There's only one new release worth talking about in the latest Japanese software charts, and that's Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. Capcom's well-received horror title entered in first place on PlayStation 4, selling 216,314 copies. Relatively speaking, it's not a bad number - most games these days do a lot less - but it doesn't quite measure up to the success of its predecessors. Resident Evil 6, for example, sold a whopping 634,000 copies in its first week on the Japanese market. We suppose that we'll have to wait and see whether the seventh instalment has legs.
Meanwhile, the PS4 once again kept its spot at the top of the hardware charts, with its sales rising week-on-week to 30,778 units. It's worth mentioning that this time last year, the PS4 was consistently sitting around the 20,000 mark, so Sony is at least seeing some growth.
Hardware sales
- PlayStation 4 – 30,778 (26,243)
- New 3DS LL – 17,600 (18,229)
- PlayStation Vita – 10,553 (11,521)
- PlayStation 4 Pro – 9,893 (7,133)
- 2DS – 5,806 (6,203)
- New 3DS – 1,301 (1,625)
- Wii U – 710 (794)
- PlayStation 3 – 579 (557)
- Xbox One – 231 (35)
Software sales
- [PS4] Resident Evil 7: biohazard Grotesque Ver. (Capcom, 01/26/17) – 187,306 (New)
- [PS4] Resident Evil 7: biohazard (Capcom, 01/26/17) – 29,008 (New)
- [3DS] Pokemon Sun / Pokemon Moon (Nintendo, 11/18/16) – 20,343 (3,112,620)
- [3DS] Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World (Nintendo, 01/19/17) – 17,869 (57,424)
- [PS4] Gravity Rush 2 (SIE, 01/19/17) – 15,798 (90,159)
- [3DS] Yo-kai Watch 3: Sukiyaki (Level-5, 12/15/16) – 13,017 (642,246)
- [3DS] Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS (Nintendo, 12/01/16) – 12,150 (941,119)
- [PS4] Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue (Square Enix, 01/12/17) – 11,243 (171,798)
- [PSV] Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (Spike Chunsoft, 01/12/17) – 9,734 (101,844)
- [PS4] Valkyria Revolution (Sega, 01/19/17) – 7,411 (45,608)
- [PS4] Grand Theft Auto V (Low Price Version) (10/08/15) – 6,447 (259,321)
- [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition (SIE, 03/19/15) – 5,808 (1,096,016)
- [3DS] Momotaro Dentetsu 2017: Tachiagare Nippon! (Nintendo, 12/22/16) – 5,621 (275,348)
- [PSV] Valkyria Revolution (Sega, 01/19/17) – 5,121 (23,339)
- [PSV] Twin Star Exorcists (Bandai Namco, 01/26/17) – 4,681 (New)
- [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf – Welcome Amiibo (Nintendo, 11/24/16) – 4,607 (117,404)
- [PS4] Final Fantasy XV (Limited and Bundled Editions Included) (Square Enix, 11/29/16) – 4,600 (928,231)
- [PS4] Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (Spike Chunsoft, 01/12/17) – 4,342 (52,302)
- [3DS] Miitopia (Nintendo, 12/08/16) – 4,213 (161,160)
- [PSV] New Game! The Challenge Stage! (5pb., 01/26/17) – 3,662 (New)
[source 4gamer.net, via gematsu.com]
Comments 13
Bugger. In terms of development/marketing etc.. reckon this one could have been cheaper to produce than 6? The game itself uses the "less is more" philosophy so I wonder if the entire development process (budget n all..) shared this idea.
@kyleforrester87 Definitely cheaper to produce.
Huh, I wonder how different the grotesque version is? Is the gore the same as the other versions, or is it toned down but less so than the Japanese standard versions?
How popular are FPS horror games in Japan? Things like Outlast and the like always struck me as banking on US tastes.
@get2sammyb That's what I figured. Using demos the way they did to market it was a smart way to save some pennies too.
So I'm just going to say it...those Pro numbers are actually quite good. Almost 1/3 of what the PS4 shifted this month & I expect those numbers to keep growing. Pro sales have also stayed relatively consistent, albeit low, whereas the PS4 drops off in Japan with no new games.
As the article states the PS4 used to struggle to shift 20k/week in Japan. Now min 35k/week. That's a win.
Think it's having the desired effect, but at a much smaller extent than Sony were hoping.
Keep growing the user base & keep everyone unified. I personally don't want PS5 till 2020.
Seems like in general that RE 7 hasn't hit the numbers Capcom wanted, though they're hardly bad, especially compared to some of the flops we just saw of games this past fall (some of which I'd guess had bigger budgets). I just hope Capcom doesn't see this as 'people don't want survival/horror.' Admittedly the market for singleplayer, story heavy, survival/horror driven games is smaller than the one for action, but RE 6 was coming off 5, which was a popular and actually quite well received game at the time, and 5 had the benefit of releasing after 4, widely considered one of the greatest videogames ever made. 7 had to follow up a complete mess of a game that sold well but was hated by many and didn't review well at all. There's still time, hopefully good word of mouth will help 7 have some legs so it can at least catch 6 and encourage Capcom to keep down this road.
As far as hardware sales, I hope the PS4 can continue to show growth throughout the year. I fully expect Switch will be the big thing once it hits that market but even if Sony has to settle for second, if the PS4 can continue to show positive momentum it should be able to keep a lot of developer support.
@Gamer83 Capcom have made 120 Resident evil games and spinoffs I wouldn't be too concerned.
@themcnoisy
Not concerned about the series continuing, I am concerned about the direction the next one may take if 7 can't at least match up to 6's sales.
RE6 sold a lot at launch everywhere, it had built hype off the past two games being good. Plus, there was a bit of an "eastern" touch to RE6 in some areas, especially the Jake and Sherry levels.
@Gamer83 They realise its not going too already. I read their financial reports. Here's a link to their games series amounts of titles and sales. Capcom although not doing gangbusters are doing ok. The biggest concern right now for them is PC games have sold way less than expected and no really known mobile franchises. Here's the link anyway;
http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/finance/salesdata.html
@Gamer83 Yeah I don't think 7 needs to meet 6's. It looks like they threw the kitchen sink at 6. 7 hopefully taught them that they don't need to do that to make an awesome RE game.
@RedMageLanakyn Capcom said at the time that the entire RE6 project was heavily inspired by the likes of COD..they wanted a slice of that pie, as many developers seemed to want at that time.
To be fair, this is a huge deviation (albeit well received one) from the pre-established formula...
And for a lack of a better word, it lacks an eastern flair.
This reflects partly the declining market over there and maybe some doubts over the franchise after the last game possibly, I know I wasn't even going to buy it until I played the demo. Speaking of which surely it's success suggests this might have some legs and Capcom can count themselves unlucky that it launched in a surprisingly strong January
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