Well, the hangover from Golden Week makes for particularly dire reading in this week's Japanese sales charts. As has been the case a lot lately, the PlayStation 4 was top of the hardware charts – though the Nintendo 3DS beat it comfortably if you combine its various models – but the numbers were disappointing across the board. Sony's flagship format could only muster 11,489 units, down around 5,000 units from the week before.
Final Fantasy X|X-2 Remaster's new-gen port was the week's best software seller, but it only managed to shift just shy of 16,000 copies. Minecraft: PS Vita Edition continued to perform well in third with 11,303 units sold, but the PlayStation Vita plunged down the hardware charts, moving just 10,685 units – down from 17,273 units. Borderlands: The Handsome Collection was the only other new arrival, selling 6,922 copies.
This is most likely a blip, but it's a hint at just how much the games industry is beginning to shrink in the Land of the Rising Sun. There have always been bad weeks in the past, of course, but with smartphones now starting to rule the roost, these quiet periods are making for increasingly depressing reading. The worrying thing is that we're not even convinced that the likes of Final Fantasy XV and Persona 5 are going to turn things around anymore.
Hardware Sales
- PlayStation 4 – 11,489 (15,992)
- New 3DS LL – 11,340 (17,875)
- PlayStation Vita – 10,685 (17,273)
- Wii U – 6,428 (11,137)
- New 3DS – 3,483 (5,446)
- PlayStation 3 – 2,964 (4,351)
- 3DS LL – 790 (1,358)
- 3DS – 742 (1,413)
- PlayStation Vita TV – 439 (665)
- Xbox One – 148 (187)
Software Sales
- [PS4] Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster (Square Enix, 05/14/15) – 15,913 (New)
- [3DS] Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition (GungHo Online Entertainment, 04/30/15) – 13,844 (232,683)
- [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition (SCE, 03/19/15) – 11,303 (155,278)
- [3DS] Girls Mode 3: Kirakira Code (Nintendo, 04/16/15) – 7,422 (128,213)
- [PS4] Borderlands: The Handsome Collection (Take-Two, 05/14/15) – 6,922 (New)
- [Wii U] Mario Kart 8 (Nintendo, 05/29/14) – 5,405 (989,307)
- [3DS] Bravely Second: End Layer (Square Enix, 04/23/15) – 5,260 (134,905)
- [Wii U] Xenoblade Chronicles X (Nintendo, 04/30/15) – 4,236 (101,511)
- [3DS] Pokemon Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire (Pokemon, 11/21/14) – 3,648 (2,622,489)
- [PS4] Dying Light (Warner Bros., 04/16/15) – 3,252 (44,450)
- [Wii U] Mario Party 10 (Nintendo, 03/12/15) – 3,204 (140,963)
- [3DS] Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (Nintendo, 09/13/14) – 3,133 (2,230,716)
- [3DS] Yokai Watch 2: Shinuchi (Level-5, 12/14/14) – 2,723 (2,606,206)
- [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf (Nintendo, 11/08/12) – 2,439 (3,972,933)
- [Wii U] Dragon Quest X: Legend of the Ancient Dragon Online (Square Enix, 04/30/15) – 2,300 (105,342)
- [PS4] Tropico 5 (Square Enix, 04/23/15) – 2,133 (17,997)
- [3DS] Theatrhythm Dragon Quest (Square Enix, 03/26/15) – 2,072 (117,161)
- [Wii U] Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Nintendo, 12/06/14) – 2,041 (636,111)
- [3DS] Xenoblade Chronicles 3D (Nintendo, 04/02/15) – 1,944 (84,347)
- [PS3] Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2015 (Konami, 03/26/15) – 1,863 (100,345)
[source 4gamer.net, via gematsu.com]
Comments 12
Man, thank god for home computers.....keeping the western developers afloat during the 80's and 90's to reign supreme in the 00's.......because Japan is pretty lame these days...
Absolutely horrendous. The mobile market has killed console gaming and to some degree dedicated handheld gaming in Japan and sadly it hurts everybody because we've lost a lot of great developers due to this crap.
FFX was released last year and most fans bought it then. I'm a massive fan but wouldn't double dip so soon so I don't think you can gauge anything from this. I disagree strongly as FF15 will blow everything out of the water, you cant get that experience on handheld. mgs5 is saying hi as well.
@Gamer83 I disagreed with you a week or so ago, but actually you could be right. When music went digital we lost loads of record labels (which has definitely affected the quality of music in the charts) when cgi was invented we lost alot of cartoons, when tea was massed produced we lost tea dealers. Maybe this is the same. I'm hoping the lack of control on mobile will tell in the end, because unless you play a strategy game there literally is no skill involved.
@themcnoisy
I like fighting games. I've messed around with some on mobile. It is a dreadful experience to put it kindly.
Mobile has taken a large bite out of the handheld market, but I would reckon that in North America and Europe, consoles will continue to go strong well into the future, until streaming tech can match the experince 1 for 1......we aren't Japan though.
Konami laughing
All hail our new mobile gaming overlords
As much as we don't like it, this is why publishers like Konami think the future is the mobile market. Because most of the key people of these companies are Japanese they tend to see their own market a lot more which clouds the judgement of the western market.
I wonder how many of those x box one consoles are purchased by natives...
@sub12 definitely, I'm sat typing this on my Mobile as its convenient rather than carrying my laptop around and they are useful. But for playing games it just sucks. We are definitely not Japan, it would be good to here some news on how they report the situation now. In fact I'm gonna have a look.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2015/01/07/games-console-and-software-sales-in-japan-return-to-90s-levels/
Its strange reading but the stats back it up. I reckon the actual gamers are still buying consoles, its just that the casual bandwagon jumpers have had their console meal and have moved on.
Will not use mobile as my main form of gaming, don't care what analytic experts in Konami think otherwise.
Let's play Bloodborne and The Binding of Isaac on iPad!
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