Jacob Mazel

Summary:

Last week three games sold over 100,000 units in Japan. This week is even bigger. Four games sold over 100,000 units. Two of them were on DS while PSP and Xbox 360 had the others. The relative resurgence of console software last week, which saw PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii games take nine of the top 20 in the preliminary data, has receded in the wake of a big week for the portables. DS software accounted for ten of the top twenty games this week, while PSP had three of the top twenty. Still, overall software in the preliminary top twenty is down about 90,000 units from last week to ~855,000.

Key Points:

-          Tales of Vesperia pushed Xbox 360 sales past PS3 sales in Japan this week. The game itself sold over 110,000 units.

-          Wii, PS3, and PS2 had very quiet weeks, with no software topping 30,000 units.

-          Fire Emblem DS continued the drive in Japan to push DS back to parity with PSP.

Understanding the Japanese Preview:

Rather than saying x game for y platform sold between 20,000 and 28,000 units as in the past, the preliminary data will be broken down into charts by platform. Within these charts, there will two additional categories besides the rounded sales figure under ‘sales’. On the left will be ‘low end’ depicting the lowest amount the title likely sold for the week, while to the right will be ‘high end’ depicting the highest amount the title likely sold for the week. As always, this data is preliminary, and therefore, not final, but it is based on a sample. The varying platform market share the sample represents is why consistent sellers like Wii Fit do not always appear in the preliminary data. Sales for this report are for the week ending August 10, 2008.

Software by Platform Breakdown :

Wii Software - Mario Kart was the only Wii title in the preliminary data. It sold about 20,000 units. Wii Fit, Fatal Frame, Mario Baseball and Warioland are all candidates to appear in the final data with sales between 5,000 and 30,000 units but none of them showed up in the preliminary data. Expect Wii hardware sales to remain in the 35,000 to 45,000 unit range.

PS3 Software – Soul Calibur 4 sold another 16,000 units this week according to the preliminary data. No other PS3 titles were represented, though Siren likely just missed the top twenty threshold at something like ~4,000 to 6,000 units. Expect PS3 hardware sales to remain in the 8,000 to 12,000 unit range this week.

Xbox 360 Software – Tales of Vesperia debuted for the Xbox 360 this week. The preliminary data puts the game at 113,000 units week one. Considering Blue Dragon is still the only Xbox 360 game to top 103,000 units in Japan, Microsoft and Namco have to be quite happy with how the game has done so far. From the Tales push, expect Xbox 360 hardware sales to hit 12,000 to 20,000 units this week.

PS2 Software – Four PS2 titles were in the preliminary top twenty, though two were different versions of the same game. The top seller was the latest Powerful Pro Baseball game, which sold over 20,000 units. Persona 4, and Sona Scarlett Black Ledger were the other titles to chart. Expect PS2 hardware sales to remain in the 6,000 to 10,000 unit range this week.

PSP Software – PSP software was once again topped by Phantasy Star Portable which sold 134,000 units this week. Powerful Pro Baseball Portable 3 and Monster Hunter Portable 2G remained in the high four digit range this week. No other PSP titles were in the preliminary top twenty. Expect PSP hardware sales drop slightly this week, into the 58,000 to 68,000 unit range.

DS Software – DS had ten of the top twenty games in the preliminary data this week. That constitutes a big week. The top seller was the first DS Fire Emblem. It reached over 150,000 units which is in line with the GBA Fire Emblem debuts. Rhythm Heaven Gold topped 100,000 units in week two, while Dragon Quest V dipped to 72,000 units in its fourth week of sales. Summon Night 2 was the top debut among third party DS games this week, topping out at 62,000 units. Other DS titles sold 5,000 and 40,000 units this week. Expect DS hardware sales to rise slightly this week, into the 60,000 to 70,000 unit range.

Contact Vgchartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com