The Japan Preview: 11/27/11 Edition (Zelda Wii, 7th Dragon 2020)
by Jacob Mazel, posted on 28 November 2011 / 4,640 Views
Japanese software sales have arrived for the week ending November 27, 2011. Total software remained at about the level of last week on solid openings for Wii and PSP games.
1) The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) - 165,000
2) 7th Dragon 2020 (PSP) - 140,000
3) Saint Seiya Senki (PS3) - 55,000
4) Super Mario 3DLand (3DS) - 48,000
5) Metal Gear Solid: HD Edition (PS3) - 44,000
6) Weiss Schwarz Portable: Boost Schwarz (PSP) - 38,000
7) One Piece: Gigant Battle 2 - Shinseka (DS) - 36,000
8) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS3) - 33,000
9) Ninokuni (PS3) - 32,000
11) Pop'n Music Portable 2 (PSP) - 26,000
11) Danball Senki Boost (PSP) - 26,000
12) Taiko no Tatsujin Wii: Ketteiba (Wii) - 22,000
13) Kirby's Return to Dreamland (Wii) - 16,000
15) Final Fantasy Type 0 (PSP) - 15,000
15) Sengoku Basara 3 Utage (PS3) - 15,000
In addition to the games above, Just Dance Wii (Wii), Wii Sports Resort (Wii), Saints Row 3 (PS3), Hatsune Miku: Project Extend (PSP), and Ore no Shikabane o Koete Yuke (PSP) should be in the final top 20 data for the week.
Nintendo's first console Zelda game in five years topped the charts this week, coming in at the low end of the range presented in the past few weeks. After finishing with 103,000 preorders, Zelda opened to 165,000 units week one. Sega's 7th Dragon sequel did nearly as well and opened at a better figure than Sega's last 7th Dragon game which bodes well for the franchise if week two is not substantially down.
The result is not bad for Zelda, as games in the series have not topped 1m units in Japan for over well over a decade now. The last Zelda to top 1m units in Japan was Ocarina of Time which opened to 146,000 units in 1998. A Link to the Past for the SNES topped 1m on a 300k+ opening, and data for the NES Zelda games is not available. Wind Waker opened to 360,000+ in Japan for the GC, but never got to even 900,000 units, while Twilight Princess for Wii & GC sold 640,000 lifetime on a roughly 150,000+ combined opening week. It is nearly impossible to say how well Zelda will sell in Japan currently, as the series is heavily dependent on word of mouth in Japan. What we can say is that the franchise is well below Monster Hunter, Pokemon, Dragon Quest, and a handfull of other games capable of Zelda's lifetime figures in less than week - its just nowhere near a top tier franchise in Japan as it is in the West.
Call of Duty had a major drop off from last week, and should essentially follow the path of previous entries in the series at a slightly higher level until the next game in the series releases. One Piece, Ninokuni, and Kirby Wii had solid holds from last week, and Metal Gear Solid continues to follow the non-HD to PS3 / HD pattern of other games, opening at about 10% of what the original game did.
Looking ahead, preorder trends look similar to previous weeks. Monster Hunter Portable 3G (3DS) now has 345,000 preorders and should end up at around 400,000-430,000 preorders before launching December 10. Those numbers should translate to a 550,000 - 800,000 week one. Mario Kart 7 launches for 3DS on December 1. The game has 180,000 preorders and will be right around 200,000 preorders at launch. Those figures should amount to a 300,000-400,000 week one in Japan. Final Fantasy XIII-2 for PS3 has almost 240,000 preorders through November 27, 2011 ahead of its December 15, 2011 release. On November 29, 2009, Final Fantasy XIII had 900,000 preorders ahead of its December 17, 2009 release. That means Final Fantasy XIII-2's preorder pace continues to fall further and further behind the Final Fantasy XIII pace each week. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is currently trending for 280,000-350,000 preorders which would be a 400,000 - 550,000 week one - a massive drop from the 1.5m week one Final Fantasy XIII opened to week one. Preorders for Vita titles are steadily rising as well now - look for more on how those games will perform in two weeks.
Contact VGChartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com
