Yes! Your humble host has managed to wrestle this week's Japanese sales charts from associate editor Robert Ramsey's iron clasp for the first time in years; unfortunately, it's a rubbish one. Far Cry Primal was the highest charting new game for the week ending 10th April, moving 25,302 units on the PlayStation 4. The other big story is Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness dropping like a rock following its mediocre opening last time out, moving just 10,383 units. That puts its total to date at just 123,408 units – not great.
One game that is doing well on the quiet, however, is Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition, which is now approaching 750,000 units sold – a huge achievement for the evergreen construct-'em-up. It couldn't, however, prevent Vita hardware sales from dropping – down to 13,278 units from 17,153 units. PlayStation 4 system sales also declined, tallying 23,389 units. That was enough, however, to make it the best-selling platform of the week – assuming you don't combine the various 3DS models.
Hardware Sales
- PlayStation 4 – 23,889 (30,081)
- New 3DS LL – 18,042 (22,020)
- PlayStation Vita – 13,278 (17,153)
- Wii U – 4,963 (3,541)
- New 3DS – 4,420 (5,376)
- 3DS – 1,411 (2,069)
- PlayStation 3 – 1,296 (1,537)
- 3DS LL – 242 (342)
- Xbox One – 212 (207)
Software Sales
- [3DS] Yo-kai Sangokushi (Level-5, 04/02/16) – 90,196 (359,712)
- [3DS] Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 (Square Enix, 03/24/16) – 49,847 (517,146)
- [PS4] Far Cry Primal (Ubisoft, 04/07/16) – 25,302 (New)
- [3DS] Disney Art Academy (Nintendo, 04/07/16) – 17,717 (New)
- [PS4] Dark Souls III (Bandai Namco, 03/24/16) – 15,274 (258,821)
- [PS4] Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness (Square Enix, 03/31/16) – 10,383 (123,408)
- [Wii U] Pokken Tournament (Pokemon, 03/18/16) – 8,065 (120,366)
- [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition (SCE, 03/19/15) – 7,374 (730,835)
- [Wii U] Splatoon (Nintendo, 05/28/15) – 6,902 (1,325,502)
- [3DS] Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (Nintendo, 02/18/16) – 6,666 (136,148)
- [Wii U] Super Mario Maker (Nintendo, 09/10/15) – 5,892 (840,123)
- [3DS] Assassination Classroom: Assassin Training Plan (Bandai Namco, 03/24/16) – 5,205 (34,852)
- [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf (Happy Price Selection) (Nintendo, 03/17/16) – 5,128 (27,492)
- [PSV] Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X (Sega, 03/24/16) – 4,623 (84,135)
- [PSV] Brother's Conflict: Precious Baby (Idea Factory, 04/07/16) – 3,476 (New)
- [PS4] The Division (Ubisoft, 03/10/16) – 3,422 (123,282)
- [PS4] Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence Sengoku Risshiden (Koei Tecmo, 03/24/16) – 3,325 (28,332)
- [3DS] Tomodachi Life (Happy Price Selection) (03/17/16) – 3,166 (16,389)
- [XBO] Quantum Break (Microsoft, 04/07/16) – 3,124 (New)
- [3DS] Yo-kai Watch Busters Red Cat Team / White Dog Squad (Level-5, 07/11/15) – 2,671 (2,243,803)
[source 4gamer.net, via gematsu.com]
Comments 11
Wow, I doubt Square Enix will be happy with Star Ocean's performance.
Star Ocean is dead after this. Savor it fellas
Any guesses as to why Star Ocean is such a fail? I'm not into the series myself but from what I've read this is supposed to be one of the better entries so it's disappointing to see PS4 owners avoid yet another exclusive. If the game sucked, who gives a damn, but if it's actually good people should buy it. Stuff like this just makes it easier for Japanese devs to shift to the mobile market.
@DominicanGlory It got boycotted because of the panty censorship. I swear.
@Gamer83
Idk, that's a good question.
Well, how have other JRPG's performed on home consoles in Japan? SMT x Fire Emblem kinda flopped on Wii U despite even winning a GotY award from some online JP site (might not be mainstream but ANY game that can even be considered for GotY must be at least decent, right?).
How did Tales of Zesteria do? I'm wondering if there just isn't a market for JRPG's on home consoles over there. On Vita and 3DS its a different story- JRPG's sell insane numbers (at least, the good ones do).
I think Star Ocean will do much better in the west. I've got it preordered anyways...
For Far Cry: Primal, I doubt they are losing money on it, more than likely they are profiting off that game since they didn't have to do much. They did tweaks and did some stuff, but really, the labor I doubt costed anything since the base of the game is still there, which is Far Cry 4.
For a moment I thought Splatoon had dropped off the top ten. Whew!
@JaxonH
Ironically I think it's kind of up to the Western territories to save some of these Japanese franchises at this point. It's pretty obvious that market is about the mobile scene at this point. I truly believe NX is the last chance home consoles have over there. Even if it ends up being a pretty popular system, if the games don't sell, Japanese devs will have no reason to continue making home console titles.
@Gamer83 I think that the Japanese are just plain nuts. The buy pokemon by the millions even if it is the same game every time. Maybe we will see in the future that games get to EU and US first. Xseed, Marvelous, Nisa, Bandai Namco show us that there is a market for these games they sell out enough. I see that the games are smaller in budget but I love they keep giving us these games. Maybe a smaller group of players but the smaller budget seems to be working. That is why I like the small companies and indies they dare to be different and think out of the box because they don't need 5 million sales just to break even. I think Japan will be the new op maybe the old West where they only buy the old same crap every time. Only it's not called COD, FIFA, BF only it's Pokemon, Yo Kan organisatie whatever. And I hope the West will safe the Japanese niche console gaming.
@Royalblues The only console to sell more units this week than last week!! Focus on the positive!!!
I must admit that in general I have little interest in the Japanese market or the majority of games that are very 'Japanese' - particularly JRPG's. I did enjoy Zelda and Goemon on my N64 though...
@BAMozzy But Wii U, though...
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