The Japan Preview: 5/17 Edition (All HW down, SW quiet)
by Jacob Mazel, posted on 17 May 2009 / 3,578 Views
Jacob Mazel
Summary:
Golden Week is over now. Not surprisingly, hardware and software sales have dipped. With little to boost hardware sales significantly over the next few weeks for the consoles, the story to watch is whether all four consoles can dip below 10,000 units per week. Wii has Takt of Magic next week to try to maintain its post-Golden Week sales until whenever Wii Sports Resort releases in June. PS3 and Xbox 360 have Shin Sangoku Musou Empires 5. But otherwise, there isn’t much to stop Wii and PS3 from edging toward sub 10k figures in the next few weeks. DS and PSP are completely different, with a steadier diet of moderate to big hits and cheaper price points to maintain sales. Kingdom Hearts DS for instance has a decent chance to become the first million selling title in Japan in 2009 shortly after it releases on May 30.
Trends to Watch:
- Level off points. PS2, Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii should generally see dropping hardware sales over the next several weeks until sufficiently large releases (~100k+) or games drawing in a new audience release. DS and PSP will both be down this week, but have enough key software not to drop off continually.
- Software releases for the second half of the year. E3 will probably see some release dates of formerly secret games unveiled for Japan. Monster Hunter 3 is the only “big” title after Dragon Quest IX with a definite release date in Japan at the moment.
- The Wii Sports Resort release data. If the game releases June 3 it’s a lot different than if it releases June 28 since there is not much content being released for Wii between Monster Hunter G and Wii Sports Resort.
Understanding the Japanese Preview:
Rather than saying x game for y platform sold between 20,000 and 28,000 units as in the past, the preliminary data will be broken down into charts by platform. Within these charts, there will two additional categories besides the rounded sales figure under ‘sales’. On the left will be ‘low end’ depicting the lowest amount the title likely sold for the week, while to the right will be ‘high end’ depicting the highest amount the title likely sold for the week. As always, this data is preliminary, and therefore, not final, but it is based on a sample . The varying platform market share the sample represents is why consistent sellers like Wii Fit do not always appear in the preliminary data. Sales for this report are for the week ending May 17, 2009.
Software by Platform:
Wii Software – Four Wii games charted in the preliminary data. Wii Fit sold another 12,000 units for the week. Winning Eleven Playmaker 2009 debuted to sales of 14,000 units for the week. Taiko Wii dipped to 6,000 units for the week. The Monster Hunter G single version dipped to 5,000 units. Expect Wii hardware sales to drop into the 11,000 to 15,000 unit range for the week on the post Golden Week-fall.
|
Preliminary Top Twenty Wii Software |
Sales |
Low End |
High End |
|
Winning Eleven Playmaker 2009 |
14,000 |
12,000 |
16,000 |
|
Wii Fit |
12,000 |
10,000 |
14,000 |
|
Taiko no Tatsujin Wii |
6,000 |
4,000 |
8,000 |
|
Monster Hunter G Single Version |
5,000 |
3,000 |
7,000 |
PS3 Software – Only two PS3 titles charted in the preliminary data. Killzone 2 sold another 5,000 units. The cheaper edition of Valkyrie Chronicles sold 6,000 units. Also notable for the week is that the Final Fantasy XIII demo did not chart. Expect PS3 hardware sales to drop into the 7,000 to 11,000 units this week.
|
Preliminary Top Twenty PS3 Software |
Sales |
Low End |
High End |
|
Valkyrie Chronicles The Best |
6,000 |
4,000 |
8,000 |
|
Killzone 2 |
5,000 |
3,000 |
7,000 |
Xbox 360 Software – No Xbox 360 titles charted in the preliminary data. Expect Xbox 360 hardware sales to drop into the 2,000 to 4,000 unit range for the week.
PS2 Software – Only one PS2 game charted in the preliminary data this week. The new Pachislot game sold 13,000 units for the week. Expect PS2 hardware sales to dip into the 3,000 to 5,000 unit range this week.
|
Preliminary Top Twenty PS2 Software |
Sales |
Low End |
High End |
|
Rakushou! Pachislot Sengen 6: Rio 2 C.V. |
13,000 |
11,000 |
15,000 |
PSP Software – Eight PSP games charted in the preliminary data. The top seller for the week was Bleach: Heat the Soul 6 with sales of 45,000 units. Growlanser came in second with sales of 31,000 units. Monster Hunter 2G, at 18,000 was the only other PSP game to top 10,000 units for the week. Among the four-digit sellers, Persona was the highest with sales of 7,000 units. Expect PSP hardware sales to drop into the 25,000 to 33,000 unit range this week.
|
Preliminary Top Twenty PSP Software |
Sales |
Low End |
High End |
|
Bleach: Heat the Soul 6 |
45,000 |
40,000 |
50,000 |
|
Growlanser |
31,000 |
28,000 |
34,000 |
|
Monster Hunter Portable 2G |
18,000 |
16,000 |
20,000 |
|
Persona PSP |
7,000 |
5,000 |
9,000 |
|
Sengoku Basara: Battle Heroes |
6,000 |
4,000 |
8,000 |
|
Disaster Report 3 |
5,000 |
3,000 |
7,000 |
|
Mobile Suit Gundam: Senjou no Kizuna Portable |
4,000 |
2,000 |
6,000 |
|
Hayate no Gotaku (Special Edition) |
3,000 |
1,000 |
5,000 |
DS Software – Five DS games charted in the preliminary data. Pokemon Dungeon, Made in Ore and Dragon Ball Kai sold 22,000, 20,000 and 15,000 units respectively as the top three DS titles. Famitsa DS and Mario & Luigi 3 also charted this week, with sales in the high four digit range. Expect DS hardware sales to drop into the 33,000 to 43,000 unit range this week.
|
Preliminary Top Twenty DS Software |
Sales |
Low End |
High End |
|
Pokemon Fushigi no Dungeon: Sora no Tankentai |
22,000 |
20,000 |
24,000 |
|
Made in Ore |
20,000 |
18,000 |
22,000 |
|
Dragon Ball Kai: Saiyajin Raishuu |
15,000 |
13,000 |
17,000 |
|
Mario & Luigi 3 |
8,000 |
6,000 |
10,000 |
|
Famitsa DS |
7,000 |
5,000 |
9,000 |
Contact Vgchartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com
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