Media Create Sales Jan 15-21

[ChicagoBear]

http : / / eg.nttpub. c o . jp /ranking.html

Hardware sales:
Wii 87,360
DSL 114,002
PSP 35,274
PS3 21,192
PS2 28,491
Xbox360 10,164

Below is a chart comparing this week's sales to last week's...
h t t p :/ /i21.photobucket.com/albums/b274/cheesemeister05/mediacreate.gif




Software sales:

01 PS2 Bandai-Namco .hack//G.U. Vol. 3 - 136790 / 136790
02 NDS Nintendo Wario: The Seven - 91249 / 91249
03 PS2 Sega Shining Force EXA - 72306 / 72306
04 WII Nintendo Wii Sports - 57418 / 851535
05 WII Nintendo Wii Play - 45724 / 764813
06 PS2 Flight-Plan Dragon Shadow Spell - 40541 / 40541
07 360 Microsoft Gears of War - 33212 / 33212
08 NDS Atlus Etrian Odyssey - 32511 / 32511
09 NDS Nintendo Common Knowledge Training - 31735 / 1130647
10 NDS Nintendo More Brain Age - 29626 / 3868279

11 NDS Nintendo New Super Mario Brothers
12 NDS Nintendo Animal Crossing Wild World
13 WII Nintendo Excite Truck
14 PSP Konami Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops
15 NDS MTO Tea Dog's Room DS 2
16 NDS Nintendo Mario Kart DS
17 NDS Pokemon Pokemon Diamond
18 NDS Nintendo English Training
19 NDS IE Institute Kanji Brain Test 2M
20 NDS Nintendo 1000 Recipes

21 NDS Pokemon Pokemon Pearl
22 NDS Spike IQ Supply
23 NDS Nintendo Brain Training
24 WII Nintendo Wario Ware Smooth Moves
25 PS2 Sega Yakuza
26 WII Nintendo The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
27 NDS Rocket Co. Kanji Test
28 NDS Nintendo Kirby Squeek Squad
29 PSP Capcom Monster Hunter Portable
30 NDS Sega Love+Berry

[masteratt]

Links made easier:
http://eg.nttpub.co.jp/ranking.html
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b274/cheesemeister05/mediacreate.gif

Expected results.

[OmniCloud]

Yea...DS owns...Wii is hott. PS2 still great...PSP doing fair...PS3 & 360 sucks...More or Less....

[VG Aficionado]

PS3 hasn't got new games in Japan for a while now, no wonder the sales are low. Expect a big leap when Virtua Fighter 5 is released in a couple weeks.

[Fats]

I'm personally not expecting VF5 to have that big an impact on PS3 sales, but perhaps that's down to me not being a huge fighting fan or it's just my Western perspective.

[xbdestroya]

Yeah I think that's what it is Butters. ;)

[Z]

you'll see how much impact VF5 will have on PS3 very soon. ;)

[Fats]

you'll see how much impact VF5 will have on PS3 very soon. ;)

I'll hold you to that Z. :)

[VideoGame mania]

Damn, the wii has nothing exciting and yet it's selling like hot cakes.
I predict the wii will be dominant like DS, i never understood the japanese.

[Fats]

I'm with you totally on that VideoGames mania, I may get flamed for this, but the Wii just seems like a revolutionary way to play the same shit we've been playing for all eternity. I see very little that's appealing on it, and personally, there's only a few small reasons that would warrant a purchase for me.

[masteratt]

When the dust settles, it will be on the Wii if you get what I mean ;)
Unless Nintendo really and I mean REALLY taps the controller's potential.

It really is just a matter of time before we get our
1st: PS3
2nd: Wii
3rd: X360

[Elios]

The hardware numbers are not from Media Create (which will be out in a matter of hours), not that I believe they will differ in any signficant way but still...
Anyway there's really nothing to say except that PS3 sales are disappointing. While it's true that the console has a really weak lineup for japanese gamers, PS3 should have had no problems selling the first million units just because of the name. Not being able to sell 1 million units easily means troubles for Sony.
Probably the price is really a big ostacle there and many people have decided to wait until their most wanted games come out before buying the console, but that's not a pleasant situation for Sony because developers want to have a solid userbase to sell their titles,they're not making games to let PS3 have spikes in hardware sales.
IMO if the situation doesn't change with titles like VF5 and Gundam Musou (in March) Sony will have to cut the price by 10.000 yen in Japan this spring.

[Raijin]

Basically, PS3 is bombing quite hard in Japan... Terrible, terrible way of handling things over there by Sony...

[frosty]

Actually, terrible way of looking at it. The market is bombing, look at wii sales. they are the same as last week, and the the same distance abobe PS3 sales as they were during the holidays. You have to keep in mind that it is expected for a console that costs more to slow down more during a slow sales period like this.

[Raijin]

That's a terrible way to spin actually...
Wii sales are extremely impressive no matter what you say at a period like this.

[Logan Cano]

I don't think it's that bad, really. The DS changed the face of the Japanese game market, for the worse IMO, so I suppose it's not that much of a surprise to see a console that prioritizes quick, shallow and yet fun and small games over the much more complex traditional ones that require more of your time and skills.

PS3 isn't that hot, but as long as 360 continues to sell worse than dog shit over there, the traditional games I'm interested in will continue to be on it, so I'm not worried. :)

[curryking1]

I don't think you should say it changed for the worse, rather it just changed. To you it may be a change for the worse, to me it would be too if it happened here because I enjoy the longer complicated games, but it's just a change that affects us in a negative way possibly rather than the market itself has become worse.

But not to worry Logan, there are still a lot of us around to support the longer and complicated games to live in harmony with people who will enjoy simpler games. Nothing will be lost, I am almost sure of it ;)

But anyways, the Japanese seem to make these generation transitions a lot faster than our North American friends, I think that has a lot to do with the fact that electronics and gaming are much more mainstream and a part of a larger proportion of people's lives in Japan than it is here in America and Canada.

EDIT: So what are the other games other than VF5 that will boost the PS3 sales in the next, say, 6 months? I kind of want to see a list, makes it easier to understand what might happen in the near future. VF5 should be a big hitter, I agree. I could see an easy extra 150K units moved in a month just from it. Maybe that is an underestimation, I have only a vague idea of how popular VF is there lol.

[Garfunkel]

Right now, i'm not surprised at all by the sales figures. Ps3 barely has any good games besides from R:FOM an RR7. Not much the Japanese like, then it's early in the year, the only thing people can afford is a wii...

But if this continues past the Euro launch, I hope sony will bite the bullet and drop the price, but they must be confident in it if the Euro price is so hi.

[OmniCloud]

I think Eye Toy games will be the first Japanese hit...WIth how well DS and Wii is doing, I guess gamers are digging faster/pick up and play experiences now. I expect stuff like Flow/Calling All Cars Eye Toy games, and Motion controlled games like Lair to sell well in Japan. The price is low enough for early adopters to pick up the system I think...

[dnpmakkah]

PS3 sales are not as good as we all expected prior to release...lets be honest here. However, given the current state of its games and the console price its actually not that bad. 2 months and almost 2 million consoles sold is much better than it could be. That's not even including the European launch and add to it that there really hasn't been much in terms of quanity/quality of games.

We really don't know what the future holds concerning the PS3 but the best thing we can do is wait until the games come out and that will be the ultimate scale to judge upon. If I think on the 'surface' of things then there is a lot of bad things surround the PS3 right now but if I think 'deeper' into the situation I can't help but think things will turn around when the titles hit the market.

I know its expensive we can't deny that (yes its fair for what they give you but still expensive for the casual gamer) but in the end its hard for me to believe this thing won't sell once people know they can go out to the store an buy VF5, Motor Storm, F1, Heavenly Sword, Lair, Warhawk, GT, Killzone, Final Fantasy XIII, MGS4, DMC4, RE5, GOW3, Resistance, Soul Calibur, Tekkan, Dark Sector, GTAIV, Jak & Daxtor, Rachet & Clank, and countless other titles that I forget and don't have time to type out.

Anyways the games quality/quanity aren't up to par right now but do you really believe people won't wanna buy the PS3 when these above games come out? And yes I know some of them are multiplatform but some aren't so you get my drift.

[Viper]

the Wii just seems like a revolutionary way to play the same shit we've been playing for all eternity.Many see the PS3 and X360 as a prettier way to play the same shit we've been playing for all eternity.


Official Media Create numbers: No huge differences. They'll be added to my sales charts in General Gaming.

DSL - 127,647
Wii - 86,395
PSP - 37,032
PS3 - 21,105
PS2 - 20,169
X360 - 7,041
GBM - 1,864
GBASP - 1,498
GameCube - 554
DS - 123
GBA - 94

[Tarkus]

Is the PS3 now widely available in Japan or are there still shortages there?

[Viper]

Tarkus, it's been widely available for weeks. Over 1 million has been shipped but only 575,000 have been sold.

[venomv]

These are Japan only numbers, correct? 360 had a pretty decent week, may have GeoW to thanks for that, it seems to be selling suprisingly well (to me anyway) over there.

[VG Aficionado]

These are Japan only numbers, correct? 360 had a pretty decent week, may have GeoW to thanks for that, it seems to be selling suprisingly well (to me anyway) over there.7K units the week they release their most successful title is decent? :huh: They did much better when Blue Dragon was released, and the sales weren't really spectacular then.

[Viper]

X360 has had a surge that began at the end of last year starting with Blue Dragon. It had a few weeks of 35k+ sales. It's dropped back down some but GOW is keeping it from dropping back to the low levels it was 4 months ago (1k-3k range).

[jaxmkii]

Many see the PS3 and X360 as a prettier way to play the same shit we've been playing for all eternity.


Hopefully PS3 and SixaxiS will provide the bridge bettween Wii's gameplay and 360 grafix (for now)...

[Red_Eyes]

Many see the PS3 and X360 as a prettier way to play the same shit we've been playing for all eternity.


But those same shit never gets old. Take MGS.4 4 is still the same as before. But it'll still be the greatest MGS ever. Why change the formula if it's working already?

[Viper]

RE, playing the same thing just prettier may not get old for you but for many it does. Why change a formula thats working already? The question you should ask is this....is it really working?

The rate of growth in the video game industry has almost stagnated. Couple that with the increased cost of development and something needed to change to keep the industry from hitting a spout of diminishing returns and leading to another video game crash.

Think about it, each generation it has taken more and more money just to break even and that includes both hardware and software. Eventually, it may take 50 million consoles to turn a profit or 2 million game sold to make a profit. At what point does the industry stop and try to change course before we hit that edge?

Had Nintendo just went with a more powerful system and nothing new, what good would 3 systems have been with similar spec and games in an industry of diminishing returns?

Cater to the exact same fan base but make it cost more to create everything. See how the money starts to dissipate?

Nintendo did what needed to be done to expand the market beyond the current fan bases and allow a development model cheap enough to keep developers from going broke if one big name game fails to turn profit.

To go along with the business side of it all, it's generated interest in Nintendo and, for past-gamers, video games again.

Was it broke, no but it was breaking.

[Domination]

The hardware numbers are not from Media Create (which will be out in a matter of hours), not that I believe they will differ in any signficant way but still...
Anyway there's really nothing to say except that PS3 sales are disappointing. While it's true that the console has a really weak lineup for japanese gamers, PS3 should have had no problems selling the first million units just because of the name. Not being able to sell 1 million units easily means troubles for Sony.
Probably the price is really a big ostacle there and many people have decided to wait until their most wanted games come out before buying the console, but that's not a pleasant situation for Sony because developers want to have a solid userbase to sell their titles,they're not making games to let PS3 have spikes in hardware sales.
IMO if the situation doesn't change with titles like VF5 and Gundam Musou (in March) Sony will have to cut the price by 10.000 yen in Japan this spring.

I can agree with you as far as Sony's brand name not having the importance it once had when the PS2 launch, but I also have to add that they have much stiffer competition this time. On top of that, their library is still very small at this point. Both third and second party are still in a working stage to get anticipated games out on shelves. It's first party that seems to be pulling the weight right now. And since the console has not been out long enough for a huge wave of anticipated titles hit shelves, the console is starving in the process. And I guess it doesn't help any when titles have to be delayed to make sure that they are properly done. But it has very little to do with the price right now. It's the content consumers are waiting on.

It's a fight, I'll admit it, but if the innovation and potential is there, then the end result will be worthwhile.

[lips]

I for one find it difficult to believe there are ~400'000 units sitting on the shelves in Japan. There could be many logic explanations why there is a glut of unsold ps3 units in japan. If the system does not sell like hotcakes when games start to arrive that put other systems to shame, I will be concerned at that time.

[frosty]

Many see the PS3 and X360 as a prettier way to play the same shit we've been playing for all eternity.

At first glance, until you factor in things like singstar, guitar hero, eyetoy, motion control, and god knows what else. (Wiimote rip off at some point or another by one of the two, it's inevitable.