Another week brings more shockingly depressing sales figures for PlayStation 4 fans in Japan. Sony's new-gen system went through a stellar period for a couple of months earlier in the year, but it's really struggling right now, and it's hard to pick out an imminent piece of software that's going to turn its fortunes around.
The console sold just 13,850 units for the week ending 21st June – an improvement on the meagre tally the week prior, but certainly nothing worth shouting about. In fact, it was a dire week for hardware all around, with Nintendo's market leading 3DS barely pulling in many more punters – although the handheld does have the excuse of being at the tail-end of its life.
Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition was the best selling PS4 title, attracting 35,872 demon slayers in total. Minecraft: PS Vita Edition continued chugging with 9,703 units, while The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt added another 6,150 sales to its tally. There's no denying it, though: these are dark times for the Japanese industry. Final Fantasy XV can't come soon enough.
Hardware
- New 3DS LL – 17,642 (19,620)
- Wii U – 14,616 (16,413)
- PlayStation 4 – 13,850 (10,822)
- PlayStation Vita – 11,748 (10,797)
- New 3DS – 4,506 (4,329)
- PlayStation 3 – 2,819 (2,633)
- 3DS – 1,126 (943)
- 3DS LL – 790 (880)
- PlayStation Vita TV – 540 (566)
- Xbox One – 201 (100)
Software
- [3DS] Rhythm Heaven: The Best+ (Nintendo, 06/11/15) – 66,416 (224,008)
- [3DS] Return to PopoloCrois: A Story of Seasons Fairytale (Marvelous, 06/18/15) – 46,491 (New)
- [Wii U] Splatoon (Nintendo, 05/28/15) – 43,653 (310,582)
- [PS4] Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition (Capcom, 06/18/15) – 35,872 (New)
- [3DS] Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden (Bandai Namco, 06/11/15) – 16,443 (91,102)
- [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition (SCE, 03/19/15) – 9,703 (209,693)
- [Wii U] Mario Kart 8 (Nintendo, 05/29/14) – 8,660 (1,037,923)
- [PS4] The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Spike Chunsoft, 05/21/15) – 6,150 (117,985)
- [PSV] The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Evolution (Falcom, 06/11/15) – 4,666 (25,150)
- [3DS] Pokemon Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire (Pokemon, 11/21/14) – 4,332 (2,643,436)
- [3DS] Girls Mode 3: Kira Kira Code (Nintendo, 04/16/15) – 3,983 (155,177)
- [3DS] Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition (GungHo, 04/30/15) – 3,848 (266,975)
- [PSV] Shiren the Wanderer 5 Plus (Spike Chunsoft, 06/04/15) – 3,553 (25,848)
- [3DS] Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (Nintendo, 09/13/14) – 3,460 (2,246,991)
- [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf (Nintendo, 11/08/12) – 2,621 (3,985,433)
- [3DS] Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX (Sega, 05/28/15) – 2,533 (54,017)
- [Wii U] Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Nintendo, 12/06/14) – 2,522 (646,705)
- [PS4] Alien: Isolation (Sega, 06/11/15) – 2,060 (8,287)
- [PS3] Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 (Konami the Best) (Konami, 06/11/15) – 1,882 (3,980)
- [3DS] Yo-Kai Watch 2: Shinuchi (Level-5, 12/14/14) – 1,826 (2,616,984)
[source 4gamer.net, via gematsu.com]
Comments 16
It's interesting for next week
Well persona and fire emblem will shake Japan gaming world
I am willing to bet a lot of them devil may cry 4 numbers are people importing it to have a physical copy too
I still believe part of the problem is all these damn games getting made for the PS3 and Vita as well. Sony has to start enticing developers to go PS4 only. No reason that shouldn't be the case for MGS V or Persona V.
Kinda sad that the Wii U is outselling the ps4 over there...are they on crack? O.o
I think Sony should try and convince the third party developers into making games more for just ps4 instead of having ps3 ports still, that might help sell more ps4's.
Am I the only one that thinks, for the most part, Japan likes crappy games? Lol
@hYdeks
It's all subjective what other people like. I can't say I care much for the games the Japanese tend to buy but I'm sure they would look at my library filled with fps, third person shooters, open world games and sports games be like 'WTF?!' I think Nintendo has been slightly better over there about creating games specifically for the Wii U that match what the Japanese gamers want. Sony had a string of good releases earlier in the year that resulted in a big push in sales but those releases have stopped and since most of them can be bought on other systems besides PS4, any momentum for the current-gen console was lost.
You don't have to intice anyone, you tell developers like Microsoft did with original Xbox and Nintendo did with game cube, you can keep making games for them, but we are not making anymore games or controllers for them, it was successful, as they were smart enough to push the newer system, Sony doesn't seem to know how to make things succeed, gay book thing, move and vita, way to hold on to the past and fail Sony
Sorry, I love Sony, buy they want too many things to succeed, and can't make but only one, live and learn, but quit shooting yourself in the foot
Xbox had a 100% improvement on last week sales.
Japan is going through a bad period right now with consoles. They appear to have migrated to smaller tech having lost interest in consoles due to the last gen being 2 years too long.
If you think Sony is struggling, look at MS. You really have to sympathy for those 100 Japanese gamers who bought the XB1 console. They are either incredibly stubborn, impressively loyal or just plain stupid for not reading the market and console spec. They are just not going to be supported and will sell the thing within 6 months.
Any console will sell, and sell well in Japan if it has the right games. Even the XB1 could easily top the Japanese sales charts if it had the must have Japanese games they love to play.
Most home console gamers over there already have a PS3 which you could still get most PS4 games on. Until the PS3 is dropped and the PS4 gets those must have games the Japanese sales charts aren't going to change.
Whilst the market has changed in Japan towards the mobile section of gaming it only takes a handful of really good nextgen games to pull people back.
While mobile gaming can be incredibly addictive (for some) it'll never be a substitute for real gaming. Games with fully open worlds, great graphics, deep rpg mechanics and a rich story.
I do wonder what Sony was thinking by releasing the revised PS4 in Japan before releasing it in Europe where the PS4 is selling like hot cakes.
I dont know why I read these articles because I really dont care
I'm shocked the japanese are going for the LL over the regular new 3ds seems like nintendo america and nintendo japan got their info mixed up.
@WARDIE
Seriously, just like the North American market is MS' focus because that's where it's most successful, Sony should be bending over backwards for the Europeans because they're the ones buying the PS4 the most. After that, they should cater to NA then Japan. It's the Western territories that actually care about the console.
@hYdeks Yup, You're the only one.
@sonicmeerkat The small one is overrated. Most people care about functionality not tacky cover plates.
@Gamer83 yea your right, they probably would. I don't actually like alot of fps either so I would agree with them on that, and I do like alot of there jrpg's, but other then that their games have no appeal. It's just kinda funny that what works over there doesn't work over here
@Riririn thanks for yet another smart a$$ comment you don't need to agree with me, but keep it to yourself, or just say your reason for disagreeing. You like there games, awesome and good for you, but respect ppls opinion our at least don't be a weiners about it. The way @Gamer83 did it was great, and he made lots of great points in his opinion.
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