Games for Nintendo's latest portable claim half of top 10 software chart, but PSP Phantasy Star and Gundam games take top spots.
While Westerners must wait until later this month to pick up the 3DS, Nintendo's glasses-free 3D handheld has already celebrated its launch in Japan, where it made a big splash on Media Create's Japanese sales charts for the week of February 21-27. The 3DS easily topped the hardware chart, while its games claimed half of the spots on the top 10.
The 3DS launched in Japan on February 26 and sold through 374,764 systems by the end of the next day. That's a little lower than the 400,000 figure reported by Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun in the days after the system's launch. Regardless, it still beat out the next best-selling hardware, the PSP, by nearly 8:1.
New hardware isn't much good without new games, ensuring the 3DS launch lineup was well represented in the top 10 charts. Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle was easily the best-selling 3DS title of the launch, moving 119,951 copies during the week. Nintendogs + Cats sold a little more than half that amount (64,213 copies), while Samurai Warriors Chronicles, Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition, and Ridge Racer 3D rounded out the handheld's best-selling offerings with sub-50,000 performances.
Despite the new hardware hype, it wasn't a 3DS game that topped the week's software sales chart. Sega's PSP online role-playing game Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity claimed that honor, selling 206,654 copies in its first week of release. Another PSP game was close behind it, as Namco's latest superdeformed mech title, SD Gundam G Generation World, racked up sales of 192,981 copies in its own debut. In all, nine of the top 10 games were new releases, with the only exception being Capcom's frequent best-seller Monster Hunter Portable 3rd.
JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF FEBRUARY 21-27, 2011
Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1. Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity / Sega / PSP / 206,654
2. SD Gundam G Generation World / Namco / PSP / 192,981
3. Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle / Level Five / 3DS / 119,951
4. Disgaea 4 / Nippon Ichi / PS3 / 79,425
5. Nintendogs + Cats / Nintendo / 3DS / 64,213
6. Samurai Warriors Chronicles / Koei / 3DS / 49,327
7. Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition / Capcom / 3DS / 44,649
8. Ridge Racer 3D / Namco / 3DS / 38,226
9. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd / Capcom / PSP / 36,323
10. The Idolmaster 2 / Namco / 360 / 34,621
Hardware:
3DS - 374,764
PSP - 47,955
PS3 - 23,654
Wii - 12,159
DSi LL - 9,093
DSi - 7,802
Xbox 360 - 3,366
PS2 - 1,773
PSP Go - 1,076
DS Lite - 663
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
@ dogpigfish - It costs like three or four dollars to rent a movie, which back in E3 they said you could rent 3D movies and the sort. Netflix for the instant viewing of unlimited movies is 8 or 9 bucks a month. People will definitely go with Netflix because they already have. This is just another bonus.
I know during takeoff and landing they always ask everyone to turn off electronics... (ps didnt myth busters prove that there was no electronic interference??) But most airlines offer wireless internet on their flights now, so Im sure that playing the DS or watching netflix on it would be OK.
@hanzpumpsYOUup: Aren't you meant to turn stuff like phones and handhelds off during plane trips?
Not bad considering the launch games are kind of lackluster in my opinion. I have one preordered but I think I will probably cancel it until Zelda, Mario 3DS, Mario Kart or a decent RPG game is released.
Netflix will be awesome. Being stuck on a plane without a TV is completely horrible... I was wishing my DS had netflix!
serious its net flix , it cant fail lol the service will be around you want to know why cause it already exist on all 3 major platforms having it on 3ds is just a plus
Damn you japan, you guys get a 5th Professor Layton while were stuck just getting the 3rd :(
@seriousplayer_d Yep, I don't think many people will buy videos with netflix especially at the price point that digital downloads are going for. Maybe someone can guide me to a movie worth buying nowadays...
For all the crap people give to Japanese game studios, they sure get a lot of releases over there that I'm envious of.
I'm somewhat surprised Phantasy Star is still going. Nevertheless, well done Nintendo! I respect you so well!
How does Media Create get its sales numbers? I'm wondering. Someone answer that question?
@ youngsexynerd Perhaps you mean what you say,but "Yay it sold less than it was estimated it would!" isn't exactly a way to get that point across.I don't know if you've noticed what a very volatile environment GS comment sections are.Like gas-soaked dynamite in a burning fireworks assembly plant.In July.On the surface of the Sun.
@ TheBlackEclipse It's called LL in Japan.Interesting to see the workings of a market as different as Japan's. The PS3 was the highest selling home console.IN the US it's usually the lowest. Anywho,I guess this number is for Day 1 only, because another site said they sold just over 400,000.
and for 2 days wow what are you smoking young 2 days of sales that top 374, plus sales , you clearly dont know the meaning to success selling 801 units in week 1--psp go would be considered the flop they only had little more thne it actually sold to begin with i heard 400 thousand was shipped , that should be gone by now these sales charts always come out , but they do not catch last minute sales meaning this could have been printed out online at a said time , but after they had printed this the 3ds still sells to its consumers with this said , i dont see how this isnt a successful la unch for japan the smallest region for gamers didnt wii sell this much in the same time frame ? it was already said 3ds preorders in america had surpassed those of the wii
young what are you smoking , its only been out for a week ,and they go weekly not monthly that is good sales numbers for 3ds , and yes i consider that hating nintendo cause thats essentailly what you are doing!
yay the 3ds sold less then it was suppose to, im not hating on nintendo, its just i get tired of sheep flocking to everything new of nintendo and every call of duty, its like the world is brainwashed or somthing, i repeat i have nothing against nintendo, i freakin loved game boy advance, my favorite handheld ever!!
And a nod to SEGA for the latest PSO PSP game selling strongly in Japan in addition to Nintendo's neverending success in the handheld market.
3DS easily took the top spot for hardware despite only 2 days being recorded and PSP for software. So much for the PSP getting trounced overall from 3DS's launch as the haters kept claiming. Nevertheless, things should get more interesting when 3DS gets better games later on in the month.
Some pretty good numbers up there though I was surprised to not see a 3DS game taking the number one sales spot. Good job on Sony for that one and also I'm shocked to see a 360 game on the top ten as well. Definitely could tell all other systems took a major hit for the 3DS launch. A DS selling under 1,000 units in Japan? I thought there was some sort of law that kept them from not buying the DS.
Funny story. I don't plan on using the 3d at all on the 3ds. Still waiting for the PSP to come out with a good game, buying the 3ds is just easier. Uncharted with NGP is tempting, but if the software stays as crummy as its always been then we have a problem.
@mariostar0001 agreed, but we are talking about a smaller time frame/install base here as well. I mean the 3ds games only had a week to sell(which might be irrelevant since i dont know what days the other games on the charts launched on), but another thing to consider is how much bigger the install base is for the psp. i mean only 400,000 or so people in the entire country own a 3ds, and even though i dont have the exact numbers im pretty sure the number of psp's owned in japan is considerable higher.
@thewwwyzzerdd It was an average response. Some of the US thinks a lot of the 3DS launch titles, some does not. It appears Japanese consumers reflect said ideas, those places are high, but the numbers aren't quite so high.
@mariostar0001 was that a positive or negative statement? Im not trying to call you out or anything its just that ive heard alot of controversy over the launch titles, which i think is a little over dramatic. 5 out of 10 of the top sold games isnt bad. I actually think that the lineup is reasonable strong personally. i mean madden, pro evo soccer, ridge racer, pilot wings, streetfighter, even nintendogs... none of these are small names. Im sure most people can find at least one title to be excited about, and I dont know about anyone else, but im not paying 250$ for a console and buying 3-4 games with it at 40$ a pop. lol im sure that by the time my wallet has recovered there will be a few more games out.
It would appear that Japan agrees with America on the quality of the Japanese launch titles' quality. :P
So the Wii version of G Gen World didn't even place in the top 10. I never thought I'd see the day where, after a simultaneous release, the handheld version would beat the console version. That's Japan for you.
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