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Five of XBLA's top six sellers are Japanese

by Justin McElroy on Sep 16th 2010 2:30AM

Make all the snide jokes you like about the Xbox 360's less-than-stellar sales in Japan, it's hard to dispute that the country's development community is helping to fuel the console in a different way. As Microsoft just brought to attendees' collective attention at its TGS presser, five of the six top-selling games on Xbox Live Arcade originate in Japan.

Great news for the Land of the Rising Fun, but it sort of casts the service in a less-than-flattering light considering that the games (Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Street Fighter 2, Super Street Fighter 2 HD Turbo Remix, Bomberman Live and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) are all either ports or remakes of fairly old games.

Oh, and before you ask: We're not sure what the lone US holdout is, but we're pulling for either Yaris or Soltrio Solitaire.

Tags: bomberman-live, japan, microsoft, street-fighter-2, super-street-fighter-ii-turbo-hd-remix, tgs-2010, xbla, xbox, xbox-live

Reader Comments (24)

Of course it's yaris, it's the best game ever made! Well, coming right after big rigs

@Ashkental

Well does Yaris really count as U.S, considering it's form a Japanese car company?

Two of those were developed by American studios, the other three were ported by American studios ...

Meh, three of them are old (classic! ...but old) fighting games.

More like Land of the Rising Chun (Li), amirite?

@Naru now in 3D
Joystiq = Land of the Sinking Pun apparently

It's gotta be Trials HD eh? Dammit though, I never got my hands on Yaris!!

Totemball?

It's either UNO or Castle Crashers.

@Haelie
Castle Crashers I reckon

@Haelie My money's on UNO.

Bomberman Live is in the top 6? I immediately regretted that purchase when the online community was virtually non-existent. I can't find a game 75% of the time I try to play.

@SpeeGold
Maybe the community's in Japan.

And all five of them are old game rereleases. Where are the big selling original games from Japanese developers?!

seems about right lol

@TheMCFacemanBandcampcom :: And about ten or more other epic games (pun intended).

I was thinking it was either Geometry Wars or Battlefield 1943

When 3 of those 5 are Street Fighter does it still count?

All of those games are based in the days when Japanese developers were at their prime.

@Lerkero

And yet they still managed to beat the current American offerings... Your point?

@Wiizer
My point is that there didnt seem to be a need to point that out. Japanese games developed in the past are fun to play, a great majority of the big games today are from Western developers.

I didnt really get the message they were going for with pointing out that bit of info. "Japanese games used to be very good, and as you can see classic Japanese games are popular in the downloadable marketplace. Newer Japanese games however..."

It makes a lot of sense considering that most arcade classics from the 90s were Japanese. The list could be longer if SEGA ever decided to get off it's ass.

I'm feeling Puzzle Quest or Shadow Complex as the other top seller. Unbelievably surprised at Bomberman being up there! The XBLA port is an abomination. Also Castlevania... poor execution.

What's wrong with the SoTN port? Worked fine for me.

Castle Crashers is my guess for the 6th,

no trials, shadow complex or battlefield 1943? crazy no?

Soo.... this goes to show that... people like the older games more than the newer games? Four of those are ports/remakes, and the fifth (Bomberman) is an online version of a game whose (winning) formula hasn't changed much since the NES days.

Breaking News

Five of XBLA's top six sellers are Japanese

Reader Comments (24)

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 2:31AM Ashkental said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 4:00AM CaramelZappa said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 2:32AM Haelie said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 2:35AM Naru now in 3D said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 8:21AM Haggard said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 2:35AM willooi said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 2:36AM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 2:43AM Haelie said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 6:19AM B0FF said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 10:55AM Petebot330 said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 2:56AM SpeeGold said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 10:50AM Doctor Septapus said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 3:20AM Fo0dNippl3 said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 5:24AM PR0F3TA said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 5:33AM delicatessen lama said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 9:03AM Starcade said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 10:04AM Lerkero said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 4:22PM Wiizer said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 6:06PM Lerkero said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 10:49AM nrXic said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 10:53AM Doctor Septapus said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 11:06AM c0bra95 said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 5:52PM jwb3913 said

Posted: Sep 16th 2010 5:55PM BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam said

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