In a gamer feeding frenzy typically reserved for a new Final Fantasy epic, GTA 3 has gone on sale this weekend in Japan and sold over 70,000 copies. Not too shabby considering the original shipment was a conservative 100,000.

Japanese gamers typically shun violent westernised games in favour of more traditional and wholesome titles -lets not forget that the NES was known as the "Famicom" way over there.

But these sales have shocked many industry top-bods, most notably Satou Iwata, who has in the past dismissed such games as too violent for the market.

In the wake of these startling sales, will we see a change in Nintendos policy regarding violent games? I very much doubt it, but Nintendo should ignore these figures at their own peril.