Summary and a Look Ahead:

Software sales in Japan were down from last week but November is still off to a strong start in Japan. Winning Eleven 2010, Wii Fit Plus, Tamodatchi Collection and Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver all topped 50,000 units for the week. On PS3, Winning Eleven 2010 saw a week one debut about 25% higher than Winning Eleven 2009 saw which is a good sign for Japanese powerhouse Konami. Bayonetta and Tekken 6 saw big drops from last week. Tekken in particular showed up at 1/9^th the value of the previous week.

PSP software dropped off significantly from last week, but with the Go launch a lot of PSP software sales will be over the internet now so some drop off at retail is only natural.

The preorder list has seen some notable changes since last week. Wii and PS3 are now evenly matched in the ranking with three titles yet to release in 2009 amongst the top twenty. New Super Mario Brothers Wii stands at 36,000 preorders after not charting even three days ago. Samurai Warriors 3 (~15,000) and Tales of Graces (~45,000) are also slowly increasing. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is not in the top twenty but even the GC version did 187,000 week one so you have to figure the Wii version is reserved at a decent clip somewhere, even though it clearly isn’t at this store.

For PS3, Final Fantasy XIII preorders stand at about 535,000 units about half of where Dragon Quest IX was a month out from release. On the other hand, Dragon Quest IX preorders increased from 1,100,000 to 1,625,000 in its last month…its hard to imagine Final Fantasy XIII preorders growing by 500,000 in the next month. Dragon Ball Z Raging Blast has about 25,000 preorders and has a shot at a 50,000 debut for PS3 next week. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 has about 10,000 preorders and has an excellent shot at 35,000 or more week one in December although it’s a bit early to call as this is its first week in the top twenty preorders.

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 November 8, 2009.

Software by Platform:

Wii Software – Four Wii skus charted in the data this week. Wii Fit Plus and the Wii Fit Plus sku that comes with the balance board sold 40,000 and 20,000 units respectively. Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games debuted to sales of 26,000 units, down substantially from the week one of the previous version. Wii Sports Resort joined the sku of Wii Fit Plus with the balance board in returning to the preliminary data after a several week hiatus with sales of 23,000 units. Expect Wii hardware sales to remain in the 26,000 to 30,000 unit range this week as seasonal effects begin to lift hardware sales this time of the year in Japan. Both 2007 and 2008 saw Wii rise each week without interruption from the first full week of November until the third to fourth week of December.  

PS3 Software – Six PS3 games charted in the preliminary data this week. Winning Eleven 2010 was the big title in Japan this week – with sales of 211,000 units. There wasn’t anything else nearly that high on the platform though – Bayonetta was second at 24,000 units. Infamous and Tekken 6 followed at 16,000 and 13,000 units respectively. 3D Dot Heroes came in at 11,000 units. In last place was NBA Live, at 6,000 units. Expect PS3 hardware sales to remain in the 34,000 to 40,000 unit range as the Winning Eleven launch just about offsets the Bayonetta and Tekken drops.

X360 and PS2 Software – No X360 or PS2 games charted in the preliminary data this week. Expect PS2 hardware sales to remain in the 1,500 to 3,000 range while X360 hardware sales fall into the 3,500 to 5,500 unit range for the week.

PSP Software – Three PSP games charted in the preliminary data this week. Persona 3 Portable fell to 40,000 units for the week. Disiddia: Final Fantasy Universal Tuning fell to 11,000 units. Powerful Pro Yakyuu 4 fell to 6,000 units for the week. Expect PSP hardware sales to rise into the 75,000 to 100,000 unit range this week as the PSP Go was only available for one day last week, and Famitsu reported it sold 28,000 units in that day.  

DS Software – Seven DS skus charted in the preliminary data. Tamodatchi Collection sold another 89,000 units for the week. Once DS hardware begins to increase on the DSi LL and seasonal factors, keep your eye on this sucker. Pokemon fell to 60,000 units for the week. Summon Night X debuted at 30,000 units for the week, while Final Fantasy Gaiden dropped just below it, to 28,000 units. Inazuma Eleven 2 Blizzard came in at 25,000 units which means both skus will be around 45,000 for the week. A new Tamogatchi game debuted to sales of 6,000 units. Expect DS hardware sales to fall into the 35,000 to 40,000 unit range as people await the DSi LL model which launches November 22 in Japan.

Contact Vgchartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com