Japan-based publisher and developer Atlus has been dissolved as an independent entity by its parent company.

Index Holdings said on its website (via Gamasutra) that it’s streamlining its business to focus on "profitable core areas", and that as part of the process the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona publisher has been brought under its direct control.

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PS3 was the bestselling individual system in Japan during the week ended August 22 as Bandai Namco’s Another Century’s Episode R made a chart-topping debut.

It was a relatively slow seven days for hardware, with sales of all systems down week-over-week. While PS3 was the bestselling system ahead of PSP, Nintendo’s DS line of handhelds claimed an overall sales victory, moving a combined total of over 45,000 units.

Hardware sales week ended August 22 (previous week):
PS3 – 29,433 (33,057)

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PSP was the bestselling system in Japan during the week ended August 15, according to data from Media Create.

Both DS and PSP sales increased in Japan this week, by 13874 and 5337 respectively.

Xbox 360 sales dropped off a little from last week’s 5639 to 5065, while the PS3 managed a healthy 33,057. The PSPgo, meanwhile, only accounted for 608 of total PSP sales – less than half the amount of PS2 units sold.

Hardware sales week ended August 15 (previous week):
   1. PSP – 35,734 (30,397)

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Namco Bandai RPG Tales Of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X claimed the top spot on the Japanese software chart during the week ended August 8.

The PSP release, which features remakes of Game Boy Color’s Tales Of Phantasia Narikiri Dungeon and the original Tales game, 1995’s Tales of Phantasia for Super Famicom, debuted ahead of two former chart toppers, Nintendo’s Wii Party and Capcom’s Sengoku Basara 3.

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The decision to slim its product release slate paid dividends for No More Heroes publisher Marvelous Entertainment during the financial quarter ended June 30, 2010.

Citing reduced overhead and advertising spend, the company swung from a loss of 131 million yen ($1.5 million) during the same period last year to a profit of 71 million yen ($830,000), according to Silicon Era.

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Square Enix has posted positive financial results for its first fiscal quarter ended June 30.

The company swung from a loss of 1,672 million yen ($19.4m / £12.3m) during the same period last year to a profit of 1,812 million yen ($21m / £13.3m).

Net sales were up 10.7 per cent year-over-year to 32,540 million yen ($378m / £238.5m), while operating income rocketed 814.4 per cent to 5,434 million yen ($63.1m / £39.8m).

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Farmville maker Zynga has acquired Japanese social game developer Unoh for an undisclosed sum.

Founded in 2001, Unoh has created titles including Machitsuku!, Band Yarouyo! and Kaizoku Chronicle. The studio will lead Zynga’s Japanese mobile efforts, creating new games and localising others.

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A combination of successful software launches and new hardware helped boost sales of PlayStation platforms in Japan during the week ended August 1.

Total PSP and PS3 sales almost doubled week-over-week as new games for the platforms took the top two spots on the software chart. The home console’s sales jump can also be attributed to the launch of a white PS3 and higher storage capacity 160GB and 320GB models on July 29.

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Konami has reported an impressive leap in net income, despite a slight dip in sales, during its first fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2010.

Company-wide net income rocketed 244.7 per cent to 1.23 billion yen ($14.3m / £9m), while net revenues were down five per cent to 53.2 billion yen ($618m / £389m).

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Sega parent Sega Sammy posted a profit and increased sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2011, but continued losses for its games division means the company will increase its focus on content geared towards social networking services and smartphones.

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