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Nintendo 3DS outselling four Sony devices in Japan, now has 65 percent of the market
The latest figures from Japan's Media Create are in, showing that last year's trend has been fully reversed. Now the consumers are hungry for Nintendo's 3DS, given that it shipped 121,921 units in the week ending April 1st. That put it comfortably ahead of the PlayStation 3 (23,771), PSP (18,356) and PS Vita's (12,105) sales combined. The stats reveal that the 3DS is now accounting for 65 percent of all hardware sales in the country, a marked turnaround from when the console's future looked gloomy. Meanwhile, the biggest selling game was Kingdom Hearts 3D for Nintendo's newest handheld, which managed to shift over 200,000 units in just seven days.
3DS outsold by PSP in Japan, gets dumped for a dating sim
When a new console launches you expect it to hit the ground with a big "thwomp" that knocks the competition aside. Nintendo's 3DS, however, has had something of a softer landing. It released in Japan on February 26th and had been positioned high and proud at the top of the sales charts. However, it's already been usurped by the humble PSP, which according to Media Create sold 58,075 units in the week of March 28th to April 3rd. The 3DS, meanwhile, sold 42,979. This is in large part thanks to PSP dating sim Amagami, an old PS2 game that's just been re-released for the portable. It seems nostalgia trumps 3D wizardry again, and with the PSP getting cheaper in Europe this week, the competition is even getting tougher.
Xbox 360 outsold PS3 in Japan last week
Kiss your loved ones, hug your friends, because if this keeps up we've reached the end of days -- the Xbox 360 outsold the PlayStation 3 last week in Japan. We'll break down all the numbers in our weekly Japanese hardware sales post later today. For now (while we pack our towels), the Xbox 360 sold 17,673 fueled by (raise an eyebrow) Namco Bandai's Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, which debuted at the #2 spot behind Super Mario Galaxy. The PS3 sold 17,434 units compared to Xbox 360's 17,673, a slight 200 unit separation. But to just give an idea how dramatic the increase in sales was, the previous week Xbox 360 only sold 3,718 units, increasing its sales almost five fold. Repent while you still can.
Forget E3, the DS wins everything else
While it may not have seemed like the DS was top priority -- or much of a priority at all, next to the Wii -- at last week's E3, the handheld continues to wreak sales havoc in Japan. Can anything stop the DS there? It continues, week after week, to lead sales by an embarrassing margin. For the week ending July 8, the DS led the Wii by more than 60,000 units sold, and the handheld boasted three of the top five game titles as well. There's no need to shame the other systems by talking about their sales, but some other handheld took the third slot in hardware.Will the DS ever reach these epic levels of success in the US? It looks like the Wii may have more of a chance at that over here, but either way, Nintendo's continuing success is nothing to sneeze at.
Japanese hardware sales, Feb. 19 - Feb. 25: text adventure edition
You wake up disoriented, in a dark room. You have no idea where you are.>lookIt's a dark room. You can't see anything. We know you're disoriented, but do try to keep up.>look exitsFine. Okay. You stumble around the room until you find a wall. Keeping one hand on the wall, you walk the perimeter of the room, looking for doors. You find a door on the east side of the room. You also find a key hanging from a hook on the wall. And by "find" we mean "get poked by." We hope you find some Neosporin on this adventure.>advise readers to click post break
Japanese software sales: week ending 02.25.07
Media Create's Japanese sales data for the past week has just been released, revealing a PS3-free Top 30 that is headed by a monster hit (yes) for the PSP at Number One. For more mixed signals, set your dials to receive this week's Top Ten: Monster Hunter Portable 2nd - 705,281 units sold last week (new entry / Capcom, PSP) Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - 80,002 (new entry / Alchemist, PS2) Fire Emblem: Dawn Goddess - 75,359 (new entry / Nintendo, Wii) Sim City DS - 50,826 (new entry / EA, DS) Professor Layton and the Mysterious Town - 49,979 (186,716 sales to date / Level-5, DS) Wii Sports - 47,503 (1,090,736 / Nintendo, Wii) Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen EX - 45,792 (new entry / Tomy, Wii) Dragon Quest Monsters Joker - 40,507 (1,174,576 / SquareEnix, DS) Wii Play - 35,811 (944,586 / Nintendo, Wii) Picross DS - 26,693 (183,357 / Nintendo, DS) And here are some lessons we can learn from the big figures: The PSP is ALIVE, and Monster Hunter is the WINNER EA has had a place in Japan, after all (see also: firing the whole Japanese studio was a really clever thing for EA to do) There are as many Wii titles as there are DS games in this week's Top Ten -- Japan is bowing to its Nintendo duarchy
Gears of War does the business in Japan
"Japanese gamers suffer from motion sickness when attempting to play first-person shooters, and that's why the genre doesn't sell well in Japan." Fallacy? According to Media Create sales data released today, Gears of War ranks at number seven in this week's Top 30 Japanese sales chart. This is remarkable for two reasons: a) Gears of War is an Xbox 360 game, b) Gears of War is a first third-person shooter. 33,212 Japanese gamers have either decided to try one last time to conquer their motion sickness or, more likely, they've never had a problem with nausea and think Gears of War looks like a beauty*. (Last week's review in Famitsu, which awarded the game a score of 37/40, will have provided some reassurances.)[Update: *Or, even likelier still, they're cleverer than this blogger is when he first wakes up.]
SD Gundam G Generation wins in Japan
There's nothing fanboys love more than looking at sales charts. In fact, we look at them more than we actually play games! So, for your reading pleasure, you don't get just one sales chart today... you get TWO!!! Here's this week's Media Create numbers in Japan:1. SD Gundam G Generation Portable - PSP - 155.634 - (155.634) 2. New Super Mario Bros. - NDS - 98.038 - (2.614.228) 3. Jissen Pachislot Hisshouhou! Hokuto no Ken SE - PS2 - 82.556 - (82.556) 4. Tamagotchi Connexion Corner Shop 2 - NDS - 75.853 - (268.311) 5. Mario Hoops 3-on-3 - NDS - 48.564 - (159.273) 6. More DS Brain Training - NDS - 48.206 - (2.925.847) 7. Nintendo DS Talking Cooking Navi - NDS - 45.846 - (233.703) 8. Devil Kings 2 - PS2 - 40.094 - (175.943) 9. Rhythm Tengoku - GBA - 37.473 - (37.473) 10. Growlancer V Generations - PS2 - 37.467 - (37.467)The lone PSP game standing on the top of this week's charts is none other than SD Gundam G Generation. Celebrate by looking at the intense promo video, after the cut.
Japanese hardware sales, 3 July - 9 July: paging Rod Serling
There are times when reading the Japanese sales charts can be a decidedly odd and disturbing experience, as if your mind suddenly becomes aware that all is not right in the universe. Like a homicidal clown lurking in a dark corner, this week's situation is certainly amusing, but it's not something you want to come into contact with on a regular basis. It's just wrong. The ranking, according to number of units sold:- DS Lite: 149,454 4,112 (2.68%)- PSP: 31,959 6,024 (23.23%)- PS2: 23,332 199 (0.86%)- GBA SP: 2,818 101 (3.46%)- Xbox 360: 1,610 287 (15.13%)- Game Boy Micro: 1,379 64 (4.44%)- DS Phat: 1,009 2,495 (71.20%)- Gamecube: 934 68 (6.79%)- GBA: 20 3 (17.65%)- Xbox: 13 5 (62.50%)Looking at the opposite ends of the list is like glancing into the cackling face of madness (it bears a vague resemblance to Groucho Marx). The DS Lite endures a minor slip, its older sibling takes a complete fall down a set of stairs and the original Xbox experiences the biggest improvement percentage-wise out of the whole lot. Did we enter into some sort of zone where normal things don't happen very often?[Source: Media Create]
Japanese hardware sales, 19 June - 25 June: the bigger they are
... the harder they fall. The Japanese population's brief rekindling of their romance with the DS Phat, showing a massive 1559% increase in sales last week, seems to have died out for now. Our obese friend takes the sharpest fall this week, with slimmer, trimmer machines like the Game Boy Micro and DS Lite faring better. The ranking, according to number of units sold:- DS Lite: 157,022 15,535 (10.98%)- PS2: 25,467 4,730 (22.81%)- PSP: 24,737 84 (0.34%)- DS Phat: 10,132 12,616 (55.46%)- GBA SP: 3,784 858 (18.48%)- Game Boy Micro: 1,502 208 (16.07%)- Gamecube: 1,197 195 (19.46%)- Xbox 360: 1,169 238 (16.92%)- GBA: 25 5 (25.00%)- Xbox: 10 5 (33.33%)The rest of the chart seems intentionally unremarkable, with the Lite reigning on top and the spinless Xbox sweeping the ground floor. Very soon, it will be expected to clean up the explosion of confetti and glitter accompanying the launch of the Noble Pink DS Lite.[Source: Media Create]
Japanese hardware sales, 5 June - 11 June: outnumbered
The sheer volume of words being displayed on the front page of this blog is, quite frankly, entirely ridiculous. It's time for a change. It's time we inundate you with the accountant's best friend and the alphabet's greatest foe. It's time we unleash the Japanese hardware sales charts for the week ranging from 5 June to 11 June and thoughtfully observe their effects on the human body. The ranking, according to number of units sold:- DS Lite: 132,027 3,587 (2,65%)- PSP: 21,656 2,939 (11,95%)- PS2: 18,981 468 (2,53%)- GBA SP: 4,116 248 (5,68%)- Game Boy Micro: 1,654 384 (30,24%)- DS Phat: 1,371 212 (18,29%)- Xbox 360: 1,100 145 (11,65%)- Gamecube: 961 163 (20,43%)- GBA: 30 6 (20,00%)- Xbox: 20 23 (53,49%)For those perplexed by the friendly arrows, rest assured that their intention is only to indicate whether a platform's sales have increased or decreased since the last week (followed by the exact difference and a percentage). For those perplexed by the previous sentence, we politely suggest that you try attending school for once.[Source: Media Create]
