Media Create Sales for 03-01 to 03-07 - PSP Outsells All Platforms

[Chris_D]

Here are the software and hardware numbers from Japan, straight from Media Create, for the week 03-01 to 03-07.

The PSP experienced a significant boost in sales last week, selling 64,808 units, pushing it well ahead of the pack. Even the DS platform overall could only muster 42,944 units. Pokemon Ranger on DS was number one on the software chart, well ahead of .hack//Link for PSP. Despite selling just 60,487 copies, .hack//Link seems the only explanation for the increase in PSP sales over the previous week. For those interested in western games, Bioshock 2 opened at number 25 for 360 and number 34 for PS3.

There was some recent controversy with God of War 3 receiving a Z rating from Japan's equivalent of the ESRB in North America, CERO. This equates to an Adults Only rating and has implications for the marketing of the game. From Famitsu, via 1UP:

The situation came to a head recently when Sony's God of War III was given a Z, even though the first two games both got D ratings in Japan. Game-store owners were, to say the least, miffed. "[The Z rating] basically means I can engage in no practical advertising," one Tokyo-based store owner blogged last month. "There are no TV ads, no videos playing in the store. The best I can do is put up posters and flyers, but no matter how great the game is, you can't show what makes it fun with still images. Capcom [the publisher of GOW 1 and 2 in Japan] spent all this time building up the brand, and now it's all ruined!"

This week's Famitsu review check covers Yakuza 4 (9/10/10/9), Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (9,8,9,8), God of War Collection (9,8,8,8), and Darksiders (8,8,8,8). If there was already too much content to localize in Yakuza 3, it seems like Yakuza 4 won't fare any better. From 1UP:

We haven't gotten Yakuza 3 quite yet, but the sequel's already out in Japan, and it's apparently a scorcher.

Everybody loved the new game's multi-viewpoint storyline to bits. "The heroes are packed with personality," one wrote. "Each one has different moves, and it's fun to try exercising all of them during the fights. The story has tons of exciting developments for all four characters, and the way they all tie in together in the final chapter is incredibly hot." Another reviewer called it a shame that series hero Kazuma Kiryu "doesn't get much face time," but "getting the story from four perspectives is fresh and lets you experience the town of Kamurocho in a whole new way."

The editors also had praise for the game's GTA-style bounty of extra stuff to explore and get distracted with: "The amount of extra content is simply staggering; trying to finish it all will take a lot of perseverance."

Hardware and software sales for last week:

Hardware
PSP - 64,808 (+74%)
Wii - 33,880 (-7%)
PS3 - 28,824 (+4%)
DSi LL - 23,611 (-4%)
DSi - 15,017 (-4%)
DS Lite - 4,316 (-14%)
360 - 2,764 (+10%)
PS2 - 1,839 (-4%)
PSP Go - 1,275 (-2%)

Software
01. [DS] Pokemon Ranger: Hikari no Kiseki (Nintendo) - 160,532 / NEW
02. [PSP] .hack//Link (Namco Bandai Games) - 60,487 / NEW
03. [DS] Dragon Quest 9 (Ultimate Hits) (Square Enix) - 40,797 / NEW
04. [Wii] New Super Mario Brothers Wii (Nintendo) - 40,685 / ~3,452k
05. [PSP] Kenka Banchou 4: Ichinen Sensou (Spike) - 36,515 / ~108k
06. [DS] Tomodachi Collection (Nintendo) - 35,208 / ~2,918k
07. [PS3] Nobunaga's Ambition: Tendou (Koei) - 32,964 / NEW
08. [PSP] God Eater (Namco Bandai Games) - 28,945 / ~543k
09. [Wii] Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo) - 25,926 / ~1,720k
10. [PS3] Biohazard 5: Alternative Edition (Capcom) - 23,537 / ~215k

Source - Media Create, 1UP.

See the sales from the previous week.

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

[Talanvor]

I'm beginning to wonder what exactly is spurring the increase in PSP sales. I somehow doubt every person buying .hack//Link is also picking up a PSP. Are there any rumors about Sony discontinuing the older PSP models and going exclusively with a new PSP Go?

I did not know Capcom published God of War in Japan. That just seems so strange. Sony can publish it here, why not there too? Maybe it's too "Western"?

[Mike Kelehan]

Originally Posted by Talanvor

I did not know Capcom published God of War in Japan. That just seems so strange. Sony can publish it here, why not there too? Maybe it's too "Western"?

Sony just made the decision that it wasn't worth as much of their time and effort than Capcom was willing to give them, so they let them do it. Like a smart, anyone-but-Nintendo company might do. This way, even though they're not publishing it, Japanese fans get to play it, and Sony still gets some money from them.

Meanwhile, how are Mother 3, Fatal Frame 4, and Hotel Dusk 2: The Last Window treating you? Oh, right.

[Chris_D]

Originally Posted by Talanvor

I'm beginning to wonder what exactly is spurring the increase in PSP sales. I somehow doubt every person buying .hack//Link is also picking up a PSP. Are there any rumors about Sony discontinuing the older PSP models and going exclusively with a new PSP Go?

I dunno, .hack seems like a series that would have a very hard core fanbase, perhaps even among girls who generally don't have a PSP. Also, the new .hack game follows the anime (I think!) so maybe it's drawing in fans who never even played the original games on PS2.

You've seen the Go numbers. The PSN store still doesn't get a lot of UMD games on release. They're more likely to discontinue the Go IMO than the PSP-3000.

[KamaItachi]

Originally Posted by Talanvor

I did not know Capcom published God of War in Japan. That just seems so strange. Sony can publish it here, why not there too? Maybe it's too "Western"?

They also published GTA in Japan. Sony have been funny in the past about certain games appearing on their platform back home. It was only from public pressure they they decided to let somebody pick up the license for publication.

[Talanvor]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelehan

Sony just made the decision that it wasn't worth as much of their time and effort than Capcom was willing to give them, so they let them do it. Like a smart, anyone-but-Nintendo company might do. This way, even though they're not publishing it, Japanese fans get to play it, and Sony still gets some money from them.

Meanwhile, how are Mother 3, Fatal Frame 4, and Hotel Dusk 2: The Last Window treating you? Oh, right.

You may be right, I have no idea the kind of numbers GoW runs in Japan. It's probably no where close to the kind of business it does in the states. I don't know about FF and HD, but I know there's a pretty vocal, if not large, fanbase here for Mother in the states.

And I thought Tecmo was the publisher for FF, guess not for the last one.

Originally Posted by Chris_D

I dunno, .hack seems like a series that would have a very hard core fanbase, perhaps even among girls who generally don't have a PSP. Also, the new .hack game follows the anime (I think!) so maybe it's drawing in fans who never even played the original games on PS2.

You've seen the Go numbers. The PSN store still doesn't get a lot of UMD games on release. They're more likely to discontinue the Go IMO than the PSP-3000.

True, but I think Sony is convinced they just need to do better on the Go. I can't remember where I read the article but there was something from Sony about relaunching the Go. Also, it'd make perfect sense from an corporate standpoint that if they killed off the PSP-3000 all of those sales would just, somehow, transfer to the Go. It's like magic!

Originally Posted by KamaItachi

They also published GTA in Japan. Sony have been funny in the past about certain games appearing on their platform back home. It was only from public pressure they they decided to let somebody pick up the license for publication.

I'd be real curious to see the difference in sales numbers for the GTA and Yakuza franchises. It's obvious which one will come out on top in which region, but if the amount of advertising that Yakuza gets over here is any indication I imagine most gamers in Japan have no idea what GTA even is. About the only reason I know anything about Yakuza is because of this place.

[KamaItachi]

Originally Posted by Talanvor

I'd be real curious to see the difference in sales numbers for the GTA and Yakuza franchises. It's obvious which one will come out on top in which region, but if the amount of advertising that Yakuza gets over here is any indication I imagine most gamers in Japan have no idea what GTA even is. About the only reason I know anything about Yakuza is because of this place.

Probably not as big as Yakuza, but it was bigger than you'd think. I was in Japan for the release of San Andreas and it got quite a push in marketing. Don't quite recall any tv spots, but big banner ads all over Shinjuku and Akihabara.

I think at least Vice City and SA did big numbers for the first few weeks of their release in the charts, but of course wouldn't be able to retrieve any real numbers bar seeing mention in Famitsu.

This was before the CERO system came into affect, so I don't know what sort of restrictions they would have had at the time compared to today with GoW III.

[Mike Kelehan]

Originally Posted by Talanvor

And I thought Tecmo was the publisher for FF, guess not for the last one.

They were. The fourth was an exception, developed by Tecmo and Grasshopper (Suda51's company, makes No More Heroes). Nintendo liked it, and signed on as the Japanese publisher, dooming it to never come out here.

I'm kind of bitter about it. I love the series, and I love Grasshopper, but Nintendo just won't let Tecmo publish the game here, because they have the rights to this one game, and will not give it up. They never do. It's a policy.

[Vigil80]

Originally Posted by Chris_D

There was some recent controversy with God of War 3 receiving a Z rating from Japan's equivalent of the ESRB in North America, CERO. This equates to an Adults Only rating and has implications for the marketing of the game.

That Tokyo store owner is very much overreacting. First, how much more advertising does God of War 3 really need at this point, especially the local in-store kind? Second, if this Z malarky does the same thing for GoW in Japan that Hot Coffee did for GTA:SA, they couldn't ask for better advertisement, anyway.

[Dukefrukem]

This is unexpected news. These numbers blow me away.

[Mike Kelehan]

Originally Posted by Vigil80

That Tokyo store owner is very much overreacting. First, how much more advertising does God of War 3 really need at this point, especially the local in-store kind? Second, if this Z malarky does the same thing for GoW in Japan that Hot Coffee did for GTA:SA, they couldn't ask for better advertisement, anyway.

If by "the same thing" you mean "get it yanked from the shelves immediately," I don't think I agree. If a Z is really the same as an AO, Capcom will lose a ton of money.

[Gorvi]

With the content in GoW 3 being as graphic as it is in terms of violence they had to be expecting this.

[Chris_D]

Originally Posted by Vigil80

That Tokyo store owner is very much overreacting. First, how much more advertising does God of War 3 really need at this point, especially the local in-store kind? Second, if this Z malarky does the same thing for GoW in Japan that Hot Coffee did for GTA:SA, they couldn't ask for better advertisement, anyway.

Well, this is a western franchise. I don't really know how well the first two games did, but if this does much over 50,000 copies I'll be surprised (pleasantly of course). And I don't think a 'Z' rating equals a sales boost in Japan like it might in the US (assuming AO games could be sold from B&M stores). Adult video game content of all types and fetishes is so much more easily available in Japan that people aren't going to suddenly get excited over an action game with a bit of gore.

[MagGnome]

I'm really surprised that a certain someone is absent from this thread, considering the news about PSP sales.

Great writeup as always Chris.