Another Century's Episode Portable knocks MHP off Jap Chart

New PSP release Another Century's Episode Portable has managed to finally knock Monster Hunter Portable 3 off the top of the Japanese charts, but the blame is being put (at least by IGN) on hardware shortages.

I guess you could add gamers waiting for the Monster Hunter PSP bundle to the number of PSP-less Japanese gamers but ACEP still sold 70,000 compared to MHP's 68,000. Both decent numbers in a quieter market.

The PSP itself dropped from 100,000 sales a couple of weeks back down to 29,000 which does suggest there is a shortage somewhere in the production line. But how hard can it be to reflash units destined to be unsold in the US or European markets and sell them locally? Or release MHP on the Jap PSN Store and I'm sure PSP Go sales would rise from their usual 1,000 a week.

Still, MHP has now sold over 4,000,000 copies putting it in gaming phenomenon territory, just behind New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Alas, 3rd Birthday would have hoped for more, languishing on under 250,000.