The Japan Preview: 2/12/12 Edition (SW Still Very Quiet) - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 12 February 2012 / 8,597 Views
Software sales in Japan remained slow this week. Not a single game topped 50,000 units. Console software in particular was exceptionally low. It looks like once again no games for Wii or PS3 substantially topped 10,000 units for the week - a rare feat in prior years that has already happened in 2012 once, and should reoccur depressingly often throughout 2012.
1) Genso Suikoden: Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki (PSP) - 40,000
3) Resident Evil: Revelations (3DS) - 32,000
3) Gravity Daze (Vita) - 32,000
4) Super Mario 3DLand (3DS) - 23,000
5) Mario Kart 7 (3DS) - 19,000
6) Monster Hunter Portable 3G (3DS) - 15,000
7) Armored Core 5 (PS3) - 10,000
9) Photokano (PSP) - 9,000
9) Ragnarok Odyssey (Vita) - 9,000
12) Monster Hunter Portable 3 (PSP) - 8,000
12) Just Dance Wii (Wii) - 8,000
12) Gran Turismo 5 Special (PS3) - 8,000
15) Slime MoriMori Dragon Quest 3: Taikaizoku to Shippo Dan (3DS) - 7,000
15) Soul Calibur V (PS3) - 7,000
15) Dragon Age II (PS3) - 7,000
In addition to the games above, Wii Party (Wii), Wii Sports Resort (Wii), Inazuma Eleven Go Shine / Dark (3DS), Tales of Innocence R (Vita), and Rhythm Thief (3DS) should all chart in the final top 20 data for the week.
Software sales remain very low in Japan. Not much is coming in the near term either. The occassional top seller will break 100,000 units sold week one over the next few weeks and months, but there just isn't anything major to juice the market in a major way for what looks like weeks or months. At some point, Dragon Quest X preorders should begin but Square-Enix may be choosing to launch that game in late 2012 to coincide with both the Wii holiday bump and the Wii U launch. An early release of Dragon Quest X would certainly push hardware and cover up for a lot of the weak early 2012 software data.
One of the problems with software sales in 2012 is that most of the platforms can no longer support games that rack up huge software sales - either long-selling games or games that perform very initially and then drop very quickly. The audience that buys long selling games is still split between DS, 3DS and to some extent Wii, while the audience that supports super openings is split between PSP, PS3, and to some extent Vita - although Vita has yet to see any successful software really.
The other problem is that older hardware is largely seeing only safe software releases, sequels essentially, which don't drive hardware making it more difficult to sell games to new users. The new users are important, as the older users tend to buy less and less software with time as they grow bored with the platform. 3DS has some resistance to the current issues of the Japanese market, as it is a new(ish) platform with a respectable base, and both the long-sellers and 'huge opening' games are starting to work on the platform. The issue is the 3DS is still riding on a fairly thin number of mega-hits and so the breadth of what works on the platform isn't ideal yet for most publishers. As the other software markets continue to collapse though and 3DS continues to grow, more and more content should move to 3DS as it will be the safest and least flawed platform on the market in Japan.
Contact VGChartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com
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congrats to RE:R, holding up is excellent!
Resident Evil: Revelations is yet another 3DS game that shows the system's potential in Japan. Keep up the good work Nintendo!
Go Ninty, your hour of glory is close at hand. We've been waiting for this for a long time, the day where 3rd parties throve on Nintendo's platform. Thank you Capcom for setting the example. It was about time...
Damn this is intense
Gravity Rush =(
One Piece will be pretty big next month. I wish you would give us some pre-order numbers.
Resident Evil has better legs than I expected!
I hope Gravity Daze sells more in the final data
That's not quite the start I was hoping for with Gravity Daze.
3rd Week
Resident Evil 5 (PS3) - 28,508
o_O!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!O_o
Nice to see Suikoden top the chart, even if it is a spinoff. A real, big Suikoden 6 on Vita or 3DS... Or even Wii, would sell quite well!
3DLand beating MK7?
"3) Resident Evil: Revelations (3DS) - 32,000"
Great.
"3) Gravity Daze (Vita) - 32,000"
Decent.
"9) Ragnarok Odyssey (Vita) - 9,000"
Hold on!
Really hope Gravity Daze will have some good legs :(
wow alot of 3ds titles in there w 2 vita a few psp and many ps3 titles . looks like 3ds still doing great .. on software side of things anyway and should do well on the hardware front
RE holding off new Vita releases nicely
I am hearing internet murmurings that there is supply issues with RE Revelations almost worldwide. Is there any evidence of this?
Sorry, had to delete my previous comment.
I dunno, but amazon hasnt ship my game yet, sparta!
Resident Evil has been on the top of the charts for three week straight.
It's #2 this week..
Bud, top doesn't necessarily mean #1 you know.
nope, this is the 3rd week RER is on sale, first and 2nd week was #1, 2nd week SCV was 2nd and RER 1st....
whoops, now i see what u mean : P
testig
Gravity rush :(
Oh wow, terrible numbers all around. At least Vita got 2 games on Top 10 :P Would love to see it holding well and have access to digital sales.
Yup! =)
Well i went to get a copy and it was sold out so maybe so.
