Xbox 360 outsells PS3 in Japan for fourth time, Four Horsemen draw closer

by Ben Gilbert on Feb 26th 2009 12:20PM

The Xbox 360 has only outsold the PlayStation 3 several times before, so we're reticent to bring the Four Horsemen out of their winter hibernation. However, if Japanese hardware sales tracker Media Create is to be believed, the 360 not only outsold the PS3 in Japan last week, it handily trounced all competition, with sales just over 25,000 units (compared to nearly 17,000 units for Wii and just over 16,000 for PS3).

Considering Star Ocean: The Last Hope was released this past week and is outselling every game on the chart by a margin of at least 3:1 (162,232 units, folks -- in one week!), we're taking a stab in the dark here and saying 360 sales had something to do with that. After all, the last few times we put out a call to the horsemen, two other JRPG titles were to blame: Infinite Undiscovery and Tales of Vesperia.

Can you remember the other game that put 360 on top in Japan for a week? Hint: It involves fire and liberation and ... fighter jets. Give up? Too bad! We're still not telling!
Okay, fine ...

Source

Tags: business, infinite-undiscovery, japanese-hardware-sales, media-create, Microsoft, namco-bandai, namdai, square-enix, squeenix, star-ocean, star-ocean-the-last-hope, tales-of-vesperia, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (64)

Ace Combat 6?

That game was pretty bad imo. Graphics and gameplay wise it is great (but then again Ace Combat 5 was as well) but story wise....let's just say "Go dance with the angels" is the &#*&@* insult ever. I got to the 5th mission, got tired of hearing that phrase 8x and just stopped.

EDIT: Totally off-topic. Let us do the moderating. :)

I'd rather have vulgar insults that entertain, than a single phrase that has no meaning repeated over and over. Hell, I'd rather play Blood in the Sand instead of finishing Ace Combat 6.

EDIT: I'm sure there's a better place you could've found that. :P

Insight: "Judging by your choice of words..."

Oh. You're one of THOSE people.

EDIT: Stop using a word to describe someone's sexual preference as an insult. Good way to get banned.

crazy phantom editors omg.. someone's got the POWER!

Ace Combat 9? Your answer is wrong.

This would be the first isn't it? Last time it just missed the wii by about a few hundred in sales?

well there ya go then
secret to japanese xbox sales
change company name to microsoft square
or microsoft enix
or microsquare
or enixsoft
haha

Or you know, we could
all just make our
text trail off
like this
...

"The last hope" sure is an apt name - it is last chance saloon for the 360 in Japan, because its the last AAA exclusive JRPGs hitting the console for some time, especially as Cry On was supposedly canceled (with good reason, given the cost of developing an RPG versus the paltry sales for "FF Killer" Lost Odyssey)

Thats not Microsoft's fault though. People in Japan love to buy anything with a "Square" and an "Enix" on it.

Lost Odyssey is better than any of these other JRPGs released so far, which is really sad to me that it sold less than all the Squenix ones this gen...

because if MS's JRPGs don't sell that well... how can they justify making more of them? (I really hope they do make a sequel to Lost Odyssey, as I think the first sold well enough in the West).

"Lost Odyssey is better than any of these other JRPGs released so far"
I agree - you wonder whether the JRPG market is drying up with everyone moving to shooters and shooter-based western RPGs

Or maybe, JPRGs just aren't as good as they used to be.

They lost that "charm" they used to have...

Fixing!

Yeah outselling the PS3 for fourth time seems less of an achievement than outselling the Wii for the first time ever.

Anyways, I doubt sales of PS3/360 will go anywhere downwards in Japan, both consoles have Biohazard 5 coming out very soon, so I'm guessing this will be a big month for both HD machines as opposed to the Wii.

They are not at liberty to admit that they are in competition with the Wii.

hopefully this is a sign that wii-fans realize there arent any games worth playing??

When last I checked, Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl were worth playing.

Oh, nevermind...

Those are Mario games. They don't count because if you read the fine print of the complaints about Nintendo, they say very clearly that "all Nintendo does is shovelware crap! Unless you play nothing but Mario games! LOL!"

Likewise, ports and downloadable games do not count either, for reasons currently under investigation.

Tired arguments are tired. Certainly Wii has nothing to equal Resident Evil in terms of importance, but it would take someone with a lot of balls to try and figure out how to de-legitimate MadWorld as a good Wii game, and Sonic and the Black Knight will rock too, despite what people think

Super Mario Galaxy was released in Nov 2007 and Super Smash Bros. Brawl in Jan 08 in Japan. So, how long can you expect those titles to be a great excuse to get the console. You should keep having good games made to keep interest alive in a console. The other consoles are still pushing for sales and not resting on pure hype.

@Duke

It all depends on what you play and how much. I will never regret buying my N64, despite only ever playing maybe 8 games that I liked, and only about 4-5 of those would I call "great."

As much as I'd love to tell someone that the 360 is a "better" deal than other consoles because it has dozens of excellent games, the truth is that about 95% of my playing time was on two games: Rock Band 2 and The Orange Box. So if someone enjoys Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl as much as I enjoyed those, I'd say the Wii is a steal.

The four horsemen? You mean Tim Allen,The grinch,Adolf Hitler and Barbara Streisand?

(Those horsemen need some fukken bikes,what is taking them so long?)

Dude, don't mess with Tim Allen. He'll get hammered and do donuts on your lawn.

Tim Allen was in a bad movie about being a corky biker.

Dorky** seriously, why does the all mighty iPhone want to change the word "dorky" to "corky"??

I know nintendo doesnt like that. if that happens again I expect to hear about Various colors of Wiis

seriously, nintendo isnt really the lets share the top type.

To put everything in perspective again: the best-selling 360 game in Japan so far has been Blue Dragon with 203,740 sold copies (according to Famitsu). White Knight Chronicles for the PS3 sold 207,000 copies in _1_ week (100,000 copies on the first day alone). Total sales after 1 month were 315,937 copies.

The 360 may have more JRPGs than the PS3, it doesn't have the sales - even in Japan.

For the curious, here's the 360 top 10 in Japan (before Star Ocean 4 and SF4 were released obviously):

1. Blue Dragon 203,740
2. Tales of Vesperia 161,070
3. The Last Remnant 134,611
4. Infinite Undiscovery 112,444
5. Lost Odyssey 109,517
6. Dead or Alive 4 108,618
7. Viva Pinata (Platinum) 101,552
8. Forza 2 (Platinum) 100,591
9. Ace Combat 6 95,002
10. Halo 3 83,696

^ to put things into perspective...

there are almost 3 million PS3s in japan
with only a million 360s in japan

if you keep crying apocalypse no one will believe you when it really does come

this comment made me laugh out loud for real... not an "lol"

Just goes to show you that, yes, people will buy a console for the sake of one game, especially in Japan. Although, I bet attach rates in Japan are much lower than in the U.S. -- so while 360 sales get a little boost when an exclusive RPG is released, I doubt the new buyer's library of 360 games will ever be large.

Man, you know what Microsoft should do in Japan to really boost sales?

Once sales for SO4 die down, release a 360 RPG super-bundle. A 360 bundled with Blue Dragon, Tales of Vesperia, Star Ocean, Lost Odyssey... Or some combination of the system's RPGs. Basically, make it really blatant that 360 has a lot of JRPGs.

The 360 is already dirt cheap over there (due to the fact it doesn't sell), so this would be a pretty cheap bundle.

You should be in charge of marketing the 360 in Japan.

Seriously.

That would actually be a great idea. Bundle it with the Arcade unit and sell it at the same price it is now, and that would really move systems, and probably not cost MS much in the way of paying for the bundled games.

that does sound like a good idea. i know i love my PS3 but as far as JRPG's go this generation, 360 is where it's at. i buy all my JRPG's for 360. a bundle like that would certainly move some units in Japan for those fence sitters.

"You should be in charge of marketing the 360 in Japan."

Yeah, but I'm whiter than the people they have marketing the 360 in Japan. I'm so white, I blend in with snow.

Microsoft, just get a Monster Hunter game on the 360, that's all you need to do!

^This^

Considering all the money and effort Microsoft has spent getting exclusive DLC on the 360, taking away exclusives from the PS3, especially Japanese games, it makes me wonder why they didn't try to make Monster Hunter 3 exclusive to the 360 instead of the Wii or at least make it multiplatform on the 360. : 0

According to Capcom, it would be too expensive. At least, that was what they cited for getting it off the PS3 in the first place

Yeah, MH on the 360 would drive sales through the roof I bet. Call MS!

actually, part of the monster hunter craze (i love it too) is that it's portable and easy to play with friends around you. in japan, that is a winning combo. on a console, it doesn't work out as well. that's why the wii version probably will sell a lot, but not as much as the psp versions.

They're bikers, not horsemen. Jeez, haven't you read Good Omens yet?

Oh Japan you, with your different taste in uhh...everything.

Japan: Growing an exporting a culture of weird shit. Since 1953.

J/k...I love you, Japan.

How hard is it to sink into Sony's thick head that they need to release RPGs, not American shooters, in Japan?

I think Sony has far bigger concerns in the Japanese market then whether or not it needs more RPGs.

they gotta get past deep pockets

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Xbox 360 outsells PS3 in Japan for fourth time, Four Horsemen draw closer

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