The Japan Preview: 12/4/11 Edition (Mario Kart 7, Mobile Suit Gundam) - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 04 December 2011 / 7,453 Views
The Japanese video game industry had its first genuinely 'huge' week for software in quite some time with numerous games selling tens of thousands of units and two major titles over 300,000 units.
1) Mario Kart 7 (3DS) - 467,000
2) Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs. (PS3) - 339,000
3) The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) - 80,000
4) Super Mario 3Dland (3DS) - 63,000
5) Kamen Rider Climax Heroes Fourze (PSP) - 55,000
6) Fortune Street / Itadaki Street (Wii) - 43,000
7) Assassin's Creed: Revelations (PS3) - 37,000
8) Kirby's Return to Dreamland (Wii) - 32,000
9) Powerful Pro Kun Pocket 14 (DS) - 26,000
10) Kamen Rider Climax Heroes Fourze (Wii) - 23,000
12) Just Dance Wii (Wii) - 22,000
12) 7th Dragon 2020 (PSP) - 22,000
13) The King of Fighters XIII (PS3) - 20,000
14) One Piece: Gigant Battle 2 - Shinseka (DS) - 18,000
15) Pokepark 2 (Wii) - 15,000
In addition to the games above, Wii Sports Resort (Wii), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS3), Saint Seiya Senki (PS3), Weiss Schwarz Portable: Boost Schwarz (PSP), and Pop'n Music Portable 2 (PSP) should also chart in the final top twenty data for the week.
Mario Kart 7 was the big opening for the week. To date, it is the largest opening for a 3DS game in Japan although if Capcom ships enough units of Monster Hunter next week the 'record' will only last for a week. On a much larger base, Mario Kart Wii opened to nearly 600,000 units in Japan and currently stands at 3.28m - and so Mario Kart 7 should continue to sell for a long, long time in Japan particularly if the 3DS ends up being larger than Wii as Mario Kart DS has sold over 4m units in Japan by being on a larger platform. Mobile Suit Gundam for PS3 had an opening nearly as good as Mario Kart 7, but will follow the 'spike' pattern and decline very rapidly over the next three weeks.
Outside of the major titles, a lot of games for Nintendo platforms are now holding well - Zelda, Kirby, Pokepark 2, Marioland, and One Piece are all being held up some by seasonal purchasing patterns - if this was any month but December or January they'd all have declined or declined faster. Kamen Riders and Itadaki Street Wii also had pretty good openings for the week given that neither game will decline much on a unit basis until late January. 3DS, Wii, PS3, and PSP should each be up from last week, as they are the main platforms this holiday until Vita launches, and each has had a pretty steady stream of games now for two months.
Looking ahead, there are three major events for the rest of December in Japan. Vita launches mid-month and should open quite well even with 3DS set to achieve obscene figures over the next six weeks in Japan. Capcom's Monster Hunter Portable 3G for 3DS launches December 10th in Japan. Preorders are currently at 405,000 units and should reach right about 450,000 units at launch. Those figures will translate to a 500,000 - 900,000 week one - assuming Capcom ships enough of the game. The current rumor is Capcom is only shipping about 420,000 units for day one, so week one will likely be on the low end of the range presented above. Square-Enix's Final Fantasy XIII-2 launches December 15 for PS3 and now has 280,000 preorders en route to about 350,000 preorders on the eve of launch. An opening of 450,000 - 700,000 units looks likely for the game now, well below the 1.5m opening for Final Fantasy XIII in mid-December 2009, which makes sense as Final Fantasy XIII had 1,030,000 preorders 11 days before launch compared to the 280,000 preorders Final Fantasy XIII-2 has 11 days before launch. Given how quickly Final Fantasy games decline in Japan, it is becoming increasingly unlikely that Final Fantasy XIII-2 will reach even 1m units in Japan over its lifetime. Sony's Vita also does not look like it will have any huge software (at least at brick & mortar retail) initially, as no Vita games currently have more than 20,000 preorders less than two weeks from launch. 3DS for comparison had about five games with over 20,000 preorders at this distance from launch even though the device launched in a non-holiday month.
Contact VGChartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com
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That Mario Kart launch is scary. The 3DS should have a great December for both software and hardware.
Excelent numbers for 3DS... Second week of Skyward Sword is not bad that all... It sold much more than 2nd week of Twilight Princess (36,696 units)... :)...
I think Capcom is undershipping Monster Hunter P3G but if there is a complete sell through, shipments should arrive to retailers that same evening or day. .Or Nintendo is holding shipments for the following week to create hype and destroy the Vita Launch.
November 13th: ''Uncharted and Hotshots Golf 6 for Vita each have about 20,000 preorders''
December 4th: ''No Vita games currently have more than 20,000 preorders''
That's odd.
Maybe people cancelled their pre-orders?
Boutros, as morenoingrato wrote, at least in the COMG charts pre-orders for both of these games have hardly moved since November 13th if at all, so this could be correct - if they have each reached about 20,000 back around November 13, they may still be there and so not be "more than 20,000 preorders" at this point.
I didn't realize how big Mario Kart is.
Zelda: Skyward Sword has excellent legs. Hopefully it will outsell Zelda: Twilight Princess in Japan.
I'm mostly interested in seeing how much FFXIII-2 opens to first week in Japan. If it doesn't open to 1 million+ then it will be the first numbered FF game (sequels included) to not open over 1 million first week since FFIV.
32k according to MC
Wow @ MarioKart
Hm @ Vita. Is Sonys new handheld going to be a flop in Japan without Monster Hunter?
WHOAH GREAT NUMBERS FOR MARIO KART!!!
I just looked up Mario Kart DS Japanese numbers. Mario Kart 7 sold over twice as much week 1 (MK DS did 231k week 1). Holy smokes! If 3DS sells as well as DS, this could be the best selling non bundled game, and also the first non-bundled with almost every damn console game to break Super Mario Bros sales...
Yes!! Skyward Sword with legs as pretty as Zelda!
Nintendo is officially back!!
Mario Kart is huge, Mario Land holding up along with Zelda
and hopefully Capcom will ship more MH3G copies
MK7.... Wow big launch. I expect 3DS to be above 200k for the week
And if comgnet numbers are right, Zelda has had a huuuuge decline unlike what the preview says. I'm hoping that's not the case, but zelda week 2 numbers could be as low as 50k (maybe lower)..
Some retailers in Japan are saying Gundam is the top seller of the Week. Could potentially open closer to 500k than the 350k said here. Sold extremely well over the Weekend, not just on launch day. Could be close between it and Mario Kart...
Also, that 420k for MH3DS is confirmed - http://andriasang.com/comz6o/mh3g_shipment/ - "This is split 300,000 for the game's standard version, 100,000 for the Slide Pad bundle, and 20,000 for the 3DS system bundle."
The reason they're shipping so few at launch is because of what happened with the Wii game. Massive first shipment, followed by a swift price reduction because of it not selling out. They don't want to ship a Million in a Week for it to still be there 5 Weeks later at half the price.
Are there any noteworty PSV launch games? When does the first PSV AAA title release?
Good numbers for Mario Kart
Wow, I guess Gundam still has some nice selling power. Should get above 500k life time.
Wow Mario Kart passed by expectations by a mile. Zelda is holding up quite nicely. MSG did greally great as well. Even more shocked as I never heard of the game
Why is Capcom undershipping ? It thinks the game won't sell that much ?
...and ni no kuni is gone.
Monster Hunter 3G - for 3DS
500.000 !
First week - second week 300.000
Of course XIII-2 will reach a million units lifetime.
Crazy to think it won't.
Lot of FFXIII-2 hate 'round here.
