Street Fighter IV sells 86k copies first day in Japan, Capcom says it's sold out

by Griffin McElroy on Feb 13th 2009 9:00PM

Man. Wow. We totally thought this one was going to be a clunker. Seriously, we gave the classic series appropriate fanfare whenever we received any news regarding it, but we were just doing it out of respect. We never thought that the Japanese game consuming populous would snatch up 86,000 copies of Street Fighter IV on its launch day alone. We were thinking it'd be more like a few hundy, maybe a thou by the weekend.

Capcom seems to be just as surprised as we are -- a community manager for the company recently reported that they were "overwhelmed by demand", and that the game had completely sold out in Japan. The only copies within the country's confines rest in a few boxes in Capcom's basement -- they'll apparently be sent out to retailers on Monday, and then snatched up with avarice usually associated with Turboman dolls.

Source

Tags: capcom, sales, street-fighter-iv

Reader Comments (90)

In my opinion, what surprising is that Capcom would have only made 86,000 copies. I would imagine they'd expect significantly higher demand than that.

SF4 is an odd position in Japan at this point, as if has been in arcades for quite some time now. There is also a huge following for the arcade game as rankings unique unlockable items, and other such things are associated with people's arcade accounts.

So if the game has a huge following in arcades, has been out for a while and is important for the arcade business, I can understand why Capcom would be apprehensive about printing a large number of copies. That being said, 86,000 copies seems like a small number.

at this point, as *it* has been in arcades for quite some time now

@ anonim1979, dude who cares about a little difference?

The Arcade Stick has a joystick, so why don't you just use the joystick on the 360 or PS3 controller?

@anonim1979
just pop off that dpad, use a dremel to shave the unnecessary corners off and TADA!!! no more shitty dpad. i'm just glad it's not something else about street fighter 2. sooo sick of that game and its endless iterations.

That's what I was thinking... How the hell could they possibly think that's all they needed. 86,000 isn't even that much...

Also, why the hell do people complain about the D-Pad when there's a fucking analogue stick right there...

@anonim1979: Did you even read what the guy had to say in that article? The only bad things he had to say about the ps3 version was the rope and headband. He liked the colors and color depth of the ps3 version better. And at the bottom of the article:

"Since there's not and real distinguishable visual quality between the different platforms, this discussion will center around controller preference."

You're not going to be pulling off combos with the freckin' analog pad. If you don't buy an arcade stick, the second best thing is a d-pad. You need sharp, precise movements, and the 360's d-pad doesn't offer that.

The analog stick is closer to an arcade stick than the d-pad, depending on sensitivity levels. Fighters have always been designed for arcade sticks, so both the analog stick or a d-pad are still a compromise.

>>The analog stick is closer to an arcade stick than the d-pad, depending on sensitivity levels.

No it isn't. A joystick has a click, and reads input closer to a d-pad, not mushy mess that is the analog stick. The analog stick does have its uses, but playing SF is not one of it.

Nice week...

Good software sales in Japan across all systems this week... Mario & Luigi RPG 3 sold also 150,000 in the first two days... and with 86,000 copies of SF4, it was a very healthy week for software sales.

just what we need.

How in the fuck was this downvoted?

Feh.

Dude, from one latino to another, did you really have to slip in some Pro-Nintendo news? I mean, really, man. Stick to the topic at hand...which is Street Fighter IV and its sales numbers.
Talking about buttermilk pancakes is an exception. There's always room for spontaneous buttermilk pancake discussions...as long as you don't bring up any Nintendo Pancakes.

"How in the fuck was this downvoted?"

People don't think before they downvote Fernando, remember? We're talking about the Hivemindstiq, a conglomeration of pure stupidity. It can't be helped.

How was that down voted? Fernando is the DOPEST!!!

i approve the devoting.

His post couldn't wait two more days?

I agree with the downvoting. "Watch me as I flex i knowlege game sales in japan" is what he is basically saying. F**k that man. F**k that.

The crooked English was intentional...

"How in the fuck was this downvoted?"

uh, Pro Nintendo propaganda once again in an article that has nothing to do with it?....

Personally, I don't find it annoying enough to downvote him, but some people do.

@ Xta,

I always think before I downvote Fernando. I think, "I'm about to downvote Fernando, this is the right and proper action to take now." Then I downvote him.

:P

"pro-nintendo propaganda"? christ, what a bunch of fucking pussies. someone merely *mentions* a game from a system that isn't your preferred platform, and it gets downvoted? pathetic.

Hey, don't get me wrong. The Mario & Luigi games are great (and I'm absolutely going to buy it), it's just out of topic. Like raspberries performing fellatio on blueberries.
I, for one, am a happy citizen of the Neutral Planet of consoles.
--If I don't survive, tell my wife "Hello."

I didn't downvote it, but it's easy to see why it was. It was a horribly disguised, thinly veiled attempt to brag about the sales of a Nintendo game. It wasn't even a clever disguise, so don't act like you don't know.

Fernando gets voted down plenty just because he's Fernando, but this would've been voted down anyway. It's gotten to the point where the Fernando Defense Force is just as bad as the people blindly voting down Fernando for no reason, as they just pretend every time he was voted down it was for no reason. I swear he could post "haha PS3 is for homos" and you would all reply with "wtf why was THAT voted down?".

Yeah, this is shocking that they only pressed 86k.

How many US copies of Panzer Dragoon Saga were pressed? Had to be more than that, and that was a crazy low print run.

This is why i have mine pre-ordered, just in case lol (as well as killzone) this has happend to me a few times, my local ran out of gears 1, metal gear 4 and i expect the same for street fighter & Killzone lol,

PRE ORDER EVERY ONE, PRE ORDER.

Oh, hey Gamestop! What are you doing on here?

rofl

After Halo 3 I never did a pre-order most of the time they lied about not having more units or that you only had certain time to Pre-order.

For example in the case of Gears 2 the day of the launch a newbie working in the local game store told me they ran out of LE everywhere and that it was going to be impossible to find. I said “sure” and I went to the store downstairs they had like 10 extra LE, hell they still do.

I still hope I can fetch a x360 version but I’m pretty sure the Ps3 LE version is going to be tricky to get.

I think only Kojima Productions stay true to the word Limited.

ROFL, same thing happend to me kinda, i was phoning in on gamestation for a wii classic controler and they said they never had any, i decided to go down there any ways, i got there and as he said, there were none, but as i was leaving i saw one tucked behind some othe items on a display case, i took it to the guy and he seemed dissapointed to sell it to me, of course all i was doing was lol'ing in my head LOL

i just pray the fools dont do the same with my killzone or streetfighter

I've never had to preorder a game. Best Buy, if nothing else, will always have it, I've found.

Except when I pre-ordered Banjo Kaziie...and those douches at Gamestop gave my BK1 download away...at which point I canceled the pre-order and demanded my money back. Someday I might buy Banjo...someday...

I really don't understand pre-ordering. It just locks you into one store. Even if you can get your money back, it's a hassle. It's not like it guarantees you the game, either. I pre-ordered Halo 3 but it still sold out..

some times I use pre-ordering to spread out my game purchases. For example, if I know that there are three games I want all coming out some time in the future and all in the same month, and I am not interested in buying games in the month I am currently in, I will pay for one or two of those games in full. When the release month actually comes around I will only have to pay for one game, pick up the others, and still have cash left over.

screw pre-orders unless they give you something extra with them. support your local gaming shops instead. they'll always have copies when the clowns at gamestop are holding theirs for those who pre-orders, and if you get in good with the local shops, they may give you free stuff and are much cooler than any gamestop clerk.

@ Everyone: for everyone information, im not from america so i dont even shop @ gamestop LOL, and when i say pre-order this DOES NOT MEAN ONLINE, i am talking about my local, i support my local which is a gamestation down the road for me and they are holding a copy for me due to high demand, why does that get me a negative???

Im pretty sure what ben said was sarcasm, people im not gamestop rofl...seriously come on.

Kewl

I'm sure most were sold on the PS3 in Japan. I can't wait to get it myself on the Xbox 360.

I will be purchasing that Mad Catz controller for Street Fighter as well since the 360's D-pad is unforgiving on the thumbs.

I wish MS was able to fix it. Even the original Xbox D-pad was better than the 360's version. I loved playing Street Fighter 2 Anniversary Edition. I think it's probably one of the best versions along with SSF2HDRemix

The PS3 version sold 58,000 copies and the 360 sold 28,000.

28,000 is pretty good for a 360 game, because Ninja Blade which was released recently, which is a 360 exclusive, only sold 5,000 the first day.(Not 50,000, 5,000.)

Yeah 28,000 is a pretty good number considering that's Sony's home turf.

Thanks for the info Copland.

You're kidding right? Dude, every arcade I went to in Japan had lines to play SF4 and most places had at least 10 machines. Keep in mind there is an arcade on every other block too.

I Could see you being oblivious to it, not being in Japan and all, but Capcom not realizing the demand is just moronic. Someone should be fired.

Arnold Schwarzenegger stole my Turboman doll and now he's after my copy of Street Fighter IV!

He is quite chubby nowadays so it shouldn't be to hard to outrun him.Now that the psycho postman well that's another tale.

please, remake Marvel vs Capcom!!!

This thing is storming japan like godzirra

Heh heh, you said snatch.

To straight things out, its not completely out of stock.
Amazon.co.jp still has it and big electronic stores like Bic Camera still have it in stock.
So its not sold out.

But the versions with a limited "SF IV Animation DVD Disc" are already sold out every where, as long as I know.

cant wait till tuesday, got my arcade stick ready to go

That's pretty impressive, especially considering the fact that arcades are alive and doing well in Japan.

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Street Fighter IV sells 86k copies first day in Japan, Capcom says it's sold out

Reader Comments (90)

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