The Japan Preview: 7/11 Edition (WKC2, Wii Party, IE3 Top 100k) - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 11 July 2010 / 6,176 Views
Summary:
Wii Party, Inazuma Eleven 3, and White Knight Chronicles 2 all topped 100,000 units for the week. WKC2 had a 30% lower opening than WKC, but PS3 owners could still eventually buy 250,000 copies of the game in Japan. Inazuma Eleven 3 fell sharply, as did all soccer games in Japan this week presumably because Japan did not advance to the final rounds of the World Cup. Still, Level-5 should have no problem selling a million copies or more of Inazuma Eleven 3 in Japan over the long term. Wii Party had an interesting debut for a "Wii-Series" game in Japan. Even though the game had similar first day sales to Wii Music, the word of mouth appears to be much better for the game. I've thrown in Mario Party 8 to the list below, as Wii Party plays like a cross between Wii Play and Mario Party 8. Games are ordered by release on the Japanese market.
Wii Series Game Day 1 (if available) Week One LTD (7/4/2010)
Wii Sports N/A 182k 3.72m
Wii Play N/A 178k 2.88m
Wii Fit N/A 253k 3.59m
Mario Party 8 100k+ 282k 1.51m
Wii Music 50k 107k 0.41m
Wii Sports Resort 155k 349k 1.93m
Wii Fit Plus 108k 330k 1.98m
Wii Party 67k 166k ????
Wii Fit Plus, Mario Party 8, and Wii Party have all come close to tripling their day one totals during week one. For Wii Fit Plus, the multiplier was impacted by the Wii price cut - but Wii Party, like Mario Party 8, looks like it has sold 2.5 times its day one total without any "help" besides word of mouth. Wii Party could ultimately still end up only selling around 600,000 in Japan, but my guess is it will trend like Mario Party 8 but with better legs.
Preorders continue to grow quickly for a number of July titles. Dragon Quest Monsters: Battle Road Victory for Wii has almost 125,000 preorders with several days yet until release. A 250,000 debut is not out of the question. Monster Hunter Portable 3 has 275,000 preorders even though Capcom hasn't announced when it will be releasing the game for PSP. The new Hatsune MIku for PSP has 90,000 preorders with almost three weeks left before it releases.
Understanding the Japanese Preview:
Rather than saying x game for y platform sold between 20,000 and 28,000 units as in the past, the preliminary data will be broken down into charts by platform. Within these charts, there will two additional categories besides the rounded sales figure under ‘sales’. On the left will be ‘low end’ depicting the lowest amount the title likely sold for the week, while to the right will be ‘high end’ depicting the highest amount the title likely sold for the week. As always, this data is preliminary, and therefore, not final, but it is based on a sample. The varying platform market share the sample represents is why consistent sellers like Wii Fit Plus do not always appear in the preliminary data. Sales for this report are for the week ending July 11, 2010.
Software by Platform:
Figures are listed by the age of the platform, for the top twenty sku information that we recieve early.
Wii Software - Wii Party had a pretty strong debut for a title announced less than two months ago. Otherwise, Xenoblade and Super Mario Galaxy 2 are hanging on relatively well. Galaxy 2 is nearing 700,000 in Japan and Xenoblade still looks like it can crawl to 150,000. Wii Fit Plus, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Mario Kart Wii will likely top 5,000 units in the final data as well. The entire Wii-series may see a slight pick up in sales in the final data with the release of Wii Party and so Wii Sports, Wii Play and Wii Sports Resort could top 5,000 units for the week as well, although it is by no means a sure thing. Expect Wii hardware sales to rise into the 24,000 to 30,000 unit range for the week on Wii Party and the build up for Dragon Quest Monsters: Battle Road Victory next week.
PS3 Software - The original White Knight Chronicles for PS3 sold 207,000 units in its first week back in December 2008. White Knight Chronicles eventually got to about 360,000 units in Japan. The sequel, White Knight Chronicles 2 which Sony released this week sold about 141,000 units in its first week - down 30% from the original. With similar legs, the game can get to 250,000 units. There is the possibility that week two will see a sharper drop-off than the first title though. Winning Eleven and Atelier both fell a bit for the week, but should have one or two more weeks in the top twenty for PS3. Blazblue didn't chart in the preliminary top twenty despite selling about 50,000 units last week. Odds are it is somewhat supply constrained. Even so, the game should end up around 10,000-15,000 units for the week in the final data. Expect PS3 hardware sales to rise into the 25,000-40,000 unit range on the open pricing that went into effect on July 7 for older PS3 models.
X360 & PS2 Software - No games charted in the preliminary data. However, Blazblue, Monster Hunter Freedom, and Crackdown 2 all should be over 5,000 units for the X360 this week in the final data. Winning Eleven likely topped 5,000 units for the PS2 as well. Expect X360 hardware sales to fall into the 3,500 to 6,500 range for the week as Slim demand slows, while PS2 hardware sales remain in the 1,000 to 2,000 unit range.
PSP Software - PSP had a pretty quiet week for software. The re-release of Hatsune Miku should be above 5,000 units for the week alongside Winning Eleven and Boku no Natsuyasumi Portable 2. Monster Hunter Portable 2G likely will be above 5,000 units for the week as well. Expect PSP hardware sales to fall into the 20,000 to 25,000 unit range for the week.
DS Software - Inazuma Eleven 3 fell to 131,000 units in its second week but it remained the major DS game for the second week. Harvest Moon: Twin Villages sold 64,000 units for Marvelous, and should end up being a solidly profitable game for the publisher. Taiko had a nice hold for Namco-Bandai - 200,000 is fairly likely now. Girl's Side is holding fairly well too, and should end up well over 100,000 on DS. DQM: Joker 2 increased a bit this week, and should eventually reach 1.2m units in Japan for Square-Enix. Egoroko hasn't really fallen off too much from its week one sales yet (22,000 to 11,000) and may end up reaching a fairly enormous total given its low opening. Love Plus + is also selling rather well for Konami. Plus + could reach 150,000 or more. Tamodachi and Digimon also topped 10,000 units for the week on DS. Ghost Trick and Tamagotchi should also be over 5,000 units for the week in the final data. Expect DS hardware sales to fall into the 40,000 to 50,000 unit range for the week.
Contact Vgchartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com
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Hmm a special section for Wii games this week = P
Good opening for Wii Party, although it's not exactly the kind of game I would go to the shop to buy it.
AUPA ESPAÑA!!!!!!!! CAMPEONES DEL MUNDOOOO!!!
Wasn't Japan eliminated June 29? That makes the week that just ended (July 5-July 11) the first full week Japan was not in the tournament or thinking about its prospects for winning or losing.
Japan was already out of the World cup 2 weeks ago...
