In its newest issue, Japan's leading gaming publication Weekly Famitsu released culminative sales data for the first six months of the calendar year 2005.

With Dragon Quest VIII: Sora to Umi to Daichi to Norowareshi Himegimi (Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King) and Namco's Tales of Rebirth already having been released in November and December 2004 respectively, and Final Fantasy XII, Kingdom Hearts II and Tales of Legendia all being scheduled for a release in the second half of 2005, it did not come as a big surprise that no RPG could be found among the five best selling games.

While Sony Computer Entertainment's Gran Turismo 4 as the sole million seller so far tops the charts, the best selling RPG can be found at spot No.6. Square Enix's remake of the Super Famicom classic Romancing SaGa, Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song for PlayStation 2 sold 443,005 copies. Two more Square Enix titles can be found at spots 11 and 13: The tri-Ace-developed action RPG Radiata Stories sold 293,413 copies, while Dragon Quest VIII sold 276,604 copies during the first half of 2005. Another game that was originally released in 2004 came in at spot 19. Pokemon Emerald for Game Boy Advance sold 218,574 copies.

The top publisher for the first half was not so surprisingly Nintendo, followed by Sony Computer Entertainment, Namco, Square Enix, Bandai, Konami, Koei, Capcom and Banpresto.

• GameSpot