DS) - 20,153 units