Media Create Sales for 12/07 to 12/13 - Holiday Hardware

[Chris_D]

Here are the software and hardware numbers from Japan, straight from Media Create, for the week 12/07 to 12/13.

As the end of year comes closer, sales are continuing to heat up with almost all hardware experiencing a significant boost over the previous week. The Wii sold an impressive 135,898 units, putting it well ahead of the PS3 in the number 2 spot, with 75,086 units sold. However, if the sales DSi, DSi LL, and DS Lite were combined, the DS platform would be number 1 with 137,566 units sold.

New Super Mario Brothers Wii continued to sell well, maintaining its number 1 position, selling another 431,198 copies. In fact, I was told by a student that he'd been desperately trying to get a copy for his son but had come up short with many retailers being sold out. Tales of Graces had a relatively meek opening week of sales but it was enough to capture the number 2 spot with 143,215 copies sold. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 performed strongly for a western game (although nothing as mind blowing as the NPD numbers for last month), appearing both at number 4 and number 12 for the PS3 and 360 versions.

Edge-Online had Amazon Japan's report of their top 10 sellers for the year so far:

10. Dissidia Final Fantasy
9. Ryu Ga Gotoku 3
8. Resident Evil 5
7. Wii Fit Plus (software only)
6. Wii Sports Resort
5. Hatsune Miku PROJECT DIVA
4. Tales of Vesperia (PS3)
3. Monster Hunter 3
2. Tomodachi Collection
1. Dragon Quest IX

Amazon also provided breakdowns by platform, reports Kotaku. The top selling games in Japan per platform in 2009 were: Monster Hunter 3 (Wii), Dragon Quest IX (DS), Tales of Vesperia (PS3), Fate/Unlimited Codes (PS2), Hatsune Miku PROJECT DIVA (PSP) and Star Ocean 4 (Xbox 360).

1UP had a nice summary of a Famitsu feature, Japan's Developers Give Their Games of the Year. Some may surprise you!

- Smash Bros. king Masahiro Sakurai, meanwhile, chose Fallout 3. "Technically it came out on the 360 last year, but I've kept on playing it with all the DLC that's come out," he said. "It's a brutal environment, but I love the freedom you have in the game world. It's one of the few games I've really sat down and fully explored."

- The pattern of Western game love continued with Hideo Baba, brand manager for Namco Bandai's Tales series. "I really enjoyed Uncharted 2," he said. "It's a fun game, of course, but even as a passive experience, it's really refined."

Hardware
Wii - 135,898 (+28%)
PS3 - 75,086 (+30%)
PSP - 71,885 (+6%)
DSi - 68,184 (+32%)
DSi LL - 58,006 (+8%)
DS Lite - 11,376 (+35%)
Xbox 360 - 10,646 (+100%)
PSP Go - 3,077 (-10%)
PS2 - 2,463 (+8%)

Software
01. [Wii] New Super Mario Brothers Wii (Nintendo) 431,198 / 1,366k
02. [Wii] Tales of Grace (Namco Bandai Games) 143,215 / NEW
03. [DS] Tomodachi Collection (Nintendo) 101,905 / ~1,927k
04. [PS3] Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Square Enix) 92,743 / NEW
05. [PSP] Naruto Shippuuden: Narutimate Accel 3 (Namco Bandai Games) 76,596 / NEW
06. [DS] Pokemon Star Heart Gold / Soul Siver (Nintendo) 75,006 / ~3,229k
07. [PSP] Phantasy Star Portable 2 (Sega) 74,203 / ~361k
08. [Wii] Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo) 64,209 / ~1,108k
09. [Wii] PokePark Wii: Pikachu's Great Adventure (Nintendo) 57,410 / ~121k
10. [PSP] Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam Next Plus (Namco Bandai Games) 56,596 / ~280k

Source - Media Create, Edge-Online, 1UP.

See the sales from the previous week.

Note: Software cumulative sales estimates are provided by Media Create and VGChartz.

[Kielaran]

The Wii is still going strong. Doesn't everyone in Japan own one already?

[Urizen]

Originally Posted by Kielaran

The Wii is still going strong. Doesn't everyone in Japan own one already?

Are you serious?

Well, in case you're not, the home console market has been drying up in Japan for some time. They've only sold 9M Wii systems since launch.

[Chris_D]

Here's a preview of FFXIII sales numbers for this week from Kotaku.

Final Fantasy XIII was released in Japan yesterday. A day later, Square Enix have released figures revealing how many copies of the game were sold during its first 24 hours on the shelf.

And that number has "exceeded one million". Which, well, makes it sound like they sold between 1 and 1.1 million. The news was disclosed in a statement released by Square Enix today, which also states that copies of the game sold bundled with a PS3 - as part of the "Lightning Edition" - were not included in that figure. If you account for those, the figure would be slightly higher.

Square Enix said yesterday that two million copies of the game had been shipped to retailers. Now, there's no way Sony sold one million Lightning Editions, so...anyone hanging on an import copy, don't sweat it, doesn't sound like the game's completely sold out.

[Chris_D]

Not wanting to spam the thread too much but I'll be away for winter vacation over the next couple of weeks. So, you won't be seeing a thread from me next week, but hopefully the week after (time and holiday plans permitting). I'll probably try to include a summary of next week's numbers in the post that week. Also, you can always check the Media Create site directly around Dec 26, or other outlets.

Happy holidays!

[jeffbax]

Originally Posted by Kielaran

The Wii is still going strong. Doesn't everyone in Japan own one already?

I find statements like this so annoying in their frequency. There are 120 million people in Japan. No, they certainly don't all own 5 by now.

Good to hear Japanese developers giving love to Fallout and Uncharted, they can certainly learn a thing or two from those games.

[Chris_D]

The same is somewhat true for DS as well. Obviously the sales numbers for DS are huge, but, at this point most DS Fats are either at the bottom of boxes or buried in landfill. My old DS Lite is collecting dust at my girlfriends (I keep telling her she needs to finish Mario!). It's been said elsewhere, but it seems Nintendo has been quite successful in getting people to iterate on their DSs, along the lines of how Apple gets people to buy a new iPod every 1-2 years (yes I'm one of those suckers as well).

Anyway, I doubt anyone ever says, "They've sold 500 million mobile phones in Japan by now, everyone must have 5 of them!!".