It was another lousy week for software sales in Japan. For the second week in a row not a single video game sold over 30,000 units in Japan. Typically, the Japanese videogame industry will see one title sell 100,000 units or so per week, but for the last month that has not been in the case. June does have a legitimately big game though, Sega’s latest Yakuza game for PS3 is going to sell at least 300,000 units week one based on its preorders – so the doldrums will end soon. The biggest 15 games for the week are listed below.
1) Dead or Alive: Dimensions (3DS) – 29,000
2) Gungnir: Mayari no Gunshin to Eiyuu Sensou (PSP) – 21,000
3) Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 Professional (DS) – 19,000
4) Akiba’s Trip (PSP) – 17,000
5) Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2011 (PSP) – 12,000
6) Patapon 3 (PSP) – 10,000
7) Pokemon Black / White (DS) – 6,000
9) Steel Diver (3DS) – 5,000
9) Wii Party (Wii) – 5,000
11) Dai-2-Ji Super Robot Taisen Z Hakai-hen (PSP) – 4,000
11) Saigo no Yakusoku no Monogatari (PSP) – 4,000
15) Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 (DS) – 3,000
15) Demon’s Souls Best Edition (PS3) – 3,000
15) Elminage Original: Majo to Megami to Kamigami no Yubiwa (PSP) – 3,000
15) Kirby’s Epic Yarn (Wii) – 3,000
In addition to the games in the top 15, Monster Hunter Portable 3 (PSP), Mario Kart Wii (Wii), Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii), Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2011 (PS3), and Nintendogs + Cats (3DS) likely each topped 3,000 units and will make the top 20 in the final data.
With no big titles across the entire Japanese industry for a full month now, hardware sales should also drop quite a bit this week. None of the new titles released this week are really drawing in new people to the various systems – fighters are fairly established on 3DS already, and PSP’s base is too large to be pushed up by a game that doesn’t make a huge splash. The other systems had nothing of note released for the week.
3DS sales are now over 1 million (1m) units in Japan. The pace is well below the time it took DS to reach 1m units (four weeks), but a week ahead of the PSP pace to 1m (14 weeks), even with PSP launching during the peak holiday season in Japan, while 3DS launched in February. Even so, it looks like 3DS will reach 2m units much more slowly than the PSP did as PSP did not drop below 20,000 units per week until it had been on the market for eight months.
Going forward, June should be a significantly better month than May, as 3DS has a couple titles as big or bigger than Dead or Alive releasing over the next month, and Yakuza: The End for PS3 is tracking for an opening of 320,000 – 370,000 units week one in mid-June. Even so, until we reach November & December when big new games (and probably NGP) arrive , the Japanese industry looks like it is going to be fairly soft without price cuts for Wii, PS3, 3DS, PSP, or DS. Even with major titles at the end of the year, and the NGP launch, software sales are down by so much already that it will be difficult for the industry to match the software volumes of 2010 in 2011.
Contact VGCHartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com
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