Japanese Weekly Software and Hardware Charts for August 4-10

by James Charlton - August 18, 2008, 5:48 pm EDT
Total comments: 16 Source: Media Create

Dragon Quest slows down enough on the DS for an Xbox 360 RPG to beat it. No, seriously

This week was a battle of the RPGs with Phantasy Star on the PSP going against Nintendo's own Fire Emblem on the DS. It seems that Nintendo lost out this time, maybe the PSP has found a new outlet for its crowd of Monster Hunter Portable owners?

Even the Xbox 360 had an entry with the first Tales game for the console making an entry at No.4, an event that affected hardware sales too.

[PSP] Phantasy Star Portable (SEGA) 148,230 / 490,000
[NDS] Fire Emblem: New Shadow Dragons (Nintendo) 144,905 / New Entry
[NDS] Rhythm Tengoku Gold (Nintendo) 130,412 / 343,000
[360] Tales of Vesperia (Namco Bandai Games) 108,328 / New Entry
[NDS] Dragon Quest V (Square Enix) 72,598 / 1,019,000
[NDS] Sangokushi Taisen Ten (SEGA) 32,734 / New Entry
[NDS] Summon Night 2 (Namco Bandai) 29,715 / New Entry
[WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) 27,414 / 2,470,000
[WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) 22,739 / 1,656,000
[PS3] Soul Calibur IV (Namco Bandai) 22,575 / 97,000

Something rarely seen outside of the west has occurred on the Japanese hardware charts: the Xbox 360 beat out the PlayStation 3 selling more than double its rival. This week also saw the DS retake its number one position after several weeks behind the PSP. The yearly sales also show that DS is over half a million units behind Sony’s handheld. Surprisingly Nintendo's systems have so far this year sold almost exactly the same amount, just a notch under two million units each.

Weekly Sales / Year to date sales

DS Lite - 60,434  / 1,938,946
PSP - 58,501 / 2,510,556
Wii - 38,506  / 1,947,145
Xbox 360 - 24,962 / 120,598
PS3 - 9,673 / 618,991
PS2 - 8,503 / 235,686

Talkback

GoldenPhoenixAugust 18, 2008

Wow, impressive to see the 360 so many units. I take it that Tales of Vesperia (great visual style BTW) is the reason?

Michael8983August 18, 2008

It's amazing how Sony went from practically having a monopoly on the console market in Japan to being in the sad state it is now. What happened to Nintendo over a decade ago is happening to Sony now.

GoldenPhoenixAugust 18, 2008

If I was Sony I would be concerned about even the Japanese market vs 360. There seems to be an indication that people will pick up a hot new RPG even if it is on a 360. If MS was to steal some key franchises from Sony, it could mean trouble in Japan as well.

Bill AurionAugust 18, 2008

Soul Calibur IV (Namco Bandai) 22,575 / 97,000

Ouch...I wonder if Namco will consider a Wii version now...

Luigi DudeAugust 19, 2008

Quote from: Bill

Ouch...I wonder if Namco will consider a Wii version now...

You just answered your own question.

EnnerAugust 19, 2008

And another Namco-Bandai exclusive (I wonder when or if Ace Combat 6 or Vesperia will be ported to the PS3) is pushing X360 units in Japan. Lets see if the set of Square Enix games, Infinite Undiscover and The Last Remnant, will sell a few more boxes.

Michael8983August 19, 2008

A Wii version of Soul Calibur 4 with Link AND Ganondorf as playable characters would sell more than the 360 and PS3 versions combined. The Star Wars characters aren't a big selling point in Japan and even most Americans seem to think their inclusion in the game is ridiculous. Perhaps SC4 on Wii is still a possibility. Maybe Dead Rising will start a trend.
With a little scaling down of the graphics just about any 360/PS3 game could appear on the Wii.

Also people need to stop with the whole "Namco hates Wii" thing. Sure, like a lot of developers, it's been hesitant to suport the console at first but it WAS one of the Gamecube's biggest supporters and has worked with Nintendo on joint-titles in the past.
With the Wii having officially proven itself to be a capable console (and the most successful in fact) I think we're going to see tremendous support from Namco the future. There's no telling what could be in development now that we don't even know about.

DAaaMan64August 19, 2008

Quote from: Michael8983

It's amazing how Sony went from practically having a monopoly on the console market in Japan to being in the sad state it is now. What happened to Nintendo over a decade ago is happening to Sony now.

Ahhh aren't "monopolies" great like that?