Japanese hardware sales, Feb. 16 - Feb. 22: Spit-take edition

by Griffin McElroy on Mar 1st 2009 9:30PM

"A spit-take is a comedic technique in which someone spits a beverage out of his or her mouth when he or she reacts to a statement during a take. In a spit-take, the reaction is usually one of surprise. Danny Thomas is sometimes credited with popularizing its use in comedy." (Source: Wikipedia, the lazy man's reference material.)

We thought it would be considerate to give you guys the ever-so-brief history of the knee-jerk reaction you're likely about to experience, depending on your level of self-investment in the overseas gaming electronics market, and whether or not you're currently drinking a nice, refreshing beverage. Amidst substantial drops in weekly sales totals for all its competitors, the rarely triumphant Xbox 360 pulled off a spectacular ascent with an increase of over 15,000 units. It performed this feat by riding upon the comfortable, pillowy back of Star Ocean: The Last Hope, a 360 exclusive that sold over 162,000 copies in its release week.

Then again, perhaps news that a Square Enix title featuring vaguely effeminate dudes pushed Japanese sales of its designated system doesn't surprise you to the point of expectoration. Your unflappable, steely nerves keep you from being startled by sales figures, let alone the GIANT SPIDER THAT'S ON YOUR SHOULDER. (Yeah, that probably did the trick.)

- DSi: 41,839

11,644 (21.77%)
- PSP: 29,552

4,704 (13.73%)
- Xbox 360: 25,334

15,501 (157.64%)
- Wii: 16,973

4,043 (19.24%)
- PS3: 16,149

2,507 (13.44%)
- DS Lite: 9,975

4,835 (32.65%)
- PS2: 5,029

303 (5.68%)

[Source: Media Create]

See: The expectorating archives

Tags: DS, japanesehardwaresales, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (98)

If only I got paid for this...

Yeah, who gives a shit about consoles sales so far fuckin away... not me, and most certainly they dont give a shit about the same figures here... what idiot posts this crap?

My thoughts on this news:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v348/BPMdotEXE/Random/CSIStarOcean.png

That was freakin' awesome, thank you.

I guess CSI Miami references...

are...

Funny...

*puts sunglasses on.

YEEEAAAHHH.

I found the bottom left window to be strangely funny. He takes off his glasses and underneath.....there's another pair of glasses.

he's putting on another pair

Uhhh there's nothing vaguely effeminate about Edge. If you really think that he is, I'm pretty sure your overall views are extremely screwed up.

He may not be femmy, but he sure as hell isn't 20 years old either.

Edge:
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2009/028/946860_20090129_screen004.jpg

What he probably should be looking like to be 20:
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2008/267/939444_20080924_screen039.jpg

Edge may not be especially effeminate, and that at least puts him above any recent FF character, but I do take issue with how young he is. For one thing he certainly does not look like he's 20 years old.

And even if he did, what business does a 20 year old have running a starship? Even Kirk was in his 30's.

Besides some smaller XBLA releases, does the 360 have any major Japan exclusives coming up this year at all? This could be the last of these huge spikes for a while.

Never thought I'd see the day the 360 outsells the DS Lite in Japan.

But will it ever outsell the DSi?

Microsoft, get a Monster Hunter, Dragon Quest, dating sims, train simulators, and Pokemon (if possible) games and Japan is all yours for the taking.

Pokémon = Nintendo-owned IP.

Seriously, do people not know this?!

They can have their own monster-catching knock-off... but there's a 0% chance they'd get a Pokémon game.

Microsoft can kill two birds with one stone on this one. Combine a Pokemon game with tentacle porn called Pokyermom.

BPMOmega, I was just joking, couldn't you tell? With all the money and effort MS does to secure exclusives and take away exclusives, why not get a Pokemon game on the console. ; )

You know damn well my sarcasm detector is on the fritz!

ninjakamster is right, get games that the Japanese want, and you'll sell hardware. Microsoft has made significant gains into the Japanese market by offering more of the JRPGs that Japanese gamers want. Meanwhile Sony is lost significant market share in Japan because they tried to push games like Resistance in Japan.

OH MY GOD! A spider! Get it off! Help me Indiana Jones and your magic, spider removing whip!

That spider belongs in a museum!

Is not a spider,is a sticky grenade...wait? F*ck!

the only thing sweeter than seeing the 360 beat the wii is seeing it on the top of that list. Come on! u can dooooooooooo iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

Okay....haven't seen a comment on this, but is this the first week that the 360 has outsold the Wii in Japan? I think it is. I think this is the fourth week the 360 beat the PS3.

Also, holy shit, Wii had a huge drop in sales. The PS3 also almost sold more than it.

Thanks Anonim.

So, does anyone know if the PS3 has outsold the Wii recently?

It probably outsold the Wii when MGS4 dropped.....I guess Japan is not into Killzone 2, so maybe it will have a huge spike upwards when RE5 (Biohazard5) drops. I wonder if the 360 will see an increase too? Being a cheaper console that can play the same game, there might be people out there who are waiting for B5 to drop and don't have lots of loot, so they will pick up the 360 to play.

Banned FTW!

hey sprinkles, nice to see you back. joystiq's gotten boring without you. i got you a welcome gift basket with some low ranks in it. no need to thank me.

157%, such a useless statistic

Am I the only one who finds stranger the fact that the ps3 sold almost as much as the Wii?

I guess it has finally reached saturation point in Japan just like the DS has. But Nintendo released the DSI and its sales are right what the DS was 1-2 years ago. Nintendo really should release the Wii in different colors and it will be even more of a hit.

Wii hasn't reached saturation point, just needs more big games (imo)... Compare DS lifetime sales to Wii sales, there's a really big difference.

New colours wouldn't hurt too of course :)

Wii gets Monster Hunter 3 this summer (if all rumors are to be believed, anyway), and i think Monster Hunter G remake is coming soon, also

As well as Wii Sports Resort at some point before that.

The only danger to the Wii is in the short term, but with those under its belt, it should pull away again for some time to come

*whispers over a ship yard of 360s*

"If you build another JRPG, they will come..."

Still... The system is still up against a huge wall. These temporary sales bumps never last long.

While I agree that the 360 will always be the also ran console in Japan. I think MS has shown that the 360 now represents a viable platform for Japanese developers, especially if they want to tap the much larger European and American markets. 1M Japanese 360 just encourages the trend to multi platform game releases.

I second that, the Japs (rightfully) lap up Yakuza games, heck i want it soooo bad!

I'm surprised so many of them bought Xboxs for this one exclusive, but I also think these tables will be thrown over let alone turned by Yakuza. For sure.

Am I the only one who's more suprised to see the PS3 for at least a couple weeks now in a row pretty much on par with Wii sales?

Wii games were so good in the beginning and now there just seems to be a drought of games I'm interested in. Very interesting how the PS3 might have a slow rise because of good software while the Wii is slowly crawling down the sales ladder.

I guess this also explains all my local Gamestops having Wiis in stock since October (heck, at our local mall they're stacking the boxes like they used to do with 360 boxes at best buy haha).

I hope this shows Nintendo they're console isn't invinsible, and resurects games we care about like Project Hammer instead of another Wii Sports...

"Am I the only one who's more suprised to see the PS3 for at least a couple weeks now in a row pretty much on par with Wii sales?"

I don't know.

Gamers games certainly aren't what got Wii to where it is. They definitely helped, but Wii Sports Resort is going to be the definitive Wii game this year

Aside from that, they have a lot in the pipe. Many projects that we know are out there, but know absolutely nothing else about

Monster Hunter 3 will be bigger than WSR, IMO. either way, both will be system sellers.

Now if only FF13 was exsclusive to the xbox.

did you know its a PS3 exclusive in Japan?

Thanks for the info... don't really see how it's relevant to my comment though.

I'll explain why it's relevant for you then.

You said if only FFIX was exclusive to xbox.
This is a thread about high xbox sales in japan.
You imply that then the xbox would be doing even better in Japan.
He said it won't be available in Japan, only on PS3.
This means that the game won't help xbox 360 sales

Therefore his comment is relevant.

Doesn't matter,

I stated IF the game were on xbox 360, i didn't inquire whether or not it was exclusive to the playstation. The two comments have nothing to do with each other.

Remember back when the DS would sell 100k a week? Those were the days...

It'll go back to normal in about 2-3 weeks, when the sales of the new Star Ocean, die down.

Previous 50 Comments

Japanese hardware sales, Feb. 16 - Feb. 22: Spit-take edition

Reader Comments (98)

Posted: Mar 1st 2009 10:39PM (Unverified) said

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