The Japan Preview: 11/20/11 Edition (Call of Duty is big in Japan too) - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 20 November 2011 / 11,486 Views
Japanese software sales dropped off a bit from last week, despite the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for PS3 & X360. The relevant portion of the software market (25,000+ is typically ~$500,000 in a week) continues to thicken though, as more and more titles sell in the five-digit range as seasonality continues to kick in towards the end of 2011.
1) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS3) - 206,000
2) One Piece: Gigant Battle 2 - Shinseka (DS) - 79,000
3) Ninokuni (PS3) - 75,000
4) Super Mario Land 3D (3DS) - 62,000
5) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (X360) - 56,000
6) Final Fantasy Type-0 (PSP) - 26,000
8) Kirby's Return to Dreamland (Wii) - 22,000
8) Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Extend (PSP) - 22,000
9) Sengoku Basara 3 Utage (PS3) - 21,000
10) Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (PS3) - 18,000
13) Saints Row 3 (PS3) - 17,000
13) Ore no Shikabane o Koete Yuke (PSP) - 17,000
13) Pokepark 2 (Wii) - 17,000
14) Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD Edition (PS3) - 15,000
15) Just Dance Wii (Wii) - 15,000
In addition to the games above, Wii Sports Resort (Wii), Sengoku Basara 3 Utage (Wii), Slime MoriMori Dragon Quest 3: Taikaizoku to Shippo Dan (3DS), Uncharted 3 (PS3), and Winning Eleven 2012 (PSP) should also chart in the final top twenty data for the week.
Quite a few games from last week dropped sharply - notably Sengoku Basara 3 Utage (157,000 to about 30,000), Hatsune Miku (186,000 to 22,000), and also Ore no Shikabane o Koete Yuke (94,000 to 17,000). With those big drops, the strong opening for Modern Warfare 3 (262,000) was more than offset even though the title performed much stronger than its preorders suggested ahead of launch.
Looking ahead, the major games to watch are still Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3), Mario Kart 7 (3DS), The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii), and Monster Hunter Portable 3G (3DS). Skyward Sword arrives first, the game launches in Japan on November 23. As of November 20, Skyward Sword has 100,000 preorders up from 80,000 last week. The game should thus have right around 110,000 preorders at launch. Opening week sales for Zelda should be in the range of 160,000 - 280,000 units. After Zelda, Mario Kart 7 releases December 1, 2011. Preorders are now at 120,000 units for the game, up from 95,000 last week. Mario Kart 7 preorders should get to 150,000-170,000 units the day before launch, for an opening week of 225,000 - 400,000 units. Unlike Zelda of course, Mario Kart 7 will sell well for years to come so long as 3DS hardware is still performing at a decent rate.
Monster Hunter Portable 3G follows Mario Kart 7 on December 10, 2011. Currently the game has 310,000 preorders up from 270,000 last week. With three weeks left until launch for Monster Hunter, preorders should reach at least 450,000, and possibly much more as the preorder pace continues to accelerate. An opening week of 550,000 - 850,000 now looks likely, and I can't imagine Capcom is prepared to ship much more than that, especially with rumors of a 700,000-750,000 week one shipment.
Following Capcom's major title for the holiday season is Final Fantasy XIII-2 on December 15. Final Fantasy XIII-2 has 210,000 preorders, compared to 785,000 for Final Fantasy XIII on November 22, 2009 ahead of its December 17 launch. The preorder pace for Final Fantasy XIII-2 is accelerating, but even with pretty large preorder growth its looking like Final Fantasy XIII-2 will end up with about 350,000-400,000 preorders on the eve of launch. Final Fantasy XIII by comparison had 1,100,000 preoders on the eve of its launch in 2009. Final Fantasy XIII-2 currently looks like it will open to 450,000 - 600,000 units week one, which is pretty bad for a major (non-MMO, non-spinoff) Final Fantasy game. Looking back, Final Fantasy X opened to 1.90m on PS2 in Japan, and Final Fantasy X-2 opened to 1.56m. A drop off to say, 1-1.1m week one for Final Fantasy XIII-2 would not be too out of sync with the previous results, but currently the drop off looks to be from 1.50m (FFXIII) to 0.50m (FFXIII-2) which would be historically bad for a main Final Fantasy console game. There is still time for preorders figures to grow a lot, but Final Fantasy XIII-2 currently looks like a miss for Square-Enix in Japan.
Contact VGChartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com
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An FPS over a high production value jRPG in Japan that's supposed to hate FPS games. It makes me weep a little.
I hope for a Demon Souls situation for Ni No Kuni.
And with a custom console, no less.
FF XIII-2 being a flop in Japan will open the eyes of Square Enix.
Sadly, I don't think it will.
3DS will be scary this holiday!
"And btw Famitsu expects FFXIII-2 to do 1 million this year. Your 450,000 FW prediction looks pretty wrong especially since 450,000 is below Type 0's first week and FFXIII-2 is tracking higher than Type-0 on the pre-order chart. I'm thinking more 600k-700k."
Yeah, 600k FW minimum.
How long was Final Fantasy XIII up for pre-order in Japan? It could explain why pre-orders were so high. Just like Gears of War 3. The game got delayed and pre-order were available forever.
Ni no Kuni... NOOOOOOOOO :-(
Its not too terrible
Monster Hunter 3G is going to be a massive HW mover for the 3DS. Just wow at those preorders despite being released on other platforms. MK7 then MH3G, the sales of the 3DS will be insane!
on PS3, each CoD launch performed better : 32k/106k/129k/206k and MW3 is the best launch for occidental games on PS3. LTD only GTA4with 380k sold better than CoDs.
Japan is buying FPS´s ? Something is definetely wrong with the market there.
Xenoblade-like sales for Ni no Kuni. I'm not sure what to think.
And btw Famitsu expects FFXIII-2 to do 1 million this year. Your 450,000 FW prediction looks pretty wrong especially since 450,000 is below Type 0's first week and FFXIII-2 is tracking higher than Type-0 on the pre-order chart. I'm thinking more 600k-700k.
Unfortunately it looks like even CoD sucked some buying intent from the Japanese market. There might not be that big of a drop for Ni No Kuni next week as the CoD effect wears off.
10) Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (PS3) - 18,000"
glad this game floped lol, suck this crapcom, son of devil...
FF13-2 is doing bad in comparison. maybe this will show square there doing something wrong.
So MH3G could have preorders of 450K and could go on to sell 850K FW (400K more), yet FFXIII-2 could have preorders 400K and only go on to sell 600K FW (200K more). What's the reasoning behind that? Also, the way FF's titlings work, FFXIII-2 would a spin-off.
Ultimate MvC3 looks like a flop... Which isn't surprising, people must be tired of Capcom's actions.
Ninokuni being a flop is to punish Level-5 for the mediocrity that was WKC1/2 and most of their output apart from Layton.
FFXIII-2 being a relative flop is the same punishment for S-E
on 360 only Halo 3 had a better launch with 62k versus 56k. Halo 3 is also the best selling occidental 360 game in japan with 140k.
Best occidental game launch of the year, even better than DKC Returns and 2x the launch sales of Bops ! Not bad !
Hey Source, do these numbers include HW bundles? I know Ni no Kuni has the special PS3 HW so Im curious if those are in that 75k
I dunno, I think the ZELDA preorders are pretty good. Sure, not as much as in America, but nowhere near bad. Its opening week should at least be solid. 160-280k is nothing to sneeze at at all.
Any thoughts on what hardware will do? Seems like the PS3 keeps falling in Japan even with brand new game releases.
Pleaaase Zelda :(
Interesting MW3 increased around 60% over Black Ops opening. Should get around 400K there.
Ninokuni is low :( FFXIII-2 preorders are low :(
Man, I can't wait to see how much FFXIII-2 open FW in Japan. I'll be really shocked if a main series FF open with less than 1 million FW in Japan. It really looks like Monster Hunter has taken over FF in Japanese popularity.
So One Piece GB2 will open 40% lower than the previous one? I find that hard to believe
I'm impressed by those MW3 numbers. COD really has exploded in Japan. I'm kind of surprised Activision hasn't adopted a similar practice as Square in Europe. Release a version in english with subs and then release a dubbed version for the local markets a month or 2 later.
CoD PS3 and Ninokuni overtracked, One Piece DS undertracked. Clearly TheSource bs.
on 360 only Halo 3 had a better launch with 62k versus 56k. Halo 3 is also the best selling occidental 360 game in japan with 140k.
WHAT! 75k for Ni No Kuni there must be something wrong here xx maybe they mean 750k?
Not bad.Maybe Japan will finally start playing some western games.
highest*
Awesome! higher 1st week in Japan for a east game!
Mario 3D Land is tracking below Galaxy 2, hope that gets fixed.
Also, Zelda = Meh.
