Star Ocean 4 Helps Xbox 360 Outsell Wii, PS3 In Japan - News

by VGChartz Staff , posted on 26 February 2009 / 6,624 Views

Original post at Popzara Blogs:

For the fourth time since its launch in the territory, the Xbox 360 has outsold its main competitors and became the best-selling home console in Japan. Buoyed by the recent launch of the highly-anticipated RPG Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope Microsoft was able to outsell both the Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3 by several thousand units, topping the home console market with 25,334 units. The Wii continues to slide in its home country, selling just 16,973 for one of its lowest weekly tallies yet and just edging out the PlayStation 3 at 16,149 units. The DSi and PSP continue to dominate the Japanese market, selling 41,839 and 29,552 units respectively.

The Xbox 360 has previously topped its current-generation competitors in the region, typically following the release of similarly anticipated titles. The three previous helpers were Ace Combat 6, Tales of Vesperia , and Infinite Discovery. The current generation Xbox 360 has proven that Japanese gamers are willing to support Microsoft's console, provided the software they want is available. Kudos to Microsoft for the great showing, and the full chart of this week's tallies are listed below (courtesy MediaCreate ):

* Nintendo DSi - 41,839
* PSP - 29,552
* Xbox 360 - 25,334
* Wii - 16,973
* PlayStation 3 - 16,149
* Nintendo DS Lite - 9,975
* PlayStation 2 - 5,029

43 Comments

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Jeany66 (on 03 April 2009)

Sardauk (on 02 March 2009)

XBOX babes are more gorgeous ;)

Zomb1337 (on 02 March 2009)

I still cant believe Xbox 360 outsold both PS3 and especially the Wii in its worst market!

TheConduit (on 01 March 2009)

I am so confused as to why the Wii sales have been droping in Japan.
I mean with Dragon quest 10 announced for the system as well as Monster hunter still being a system exclusive that Wii sales would rise.
I guess that its going to take a release to boost sales/

andrewclear (on 01 March 2009)

Wow, you think MS got all these exclusives just to sell consoles? Sure, they need the consoles to sell, but, remember, they do get a cut of the profits from every game released on the 360. That's just as important as pushing the console.

Getting JRPG exclusives was very important for them, not just to get a presence in Japan, but to get a good portion of ps2 users to adopt the 360 (like myself). The original xbox lacked a good selection of RPGS, and now, the 360 is the console of choice for RPGs. Of course, the handhelds are really where the rpg market is right now.

SO4 is an excellent game. I've logged 28 hours so far, and am completely addicted. Best RPG on the 360.

DrgnAK (on 28 February 2009)

"I think they are creating the image of rpg machine in Japan, in the next gen the next xbox will sell on pair with ps4 and nintendo, having a real chance of being number 1 there if they continue investing japanese games."
Yeah, while it's easy to assume that they're not getting a return on their investment, Microsoft is most likely worrying about numbers in the long run. To increase the user base in this generation and giving it an RPG image, is to deepen market penetration for the next generation.

However, so far, the Wii has more JRPGs lined up in Japan.

sebnod (on 28 February 2009)

this week SO4 and x360 has disappear. Yakuza 3 has come on PS3.
We can now say in Japan: RIP M$.

invetedlotus123 (on 28 February 2009)

I think they are creating the image of rpg machine in Japan, in the next gen the next xbox will sell on pair with ps4 and nintendo, having a real chance of being number 1 there if they continue investing japanese games.

ZenfoldorVGI (on 28 February 2009)

One thing you guys don't seem to understand is that Microsoft, as evil, sorry, corrupt as they may be, are just beginning to implement their plan. Do you really think that next gen Microsoft are gonna be doing worse than they are now, or better?

Johann (on 28 February 2009)

Congrats to MS. Sony is up next week with Yakuza.

Infamous (on 27 February 2009)

Best JRPG I've played this gen, and I LOVE LO/ToV, too, so that says something. Well deserved, MS. SO4 fucking ROCKS!

TheTruthHurts! (on 27 February 2009)

Great job MS. Each week you get closer and closer to selling 1mil consoles in Japan, when many thought it was not possible.

sethnintendo (on 27 February 2009)

Grats to MS even though this really doesn't matter much. Being ahead 1 or 2 weeks in Japan doesn't really mean shit although they are selling a lot more than they used to but a few 1,000 consoles here and there doesn't amount to much.

invetedlotus123 (on 27 February 2009)

A special edition of Halo and Gundam would be nice. Mecha games really sell well in Japan and okay in the West, making their own mecha franchise would be nice, and contacting mistwalker to make more rpgs would be nice too.

Shin Megami (on 27 February 2009)

....or train simulations...
Oh yeah and a Super Halo Gundam game would also help.

GamerBOB (on 27 February 2009)

Or dating sims and horse racing games... :)

Red4ADevil (on 27 February 2009)

As a nintendo fan i congratulate them (should anti up the competition but if they want to keep this momentum up they gotta devlier more titles to to the japanese like blue dragon and SO4 you know most are wild for RPGs.

GamerBOB (on 27 February 2009)

To bad the Japanese market isn't a deciding factor. This is most likely a one time deal for the 360. Congrats for that.

However it's still Wii #1, 360 #2, and PS3# 3 in both NA and Others.

Reasonable (on 27 February 2009)

Really small spike considering the game. I think each exclusive RPG is seeing smaller spikes (i.e. the ceiling for those in Japan buying 360 for RPGs is coming closer).

I guess MS has money to waste, but really if they are paying for such titles I find it hard to believe they're getting their money back in Japan.

As for SE unless MS was covering lost sales they would have made much more releasing this on PS3/360 at the same time globally.

Aquietguy (on 27 February 2009)

It's good to see the 360 get some love in Japan.

Shin Megami (on 27 February 2009)

www.gamefront.de is reporting that Yakuza 3 sold 232000 units on its first day. Think about how many PS3 sold...
Next week PS3 pawns all!! Wii on the last place??? OMG??

welshbloke (on 27 February 2009)

Japan has become less important this time round and still Microsoft have put the effort it and increased its presence month on month. This is another example of Microsoft's dogged determination to succeed despite the odds and if we look back a couple of years I think nobody was predicting any form of success for Microsoft (to be far I also do not think they were predicting the decline in the console market either).

This will not be the last time this happens and one could say that due to the staggered release of FFXIII it will almost certainly happen again.

PullusPardus (on 27 February 2009)

now imagine what it will be like when final fantasy XIII get released on Ps3 there.
i knew this will happen to Star Ocean, MORE JRPG's!

kopstudent89 (on 27 February 2009)

@ MozBlue

I dont think they just want to sell a few more thousand units, but the impact of the previous JRPG's games have propelled the 360 to the 8000-10000 levels from its previous 2000-3000... so in reality those games have given them a weekly 5000-8000 rise which is quite significant!

Sardauk (on 27 February 2009)

A drop in the ocean... but step by step they might just ...

Cueil (on 27 February 2009)

Heruamon calls it... Breath of Fire: Spin off Edition exclusive for 360 (for a few months) :-p

MozBlue (on 27 February 2009)

you have to wonder how much it cost MS to get the exclusive in the first place and was it worth it to sell an extra 10,000 to 15,000 units?

heruamon (on 27 February 2009)

M$ had better get a few more japanese produced RPGs in it's quene...and FAST!...If I was M$, I'd write checks to CAPCOM and others to start making exclusive for me...like now!

Goddbless (on 27 February 2009)

Congrats to the 360. Hopefully MS can figure out a way to accomplish this feat more often.

dark_gh0st_b0y (on 26 February 2009)

it's just for 1 week and a small difference that can be ignored on worldwide sales i mean

the important is that Star Ocean did great

Popzara (on 26 February 2009)

@ Soriku

Good add about the VGC numbers and the difference between cut 'n paste work (which is usually substituted for 'real work' these days...guilty as charged). The real story here was the Xbox 360 besting not just the PS3, but the PS3 and the Wii. This happens to infrequently (four times in nearly as many years) that its certainly newsworthy.

Also, any chance to post pictures of cute Japanese girls can't be all bad, can it? I'm in total agreement with you there. But gotta draw the line on the toilet paper dude, gotta draw the line...