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Sega introduces line of console-themed laptops
It's not quite the return to hardware production that some Sega loyalists may be hoping for, but Sega's new line of retro console-themed laptops are expensive and doomed to obsolescence, so it's kind of the same thing.Manufactured in conjunction with Japanese retailer Enterbrain, the Sega Note PC laptops come in four styles: Generic Sega, Mega Drive, Sega Saturn and Dreamcast. Your choice of style can be ordered in one of four hardware configurations, with ascending prices ranging from ¥99,750 ($1075.47) to ¥194,250 ($2094.35). The base model comes equipped with the 64-bit version of Windows 8, a 1920x1080 display, 4 gigs of RAM and a 500 gig HD, all powered by a Pentium 2020M processor, according to our friends at Engadget.It's kind of a lot of money for not a lot of computer, but each laptop is packed with Sega-branded Windows 8 themes, replete with custom system sounds. Shipment is expected to begin in June for those who either live in Japan or are brave enough to import.%Gallery-178981%
Sega-themed notebooks beckon Japanese Mega Drive and Dreamcast lovers
"I don't care about the specs, I want one." That Neogaf user's comment likely sums up how other retro-gaming aficionados will feel about a new notebook PC from Japanese PC retailer Enterbrain, built in conjunction with Sega. The model sports covers themed in three of the classic consoles, namely Mega Drive, Saturn and Dreamcast, along with a generic Sega-branded model. We do care a little about the specs ourselves, so you'll get a 64-bit version of Windows 8, 15.6-inch 1,920 x 1,080 screen, Intel Pentium 2020M processor, 4GB of RAM and 500GB of HDD storage, as a minimum configuration. That'll start at a whopping ¥99,750 ($1,100) when it arrives in June, provided you live in Japan -- but if so, all you'd need to go with it for a full '90s game blast would be a cartridge adapter like this one.
3DS crosses 10 million mark in Japan
According to Enterbrain data, the 3DS has surpassed 10 million units sold in Japan, with 10,068,192 3DS and 3DS LL systems sold life-to-date as of January 6. It's taken the hardware 98 weeks to reach this milestone, putting it well behind the DS Lite, which broke 10 million after just 61 weeks.The above chart is meant to illustrate the popularity of Animal Crossing: New Leaf. The game came out in Japan on November 8, immediately boosting 3DS sales. By the fourth week of December, hardware sales exceeded 400,000 units.
Wii U sold 308,570 units across first two days in Japan
Nintendo sold 308,570 Wii U units over the console's opening two days in Japan, according to Enterbrain data. That places the new console 17 percent behind its predecessor, the Wii shifting 371,936 units in its first two days on sale. On the other hand, the Wii U sits comfortably ahead of corresponding launch figures for Xbox 360 (62,135) and PS3 (88,400).Leading the console's software charts was New Super Mario Bros. U, the platformer selling 170,563 units across the launch weekend. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and Nintendo Land clocked in at second and third, racking up figures of 110,159 and 78,461 respectively.
Dragon Quest X sells more than 400,000 at launch
Dragon Quest X sold 420,311 copies in its first week, according to Enterbrain data. The MMO's debut was low for a Dragon Quest game: Dragon Quest IX, as a comparison, sold 2,353,440 copies in its first week in Japan back in 2008. Of course, even if it sells fewer copies, it's an MMO and those sales will continue to pay out.For the Wii, however, it's a boon: the launch of DQX led to 41,561 hardware units sold, including a special edition with the game bundled in. That's almost four times the previous week's 10,549 systems. It turns out people like to buy video game systems when there are games to play on them.
3DS XL sells 193K units at Japanese launch
The 3DS XL has sold an estimated 193,441 units in its two days on the Japanese market, according to an Enterbrain report published by Famitsu. New Super Mario Bros. 2, which was released concurrently, sold an estimated 430,185 copies. It's unlikely that number includes sales of the download version, which was launched at the same time. There must have been at least some eShop copies sold.The original 3DS reportedly burned through its full initial Japanese shipment of 400,000 units in 24 hours, making the upsized unit's launch softer in comparison. The PlayStation Vita, the 3DS's most direct competition, sold 321,407 units in its December 2011 launch in Japan, though sales have slowed quite a bit since.
Nikkei: 3DS to pass 4 million sold in Japan by year's end
The 3DS will cross the four million unit sales mark in Japan by the end of the year, according to a Nikkei report (translated by Andriasang) based on Enterbrain data. The system has been selling over 300K units per week for the last several weeks, thanks to the launch of Monster Hunter 3G. The system regularly averages 80,000 sales in a week, having received a significant boost to its average following the system's price drop in August. Despite the progress, Nintendo is currently expected to report a ¥20 billion ($256M) loss at the end of its fiscal year in March, with the company's stock still heading down the warp pipe.
PlayStation Vita launches in Japan, shifts 321,400 units in two days
Kaz Hirai probably had a sleepless weekend as he and the team waited for the two-day sales figures for Sony's PlayStation Vita. He can probably relax a little, knowing that 321,400 of the things were exchanged for cold, hard cash in the retail outlets of Japan. In comparison, Nintendo's 3DS sold 50,000 more units but sales soon stalled -- only to be rescued with a hefty price cut. Of course, now the company has to ensure that the performance issues that early-adopters have been facing are resolved -- we'd hate to experience the same teething trouble when it arrives over here in February.
Monster Hunter Tri-G boosts 3DS to best week ever in Japan
The Monster Hunter series' firm grip on the Japanese public continues unabated, with the new Monster Hunter Tri-G selling like crazy in Japan. "Like crazy" in this case translates to 471,055 units in two days, according to Enterbrain estimates. That release (and its attendant 3DS bundles) drove the 3DS to its best week to date in Japan. 378,114 units went to happy monster hunters, besting the 371,326 sold at launch. The game has yet to be announced for release outside of Japan -- though the accessory made for it is now confirmed for North America. Of course, a new Monster Hunter game won't have the same immediately noticeable effect on sales in any other region.
3DS moves 200K+ units after price drop in Japan, hits 1.5m total
After a precipitous drop-off in sales, Nintendo dropped the price of the 3DS worldwide and, in Japan at least, the early numbers show a strong consumer response. After enjoying a steep 40 percent discount on August 11 -- from ¥25,000 to ¥15,000 -- 3DS sales spiked up the week of August 8 through 14. Japanese business pub Nikkei pegged sales at 207,000 units while Famitsu publisher slash game publisher slash market research group Enterbrain puts sales a little higher at 214,821 units. Either way, that's the highest week of sales since the console's February debut, when it managed to move nearly 375K units in a week. As a result, the console has finally clipped past the 1.5 million mark in Japan six months after its release, and just two months after reaching the big million. We'll have to wait a bit longer before we learn how last week's price drop affected sales in Europe and North America.
Enterbrain CEO: Earthquake cost the Japanese game industry 7.3 billion yen
If you've kept up with the game delays and cancellations that happened as a result of the catastrophic earthquake which struck Japan last month, you probably understand the extent of its effect on the gaming industry. Enterbrain CEO Hirokazu Hamamura recently put a number on the devastation: At a recent seminar, Hamamura revealed that according to Enterbrain's calculations, the quake caused the domestic games industry to lose ¥7,330 million ($90 million) in potential sales. That number was divided into ¥4,470 million in lost software sales -- attributed to the delay of Steel Diver, Dead or Alive Dimensions and 29 other titles that were either pushed back or canceled wholesale -- and ¥2,860 million in lost hardware sales. Hamamura ended the seminar with a hopeful message, though, explaining that most of the delayed titles had been pushed back to the first quarter of the new fiscal year, which could prove to be a boon for Japan's gaming industry. We certainly hope that's the case as well.
New Super Mario Bros is first six million seller on DS
Our friends in Japan often have ... peculiar tastes when it comes to their gaming passions. Specifically, they are taught from a young age to despise any game in which they don't capture monsters. Fact: The nation's most popular T-shirt actually reads, "I'd rather capture a monster than my next breath of oxygen." It's true! It's an even more impressive accomplishment, then, that the country's first game to sell six million copies on DS doesn't feature any monster capturing to speak of. No, it's New Super Mario Bros., which hit 6,015,255 units as of December 26 according to the latest Enterbrain data. Congrats, Mario. Now, if science ever figures out a way to put monster catching into one of your games ... well, let's just pray it never comes to that.
Super Mario Bros. 25th anniversary book out in Japan next week
For those Mario lovers who want more commemorative book than is included with the Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition, Enterbrain is publishing its own brand of "Super Mario 25th Anniversary Commemorative Book" in Japan on December 9. The 144-page page-turner includes a retrospective interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, a collection of Mario manga, stickers and a poster, and a CD of orchestrated Mario music from the Press Start Symphony of Games concert series. If you don't mind a little (okay, probably a lot) of Japanese text along with your Mario ephemera, you can pre-order a copy from Amazon Japan for ¥840 -- that's about $10.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii tops 4M in Japan, says Enterbrain
Japanese publisher Enterbrain has revealed in this week's Famitsu that New Super Mario Bros. Wii has gone quadruple platinum in the region. NSMBW is Nintendo's first game on the console to achieve that status, having sold 4,001,276 copies as of Sunday. The title will celebrate its one-year anniversary on the market on December 3. Nintendo financial documents reveal that NSMBW had reached global sales of 16.7 million units by the end of September. That's like, if you're being strictly mathematical about it, nearly triple-quintuple-plus-double platinum.
MGS: Peace Walker's 'Hamaru Gear Solid' ads sure are helpful
Well, they're helpful if you speak Japanese, that is. The latest round of ads for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker out of Japan centers on the escapades of Tom and Dick, two cartoon dudes who really, really like living everyday life as if they were Solid Snake. The duo demonstrate everything from the "heart massage" technique (reviving a downed teammate) to the game's four player co-op functionality, with plenty of goofy animation to boot. Andriasang noticed the ads over at the "Hamaru Gear Solid" website -- "Hamaru Gear Solid" is the marketing campaign for Peace Walker, based on Hirokazu Hamamura, CEO of Enterbrain (the company that owns and publishes Japanese gaming mag Famitsu), and a pun relating his name to the word "Hamaru" (meaning "to get in"). We've embedded all five for you after the break, should you choose to entertain their sheer madness. [Via Andriasang]
DS sells over 30 million in Japan
The same day it chose to announce the 3DS, Nintendo officially hit a ridiculous milestone for the existing DS platform(s) in Japan: 30 million units sold. Enterbrain estimates that, through March 21, the handheld has sold 30,030,434 units. The last reported worldwide total, in January, was around 125 million. Unsurprisingly, the best-selling game is New Super Mario Bros., with 5,767,262 copies sold. 30 million is indeed a record for the best-selling console ever in Japan; however, every time anyone in Japan buys a DS, it's a new record, because the DS became Japan's best-selling console as soon as it passed the PS2 at around the 21 million mark. There are people in line at electronics stores now, each of whom is about to bring the DS to a record sales total. [Via IGN]
Japanese games market shrank in 2009
2009 looked fairly dire for the Japanese games industry. Now that we're on the other side of the year, we can assess the damage. Andriasang reports Enterbrain numbers claiming that, overall, the market shrank ¥543 billion, a reduction of 6.9% from 2008. Since we're in a Seinfeld-quoting mood today, we might posit that the Japanese game industry had been in the pool. Hardware sales dropped 13.9%, with the DS unsurprisingly leading among consoles with 4,025,313 million units and the Xbox 360 even less surprisingly at the bottom, with 331,706 consoles sold. In software, the big winner (or smallest loser, we suppose, given the overall tone of the news) was Dragon Quest IX, which sold a whopping 4,100,968 copies -- slightly more than the total number of DS consoles sold in 2009! Final Fantasy XIII managed to make it onto the tail end of the top five with 1,698,256 copies. But if you weren't Square Enix or Nintendo (who had the other three spots on the top five software charts), 2009 was one to forget.
Online game sharing confirmed for RPG Maker DS
Image source: Famitsu The RPG creation game with a very appropriate name, RPG Maker DS, has just raised the bar on itself. Famitsu reports gamers will not only be able to share game data locally, but also online via Wi-Fi Connect. You'll be able to swap the smallest of things, like items and monsters, right up to full games. Now if that doesn't scream replay value, we don't know what does. Of course, this news really only affects Japanese gamers, as a localization isn't that likely. Still, that's not to say there isn't any hope you'll be able to play the thing, especially considering that there's already an English-speaking community established for the game. [Via SIliconera]
Enterbrain: Wii sells 9 million in Japan, PS3 sells 4 million
Enterbrain reports that the PS3 has crossed the four million mark in Japan, selling over one million consoles in nine months for a total of 4,020,563. Though this milestone is impressive, expect the next million to go by much more rapidly, thanks to the price drop, the PS3 Slim, and, most importantly, Final Fantasy XIII. The Wii also achieved impressive sales, but it's the Wii, so its total is a bit higher: 9,048,012 units. Many of those Wiis were likely sold to people buying New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which reached a life-to-date total of 1,401,558 copies in its second week. While the last million sales have occurred since April in Japan, over a million Wiis were sold last month alone in the US. The difference in scale can be attributed both to the US's larger population and to the Black Friday phenomenon. [Via Andriasang]
DSi XL's Japanese launch is also pretty big
[Image Source] Like Honeycomb cereal, the DSi XL (LL in Japan) is big, yeah yeah yeah. And according to Enterbrain data, its launch sales weren't small, no no no. The super-sized handheld sold 103,524 units in its first two days on sale. Its immediate predecessor, the regular-sized DSi, moved about 170,000 units at its launch, and its most recent competitor, the PSP Go, only sold 28,000 on its Japanese launch day. Clearly, Sony should have made the PSP bigger instead of smaller. The DS Lite, whose launch predated the DS craze that ... it helped cause, sold 68,438 in its launch week. Either the strategy of making a DS aimed at families and older gamers is working, or there's a large contingent of Japanese gamers who feel compelled to buy every new DS. Actually, it's probably a little of both. [Via Andriasang]
