Japanese hardware sales, May 5 - May 11: He no nuts, he's crazy edition

by Griffin McElroy { May 18th 2008 at 9:30PM }

The above video may seem out of place on this humble blog at first glance, but we assure you, we have our reasons for including it in this edition of the Japanese Hardware Sales:

1. It's probably viral marketing for either the release of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" or the equally hyped but arguably more adorable Lego Indiana Jones (though hordes of Shia-lovers would vehemently disagree with that last statement). Either way, our excitement for the next entry in one of our most beloved film franchises rivals our anticipation to melt some Lego Nazi faces, so we thought it an appropriate measure to stoke the fires of our own over-hyped hearts.

2. The idea of a six-ton Lego boulder recklessly cascading down a city street serves as adequate symbolism for this week's charts -- coming off of last week's universal sales hike, this week's thorough downpointery is downright depressing. Should this Chutes and Ladders-esque pattern of sales explosions followed by seeming droughts continue in the coming weeks, we'll be giving some serious consideration to entering the Japanese console stock market, if such a thing exists.

3. Literally no other event over the past week or next was worth lampooning. Seriously, nothing. What, want us to poke fun at the West Virginia primary election? A vicious satirization of We Ski? Some humorous commentary concerning the season finale for America's Next Top Model? Our better judgment placed "giant Lego boulder" over "Tyra Banks-related humor" -- a decision we will stand by to our graves, urns, and cryogenic biostasis chambers.

- PSP: 89,884

10,986 (10.89%)
- Wii: 67,308

4,210 (5.89%)
- DS Lite: 51,228

1,314 (2.50%)
- PS3: 8,054

2,123 (20.86%)
- PS2: 7,464

1,338 (15.20%)
- Xbox 360: 1,298

427 (24.75%)

[Source: Media Create]

See: The raiders of the lost archives

Tags: japanese-hardware-sa..., japanesehardwaresales

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Patrick Wharton @ May 18th 2008 9:36PM

temple of doom FTW :P

Cesaria (MKW:2621-2994-1376) @ May 18th 2008 9:42PM

Agreed, that movie has held up so well. Out of the three, it's easily the most balls-to-the-wall, action packed thrill ride. Jesus, I sound like a quote on a DVD cover...

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 18th 2008 9:47PM

I liken the film to an innocent slide down a stairway bannister that suddenly converts itself to strips of razor blades not so shyly penetrating my flesh before dropping my into a sizable vat of lemon juice.

Meaning it starts out fun, but the longer you stay, the more painful it becomes.

Cesaria (MKW:2621-2994-1376) @ May 18th 2008 9:49PM

Um, mine car scene, throwback to shooting the swordsman, and bridge sequence are all toward the end...

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 18th 2008 9:51PM

You've made my case, not countered it...

Vcize @ May 18th 2008 9:51PM

Funny, I just watched Temple of Doom the other day for the first time in about 10 years and me and my wife were remarking how horribly it withstood the test of time.

Looking back, it's so corny now.

Cesaria (MKW:2621-2994-1376) @ May 18th 2008 10:03PM

Those are all great sequences. You do realize that Indiana Jones at their core are popcorn flicks. Very good popcorn flicks. You go to them to shut your brain off for a few hours and just have a blast. Unless you liken them to Citizen Kane, how in the hell can you have any problem with any of the previous three?

Nick the Hero of Canton @ May 18th 2008 10:23PM

ALL The Indiana Jones movies are corny. Or did we all just assume "Nazis, I hate these guys" is really witty, clever writing?

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 18th 2008 10:51PM

Look, I'm willing to accept many things. From a popcorn movie, my standards are low, but not quite that low. And I realize that indy flicks have little to do with cerebral challenge. But let's put it this way.

1. The bitch wasn't anything other than annoying squeely.

2. No Nazis = Fail. I know somehow I must be nuts for wanting my indy flicks to involve the third reich hunting down ancient artifacts said to have limitless power, but yeah... the Nazi's were like that in real life too and everyone today should be happy that Hitler was such an egotist that his own pompous attitude lost him the war. They WERE hunting for ancient artifacts of power and even revisiting German pagan rites and heritage. After all, the SS troops insignia itself was a pagan symbol.

3. A point to it all. Lost arc, had a point. Last Crusade, there was a point. Temple of Doom? Was random action sequences mixed up with a vague understanding (misunderstanding) of Indian civilization... facing facts, it was annoyingly stupid.

4. Lack of blood diamonds

5. This film had such an overwhelmingly large amount of suck, Stephen Hawkins used it in his research for years to follow, always pointing at it during seminars chanting in his sexy robot voice, "You see, fuckers?!? I told you Black Holes exist!"

6. This film was so bad, even Lucas acknowledged the mistakes he made as he announced Last Crusade. Granted he forgot all about those mistakes as he's attempting to do Indiana Jones and the Fucking Aliens and hopes Wil Wheaton's experience on Star Trek could negotiate a decent ending to the upcoming clusterfuck headed to the big screen.

7. I enjoy typing.

Cesaria (MKW:2621-2994-1376) @ May 18th 2008 11:02PM

Lucas acknowledging the problems with Doom and continuing to make easily the least best entry in the series lends no credence to your argument...at all. Differing opinions FTW!

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 18th 2008 11:10PM

Oh my, but this is the internet. Don't you know? My opinion > Yours....

Plus, as stated before, I like typing... that, and elaborate metaphors involving razors. Want to read my poetry?

Cesaria (MKW:2621-2994-1376) @ May 18th 2008 11:12PM

Strangely enough...yes.

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 18th 2008 11:37PM

Damn, I don't have poetry...

I would share the tear soaked pages of my journal but them's private.

el serpiente @ May 18th 2008 11:42PM

THOSE ARE NOT FORTUNE COOKIES!

The Return of Moorio @ May 18th 2008 11:54PM

Last Crusade > Raiders of the Lost Ark > Temple of Doom

Cesaria (MKW:2621-2994-1376) @ May 19th 2008 12:24AM

This man speaks lies!

Yourself @ May 19th 2008 1:55AM

FW and Return of Moorio are signed. Temple of Doom is the Alien 3 of the Indiana Jones series.

I'm kidding, of course. Nothing could completely shred/rape/massacre/defile/just-plain-vomit-upon a great movie like Alien 3 did to Aliens.

ill trooper @ May 19th 2008 4:23AM

The only good one is the first one. No, calling the films of trilogy 'popcorn' flicks that you 'don't have to think' during for a few hours is not an acceptable defense, because the first one _is_ clever and combines that with well planned-out action, with a lot of tension and drama. The others simply don't have that balance.

The third one is mildly acceptable because of the entertaining banter between Jones and his father, and the excellent River Phoenix sequence, but the final puzzle sequence is so mediocre and really pushes plausibility, even within a fantasy world where we've already accepted outlandish physics and supernatural phenomenon.

Verdict: No.

I am looking forward to the new one, however.

colin @ May 18th 2008 9:36PM

*clever indiana jones quote

FrankTheCrank @ May 18th 2008 10:41PM

THE PSP IS OUTSELLING THE WII....

AGAIN, THE PSP IS OUTSELLING THE WII IN JAPAN.

THAT'S A BIG F'ING DEAL.

Cesaria (MKW:2621-2994-1376) @ May 18th 2008 10:46PM

That's such a relevant reply to that post. Or is it, perhaps, you replied to it because you want your comment to be the second read on the page? Get over yourself.

Nando @ May 18th 2008 10:58PM

Well, since the OP's message has nothing to do with the subject, and i think my message deserves better to be on top, here I go:

Why the hell is the PSP still outselling the DS?
monster hunter madness was a few weeks ago!
Has the DS's craze in japan wore off?

The Return of Moorio @ May 18th 2008 11:54PM

Last Crusade > Raiders of the Lost Ark > Temple of Doom

The Return of Moorio @ May 18th 2008 11:54PM

Replied to the wrong comment. My bad!

Maverick Saturn @ May 19th 2008 7:30AM

Monster Hunter never wears off ^^ Capcom is dropping the DLC like theres no tommorrow!

Silicon Siren @ May 18th 2008 9:47PM

Past few weeks-months in Japan-America have been full of red arrows. Looks ominous.

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 18th 2008 9:50PM

Man, you'd think it was spring or something where the industry as a whole usually slows down....

Nick the Hero of Canton @ May 18th 2008 9:52PM

Don't care what IGN says, KOTCS will be amazing.

jackbauer (mk:4811-7496-3209) @ May 18th 2008 10:13PM

Since when has anyone care what IGN had to say?

tmacairjordan87 @ May 18th 2008 10:34PM

When they gave GTA 4 a 10. All of a sudden the entire internet cared what IGN had to say for better or worse.

Demaar @ May 18th 2008 9:57PM

Katamari Jones

mr nimblewick @ May 19th 2008 12:49AM

Go PSP! If you do well, Nintendo will release their next version of the DS! Then all you lite adopters will feel my wrath as I jump straight from the phat to the... "mini" or "flash" or "lite brite" or whatever.

BPM [MKWii: 2578 3585 8392] @ May 19th 2008 6:34AM

The PSP has been doing pretty well in Japan since the release of PSP Slim & Lite (or PSP-2000, whatever you wanna call it), but it's still far behind the DS, in terms of total sales (on either a worldwide scale, or per region), including both models of both systems. PSP currently stands at over 34 million worldwide, and the DS at over 70 million.

This isn't going to convince Nintendo to do anything. Even if the PSP doubled its sales every week from now on (it was about 90k this week, so 180k every week from now on), and the DS stopped selling entirely, it'd still take about 77 weeks (1 year, 6 months, 1 week) for the PSP to finally surpass the DS in Japan.

Even though it isn't the crazy high numbers it has been in the past, DS is still selling pretty good.

Am I saying Sony should pack its bags and drop out? Of course not. PSP is a great system, and the greatest challenger to ever face Nintendo in the handheld market (not even the Game Gear did this well, having ended its lifespan at 11 million units sold). I'm just saying there's nothing that can be done to change the tides of the handheld wars.

Plus, I felt like calculating some numbers. :V

rnr @ May 19th 2008 1:07AM

I want more jp games for 360 but the way things are looking, I don't think I'll get that.

HB96st @ May 19th 2008 2:28AM

The 360 is still in good hands without support from japan. You still have mistwalker and a few others, but the 360 is fine when it comes to a variety of games.

Sales of the psp down 10 grand... Bet that doubles next month... And the Wii sold almost 60.000 more units than the ps3 still!! Wow... The ps3 never had a chance against the Wii. And the 360 never had a chance in Japan.. Who cares.. The 360 is kicking ass in the USA!

Jamesology @ May 19th 2008 3:25AM

Obviously, it's an American merchandise. Just like how you love your Ford for some reason.

BPM [MKWii: 2578 3585 8392] @ May 19th 2008 6:22AM

iPods, Windows, etc. sell very well in Japan.

Blah blah blah Japan doesn't hate American products.

Maverick Saturn @ May 19th 2008 7:32AM

Like we didnt know the American 360 would do well IN America ¬_¬ Bit obvious.

Maverick Saturn @ May 19th 2008 7:35AM

Its not the console Japanese don't like, its the games ON the console they don't like.

chez @ May 19th 2008 3:47AM

lol so the PSP with it's Monster Hunter G2 is finally on the decline. Next week or the week after the Wii and DS will be back on top. Donut get me wrong I love the PSP but seeing it on top of the charts was something that should never have happened.

BPM [MKWii: 2578 3585 8392] @ May 19th 2008 6:22AM

I want a donut now.

Doobie @ May 19th 2008 6:09AM

"Obviously, it's an American merchandise. Just like how you love your Ford for some reason."

So whats the PS3's excuse then japan is its homeland and sales are a lousy 8k?

looks like ps will need to focus on europe.

Maverick Saturn @ May 19th 2008 7:33AM

So is Wii :) Its just wii is the better pick right now ^^

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 19th 2008 8:15AM

Says you, I boot that fucker up once every 17 days, I ran the average. PS3 is usually my "goto" system although this last weekend, it was Genesis...

BPM [MKWii: 2578 3585 8392] @ May 19th 2008 6:35AM

And with sales-related stuff mentioned in another post, I'll just say this...

That video was awesome. Too bad it didn't last long.

Maverick Saturn @ May 19th 2008 7:34AM

Looks like its a week of dispair

The japanese have vowed not to buy anything for the week it seems :) Spiral of depression.

LameDuck @ May 19th 2008 11:36AM

As a West Virginiaian let me ask... Wut?

What is so funny about our primary elections? Because we are a Democratic state? We have old people? I'm a little out of touch with it since I moved a couple of months ago, so I'm lost.

On topic, why do we still care about Japan again? It's not like they are blowing our minds with new games. Back in the 90's, if you wanted a good RPG or platformer you got a Japanese system. Now, we have a choice and when was the last time Japan gave us a good RPG? I mean really. The PS2 only had like 3 or 4 GOOD RPGs. That is one reason I don't really care about the Playstation brand this time around.