Japanese software sales: week ending 02.18.07
by Jonti Davies 
{ Feb 22nd 2007 at 1:30AM }
Media Create's Japanese sales data for the past week has just been released, revealing a plummet for Virtua Fighter 5 (number one a week earlier, number 25 last week) and a great start for this week's WINNER, Professor Layton:
- Professor Layton and the Mysterious Town - 136,736 units sold last week (new entry / Level-5, DS)
- Tales of Destiny 2 - 73,022 (new entry / NamcoBandai, PSP)
- Bleach DS 2nd - 45,486 (new entry / Sega, DS)
- Death Note - 44,600 (new entry / Konami, DS)
- Soul Cradle - 43,253 (new entry / Nippon Ichi, PS2)
- Picross DS - 41,105 (156,664 sales to date / Nintendo, DS)
- Dragon Quest Monsters Joker - 39,598 (1,134,069 / SquareEnix, DS)
- Wii Sports - 39,128 (1,043,683 / Nintendo, Wii)
- Wii Play - 29,342 (908,774 / Nintendo, Wii)
- More Brain Training - 28,254 (3,991,966 / Nintendo, DS)
- Professor Layton, you are the WINNER
- PS2 is still a viable format in Japan, with four titles in Media Create's Top 30
- Very soon, Nintendo will have provided More Brain Training to four million Japanese minds
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
KC @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:33AM
I want that DQ Monsters Joker game so badly!
Hope it comes out here sometime far apart from Pokemon
Nino @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:42AM
I don't know if I'm surprised that Nintendo has 8 out of 10 or that they have ONLY 8 out of 10 in Japan these days.
Wii Play is a DS game?
silkylove @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:45AM
Expect Naruto for the Wii to be on that list very soon.
ill trooper @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:59AM
Looks like everyone in Japan that _wanted_ VirtuaFighter 5 bought it two weeks ago... Quite a drop.
Aeris130 @ Feb 22nd 2007 2:19AM
Wow, 4/6 DS titles are from 3:rd party publishers.
Rubang B @ Feb 22nd 2007 3:06AM
Whoa, I was looking these over at www.vgcharts.org and couldn't help but notice that there are 15 million DS's in Japan and 22 million PS2's. The DS is catching up. But the crazy part is that there's a total of 29 million PS2 games in Japan and a total of 59 million DS games in Japan.
Japan's PS2 attach rate: 1.3
Japan's DS attach rate: 3.9
::DS explodes my head::
ss @ Feb 22nd 2007 5:22AM
Man, they do love their DS's in Japan.
Don't get me wrong, it's great and the touch screen is awesome for gaming, but "too much love will kill you" :D
Myke @ Feb 22nd 2007 8:18AM
Despite the lack-luster PS3 sales, I'm still really suprised to see VF5 drop off so quickly.
Pedro @ Feb 22nd 2007 9:30AM
VF5 gets outsold by DOA.
So much for it being their savior in japan.
sheppy @ Feb 22nd 2007 9:56AM
"VF5 gets outsold by DOA.
So much for it being their savior in japan."
Here's my theory. VF5 is an arcade game. It's all about the arcade experience. Thus, there is no rush to buy it on a console when you have your magnetic card and stats at your local arcade.
Meanwhile, no self respecting fighting game fan would be caught playing DOA in an arcade. At home, however, perverts get a free pass. One handed Suzuki School Of Fighting.
generaldane @ Feb 22nd 2007 10:24AM
Deathnote anime is fucking awesome (just had to say)
Leobebes @ Feb 23rd 2007 11:49AM
I think Sony and Microsoft should just bail out of the console business in Japan. Create handhelds, I think the Japanese don't spend time at home anymore.
Jeff @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:56PM
"But the crazy part is that there's a total of 29 million PS2 games in Japan and a total of 59 million DS games in Japan."
Either you're reading that wrong or the stat is wrong. My guess is you're reading it wrong; it sounds like that would be sales for one single year. That's not what attach rate means; you can't break out attach rate by period of time. Attach rate means attach rate; it's the number of games people own for a system, on average.
I actually looked on that site and I didn't find those numbers, but I do know that various other numbers they have are just completely wrong. Their "total" number of console games sold in Japan seems to include about 200-300 of the 4,554 PlayStation 2 games that have been released there. They seem to only be counting games that have appeared on the top 30 charts that they have access to. In the grand scheme of things, that actually only represents a fraction of the total games sold (there might be 30 top games that sell 500,000 copies in a week, but 5,000 other games that sell a total of 2 million copies in a week).
Still, those numbers would not be surprising for a single year when you've got basically an EOL'd system. But the PS2 has probably sold around 300 million or so games in its lifetime in Japan, assuming a conservative average of about 60,000 units sold for each game. Its attach rate in 2003 was up around 13... it's easily higher than that now. (There's a reason nobody bothers talking about attach rates years after launch anymore; they eventually end up in the 20 or so range and nobody cares anymore.)
Anyway, the only real information anyone should take from your post is that the DS is currently doing better than the PS2, which I don't think is news to anyone.
Avplaya @ Feb 22nd 2007 5:52PM
It maybe shocking to you but that many Japanese young people don't have the room to spare for a PS3 or even a Wii. A DS will fill their game need for communte AND home. Many people still live with their parents and do not have their own TV (no room), and if you know the average size of a Japanese apartment a normal young person can afford you'll know how precious entertainment space is.
DS is game machine/cool accessory/cheap electronic dictionary/learning tool for the Japanese. There's something for everyone and everyone is buying one.
Revo @ Feb 22nd 2007 8:21PM
"14. It maybe shocking to you but that many Japanese young people don't have the room to spare for a PS3 or even a Wii... and if you know the average size of a Japanese apartment a normal young person can afford you'll know how precious entertainment space is."
The Wii's dimensions are about 5 cm × 11.5 cm × 21 cm. I find it hard to believe that space is an issue when you're talking about a console that tiny.
TheDon @ Feb 23rd 2007 2:32AM
Wii needs far more space than PS3 or any other console. Just think about it for a moment.
By the way: I have a 12 square meter appartement in Tokyo and that is HUGE by student standards. So, yeah, DS makes sense. Plus, here you have just the games the audience loves, dunno about US/Europe/etc.