Japanese hardware sales, 5 June - 11 June: outnumbered

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Jun 16th 2006 at 6:55PM }

The sheer volume of words being displayed on the front page of this blog is, quite frankly, entirely ridiculous. It's time for a change. It's time we inundate you with the accountant's best friend and the alphabet's greatest foe. It's time we unleash the Japanese hardware sales charts for the week ranging from 5 June to 11 June and thoughtfully observe their effects on the human body. The ranking, according to number of units sold:

- DS Lite: 132,027 3,587 (2,65%)
- PSP: 21,656 2,939 (11,95%)
- PS2: 18,981

468 (2,53%)
- GBA SP: 4,116 248 (5,68%)
- Game Boy Micro: 1,654

384 (30,24%)
- DS Phat: 1,371

212 (18,29%)
- Xbox 360: 1,100 145 (11,65%)
- Gamecube: 961

163 (20,43%)
- GBA: 30

6 (20,00%)
- Xbox: 20 23 (53,49%)

For those perplexed by the friendly arrows, rest assured that their intention is only to indicate whether a platform's sales have increased or decreased since the last week (followed by the exact difference and a percentage). For those perplexed by the previous sentence, we politely suggest that you try attending school for once.

[Source: Media Create]

Tags: DS Lite, DS Phat, DsLite, DsPhat, hardware sales, HardwareSales, Japanese sales, JapaneseSales, Media Create, MediaCreate, NPD

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jim @ Jun 16th 2006 7:07PM

I'm PERPLEXED. ;)

Cool, great service so I don't have to do the math.

Devwar @ Jun 16th 2006 7:12PM

You'd think everyone in Japan would have a DS Lite by now.

Silent @ Jun 16th 2006 7:12PM

wow 20 xbox's?

potato @ Jun 16th 2006 7:14PM

ps2!!! woot

Michael @ Jun 16th 2006 7:14PM

DS Phat...lol

GBA? I didn't know that they even sold the original GBA's any more. They're ancient compared to the SP and micro. I also don't see how the original DS is beating the DS lite. The Lite's so much cooler...

Aran @ Jun 16th 2006 7:23PM

@ 5:

"I also don't see how the original DS is beating the DS lite. The Lite's so much cooler..."

Umm, what? DS Lite has sold 132,027 and original DS has sold 1,371. Quite big difference there...

Cage @ Jun 16th 2006 7:26PM

Why are most stats given for Japan? Dont know about you but they do not control what I buy. I must be wrong but didnt this site start from the US? Wii already has its own fanboy site. Show some sales from the US every now and then...

[-Z-] @ Jun 16th 2006 7:39PM

wow DS LIte... god that's pretty good number. XBOX 360 I dont think it's ever gonna take off in Japan.

n8dogg @ Jun 16th 2006 7:46PM

UGH. WHY are people still buying the Micro??

The only good thing going for it (the brighter screen) has already been made obsolete with the newest version of the SP.

I would say that the Japanese are worse than Americans when it comes to the need for everything slightly trendy and small.

Night Elve @ Jun 16th 2006 7:47PM

PlayStation 2 is selling good as always, but the one console that perplexed me is Gameboy Advance .. how in the earth this hand console is keep selling.

student @ Jun 16th 2006 7:56PM

Cage... do US statistics affect what you buy? The US don't release stats as often, and they're harder to get... it's still interesting to see the Japanese stats.

The way they're pushing the DS-Lite over there... if the Wii could do the same I think they can easily make their target numbers in japan by itself lol.

The New Revelation @ Jun 16th 2006 7:56PM

It think it's too bad that the 360 isn't selling in Japan. For all the PS3 hating in North America, I'm wondering if 360 numbers have already spiked a bit, or if it's just all talk... because in Japan they've been hearing the same as we have and it hasn't helped 360 sales. I know that no one there likes Xbox 360, but if they were truly upset by Sony, you think we'd see at least some brand defection.

don_sf @ Jun 16th 2006 7:59PM

its because good games come out for it, you can play gba games on your ds so the potential customer is still there.

if u make a game for xbox, chances are very very highly likely that you are only making for xbox 180 and nothing else.

when you make a game for ps2, u are selling to all those millions of ps2 units out there, and soon the millions of ps3 units as well.

but yeah microsoft are doing well, they sold more than 3 so congratulations.

Andir @ Jun 16th 2006 8:00PM

@The New Revelation: That's just it, Japan understands Sony and understands that they will produce a quality system. All the bashing you see going on is pretty concentrated on the Net to a few "linked" gaming sites. If you talk to the average consumer (not tied up in internet blogs and bias news) you'll find out that the PS3 is still the most anticipated system to come down the line. Sure people are shocked at the price, but the mentality of your average consumer is high price = better. Though it wouldn't surprise me one bit to find out these rumors are all started my Microsoft to try to boost sales of an already slipping 360 sales trend.

Marc @ Jun 16th 2006 8:08PM

Aran,

He said the LITE'S so much cooler. You have the Phat and the Lite mixed up my friend.

BPM? @ Jun 16th 2006 8:23PM

Cage:
"Why are most stats given for Japan? Dont know about you but they do not control what I buy. I must be wrong but didnt this site start from the US? Wii already has its own fanboy site. Show some sales from the US every now and then..."
Japanese sales figures are released weekly. Whereas American sales figures are released monthly.

Devwar:
"You'd think everyone in Japan would have a DS Lite by now."
You'd think everyone in Japan would have a PS2 as well, but it's the third best selling system that week (granted, the gap between DS Lite and PSP/PS2 sales is HUGE).
Maybe a lot of them are people replacing their broken PS2s! Sorry, I couldn't resist!

n8dogg @ Jun 16th 2006 8:36PM

Believe it or not, the PS3 isn't as reviled as many say it is in the States, either.

At least, not around where I work at. Most of the customers I talked to were pretty shocked at the high price, but almost all of them said they would pick one up sooner or later.

How many here think that Sony actually knows that they won't sell many PS3s at their high price point?

It would explain the shortage of systems upon the initial release, and it would also mean a price drop in the near future.

Of course, Sony's PR has to stay optimistic publically in the face of their business rivals, so either way we'll never know.

striderhayasa @ Jun 16th 2006 8:45PM

Games sell units. DS Lite is a runaway freight train. Nintendo has sold 2.8 million copies of Animal Crossing,

1.4 million copies of New Super Mario,

2.3 million copies of Brain Training,

2.4 million copies of Brain Academy,

1.4 million copies of mario Kart,

1.1 million copies of another brain age game,

lmost 600,000 copies of Tetris and

574,000 copies of Pokemon.

8 of the top ten games are DS games.
Keep in mind that a game is considered a success if it sells 300,000 to 500,000 copies in Japan. It used to be 1 million copies but gaming hasn't been the same in Japan over the years.

Jonathan @ Jun 16th 2006 8:49PM

Marc, the guy said the DS phat is selling better than lite. He's wrong.

Vince @ Jun 16th 2006 9:07PM

"You'd think everyone in Japan would have a PS2 as well, but it's the third best selling system that week (granted, the gap between DS Lite and PSP/PS2 sales is HUGE).
Maybe a lot of them are people replacing their broken PS2s! Sorry, I couldn't resist!"

Well there's nothing like a shipment of stolen DS lites to at least help balance the books.

Resistance is futile, :)

epobirs @ Jun 16th 2006 9:13PM

#18

That is because back in the old days the cost of mask Rom cartridges easily dwarfed the development cost of most games. Optical media and more elaborate productions changed the equation.

Even devices using mask ROM chips have a different math today. The manufacturing cost of a GBA or DS game is a much lower percentage of the SRP than it was in the SNES era. Which is why we're now seeing so many franchises collected on a single GBA cart for $20 or lower retail. (Two Castlevania games, for instance.) For someone who never had any form of GBA and just got a DS, there are some great values on the GBA side.

justchris @ Jun 16th 2006 9:20PM

Actually, after E3 there was a surge in Xbox 360 purchases. It never got as high as the PS2, but until E3, the 360 was routinely selling less than the Gamecube by anywhere from 100 to 1000 units. After E3, the 360 has beaten the Gamecube every week.

Also, obviously just about everyone has a Lite now, as the prior week Lite sales dropped to almost half of what they'd been the week before that (dropped about 140k units) and the listed week sales show a drop in Lites sold again.

On the other hand, the Lite is still outselling every other console combined (including it's older, phatter brother) every single week.

The Lite just came out in the US. Last month the DS didn't even outsell the 360, and the top selling console was the PS2 with 220k units sold. In it's first 2 days on the market, the DS Lite sold over 130k units. It has the rest of this month, so it will likely be the top selling US console for this month if Nintendo is able to keep it in stock.

Michael @ Jun 16th 2006 9:49PM

Aran, Marc, and Jonathan,
I was reffering to the "Phat" sales being up and the Lite's sales being down. Sorry if my wording was confusing.

BPM? @ Jun 16th 2006 10:06PM

Vince:
"Well there's nothing like a shipment of stolen DS lites to at least help balance the books."

I'd give you a "ah, touché!" but there's one problem with that. That stolen shipment? Meant for the European launch. Has no effect on Japanese sales (which this post is about).

Better luck next time, pal. :P

Erik Chan @ Jun 17th 2006 12:03AM

How much do these statistics actually tell you?

6 days of hardware sales statistics don't say a whole lot.

Darth Pixel @ Jun 17th 2006 12:41AM

90% of DS owners in Japan are kids. 2/3 girls. 1/3 boys.

Nintendo Japan is still trying to understand why the DS is doing so well with adults in America. They didn't expect it and they don't understand it.

After spending 1 week with the DS Lite, my opinion remains the same:
- It's designed for kids. (my hands hurt after 30 minutes of play)
- Nintendo's games are good to excellent. (I love the new Super Mario.)
- Third-party titles mostly suck.
- Most DS games are designed for kids.
- Very very few games actually leverage the "touch" screen.

The good news for Nintendo is that DS Lite is becoming some kind of iPod phenomenon.
Which means people will buy it just because.

KNS @ Jun 17th 2006 12:48AM

Microsoft just announced that they will relaunch the Xbox 360 in Japan for a third time this summer to attract the public's attention... and do it again every single week... They call it the "Groundhog Day's tribute & strategic maketing-o-somethin..." Bill came with the name.

Darth Pixel @ Jun 17th 2006 12:54AM

@26

Next year, they'll pay Japanese gamers $50 a piece for each they take home.

:)

Microsoft has mountains of cash. They will not stop until they own the market.

chudgoo @ Jun 17th 2006 2:12AM

Said it before and I'll say it again...

A lot of PS2 owners have had to REPLACE THEIR BROKEN PS2s.

Seeing Sony sell a system twice because the old one died (usually due to faulty optics) is hardly an achievement.

On the other hand, selling the same basic system multiple times due to incremental (and worthwhile) feature upgrades IS.

--

Obligatory run down of -recent- non-retro systems in house...
(that no one cares about but me)

2x PS2-phat (one only works with non-blue DVDs and the other reads nothing)

1x PStwo - To replace the dead one...goddamn Sony.

2x Gamecube (his and hers. Both work. One was bought on launch day even)

1x XBOX (dead motherboard...out of warranty...sigh...and SHE hated it)

1x XBOX360 - runs at like 130 degrees (even when idle) but provides much fun!...for now..... and SHE likes it! Good job on the design/controller MS!

1x GBA:0 - Worked fine until I broke the screen during the AfterBurner install process! Pry gently!)

2x GBA SPs (his and hers....MONTHS of Tetris deathmatches)

2x PSPs - One is at 1.5 FOREVER and the other is at 2.70
(emu+current PSP games (all three of them) = teh happy. ;)
(Lame because it was supposed to be a present for her but she stole my DS instead)

2x Nintendo DS - His and hers. Probably THE systems that bridged the gender gap. (she, the 'non-gamer' owns like 15 games for DS...and ZERO for the PSP...my count is something like 20/3 (those three being Metal Gear AC!D 1/2 + THUG2)

2x DS Lites - She complained about me 'wasting money' on something I already own and then after seeing one bought herself one the same day!

Eh!.....No one cares.... and your milage may vary. ;)
---CHUDGOO!

BPM? @ Jun 17th 2006 3:55AM

Mountains of cash or not, I highly doubt Microsoft will relentlessly waste money when the situation is hopeless.

The only way for MS to change things around is to get more Japanese developers on board, and develop more games that appeal to the Japanese market (RPGs, dating sims, anime-based titles, etc.) on 360. If they don't, the 360 is good as dead in Japan. From there on, the few Japanese 360 owners (like, what, 10,000 for all of Japan?) will have to resort to importing games, learn English, and mod their 360 to play import games to get their 360 fix.

So, they need that upcoming Narutard title from Ubisoft to be a turn-based RPG with the ability to date some ninja girls. :D

justchris @ Jun 17th 2006 3:57AM

Interesting job you've done of pulling facts out of thin air, Darth Pixel. Check this out, though.

http://whatjapanthinks.com/2006/05/24/gaming-in-japan/

A nice bar graph showing people who own a DS. The highest percentage are people over the age of 50. I don't normally associate 50 yr olds with kids. Although, if you want a statistic that supports your arguments, the lowest percentage is males ages 20-29, followed by females under 19.

I also have a number of very good 3rd party titles I own for the DS. Sure, 3rd party titles are generally less good than the Nintendo titles, but that's because Nintendo is a superior game developer, always have been. The games made by similarly good developers (for instance Konami) are stellar as well.

And I don't understand what you mean by designed for kids? Which games are you saying are designed for kids? Most of the 22 or so DS games I own don't seem designed for any specific demographic.

And as for the touch screen issue, isn't that a good thing? Or are you saying that the touch screen is a clearly superior tool in every gaming circumstance, and therefore every game should use it as much as possible, no matter how much cognitive dissonance it causes during gameplay?

mis @ Jun 17th 2006 5:30AM

Darth is a troll - ignore him!

Christopher7xii @ Jun 17th 2006 7:56AM

"we politely suggest that you try attending school for once."

Maybe it's different in the US... but for 2.65%, we don't use a comma. We use a decimal point to seperate the whole from the faction of the number. Why do all the percents have commas in them?

Xbox360 is doomed in Japan, meaning it'll be another run of nothing but FPS, Action, and Sports titles for Xbox. Guess I better start savin' for my PS3.

Hello @ Jun 17th 2006 9:40AM

"Maybe it's different in the US... but for 2.65%, we don't use a comma. We use a decimal point to seperate the whole from the faction of the number. Why do all the percents have commas in them?"

Because...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_stop#Mathematical_usage

idioteraser @ Jun 17th 2006 12:28PM

Most people who want a PS3 know nothing about the games coming out for it or the system price or what they are getting for their money. You keep hearing them say the graphics are awesome or that the system is more powerfull then the 360. In other words they are ignornant of the PS3 actual status. They don't even know a new Nintendo console is coming out. They think Nintendo is a third party developer now.

Those people think the PS2 is the most powerfull system yet everyone in the business knows it was the weakest.

Lionel @ Jun 17th 2006 12:31PM

The kids who got the GBA from their parents must have been like, "WTF? I wanted a DS Lite?"

idioteraser @ Jun 17th 2006 12:31PM

Here is the thing the Japanese are in a recession. 1000 dollar game consoles flopped miserbly over there.

Seeing the price sticker and the game lineup being mostly on the 360 for cheaper will cause a lot of people to switch over.

The 360 doesn't really have a lot of games the Japanese are interested in. Nor does the PS3 launch.

However at PS3 launch a lot of Japanese are going to buy the 360.

For those thinking a price drop will occur if sony dropped the blu-ray player you could knock off 400 dollars off the price. Tell me when did sony drop the PS2 price?

weatherman @ Jun 17th 2006 4:48PM

Hey JustChris: not to defend Darth's numbers, but that graph is far from scientific - did you read how they collected the numbers? It was an online poll through the i-mode service. So of course the answers are going to be skewed to the demographic that uses i-mode. And funnily enough if you check the segmentation of i-mode users, it turns out that the largest single age group of i-mode users is over 50.

http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/corporate/investor_relations/business/imodeuse_e.html

So I'm not saying one way or the other about the demographic about the DS, but I mention this because I think it's important to check you facts and your sources.

Darth Pixel @ Jun 17th 2006 11:15PM

@38

Good to see someone who can use their brain, for once.

You should have added that kids in Japan don't have cell phones and therefore could not answer in this poll.

You should have further added that if the survey includes 4 adults older than 50 and 2 of them have a DS, that's 50% of that age group. On the other hand, if 2 million kids were surveyed and 500,000 had a DS Lite, that would be 25% of those kids.
Now, 50% is more than 25%, but 500,000 is tremendously more than 2.
The commenter who posted that source should learn to read statistical charts before making a fool out of themselves.

Ecofreak @ Jun 18th 2006 9:28AM

According to weekly sales of software titles, the two Brain Training games in Japan have sold over 2 million copies a piece. That game is obviously targeted towards the older demographic, so your assertion that 90% of the DS owners are children is highly unlikely.

Link - http://the-magicbox.com/topten.htm