Category Archives: Japan

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D topped the Media Create charts in Japan with 104,569 units moved, and ultimately helped provide 3DS with a much needed surge after disappointed hardware sales over the last couple of weeks. Sales of 3DS LL hit 29,533 units over the prior week’s 27,172 units, while 3DS sales saw the biggest jump out of the two offerings. The system moved 17,602 compared to 12,700 the prior week.

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Ecco the Dolphin will be splashing his cheeky little flippers on the Japanese 3DS eShop from June 26, Sega has confirmed.

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Killer is Dead creator Suda 51 has shared his view on the Xbox brand and the way it is perceived in Japan. While the nation’s relationship with Microsoft’s console has hardly been warming in the past, the developer reckons it’s all about to blow up for the better.

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Metal Max 4: Moonlight Diva has been announced for 3DS. The RPG, vehicle combat titles takes place in a post apocalyptic world with an open ended gameplay and combat dogs.The game was announced via Famitsu and will be released in Japan this fall. Kadokawa Games will publish the title, and its DLC. Thanks, Siliconera.

Atlus’ parent company, Index, is being investigated by Japanese authorities for shady bookkeeping practices, according to a NHK report.

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Tomodachi Collection: New Life continued its reign on the Media Create charts in Japan for the June 3-9 period, bringing it’s life-to-date sales to the 1,090,875 mark since its April 18 release. The only new title to grace the top 20 was Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition, and it debuted at 11. Hardware sale continued to decline. Charts are below.

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Xbox One will launch across various Asian territories in 2014, but there’s no word of Japan yet, possibly because Xbox 360 has performed poorly there over the years.

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After being knocked off the top of the Media Create charts for two weeks straight, Tomodachi Collection: New Life is back on top with 59,104 units sold. Life-to-date, the 3DS title has moved 1,044,088 units since its April 18 release. All hardware was down for the period, with 3DS LL showing the largest drop – 28,807units over last week’s 40,651 units. The smallest drop came from 3DS which was only down 3DS two units over the prior week.

Full hardware and software charts are below.

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Famitsu has collated all of the financial reports of Japan’s biggest games industry players to give an overview of the past financial year. The report found that the Japanese games market grew by 1.2%, and that Nintendo is facing a tough time with Wii U and a lack of big hits overseas.

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Capcom has published a countdown site to commemorate the company’s 30th anniversary.

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Flipnote Studio will land in Japan on July 3. The app will be free, and will feature improvements over the DSi version. It will also contain short animations with more colors, and users can export their creations in GIF or AVI format. Announced back in March, the app will also be released in the west with Nintendo of American having it down for early August.

99 Spirits is the medieval RPG puzzler from Japanese indie dev TORaIKI. It launches in the West today on PC, and we’ve got a batch of launch screens to go with it.

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El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron director Takeyasu Sawaki has successfully acquired the IP rights to the brand from former holder Ignition Entertainment.

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Luigi is 30 years old this year, and as part of the celebrations he’s getting his own Nintendo 3DS XL design in Japan. In a total shocker, the West seems to have been overlooked for now.

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Nintendo Japan has made a bunch of Wii U announcements today, starting with a new white Premium bundle, a larger battery for the Game Pad, a new Nintendo Land and Remote Plus bundle, and an new official charger.

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Shin Megami Tensei 4 was released in Japan on May 23, and the Atlus title landed at number one of the software chart, moving 188,562 in three days. The RPG helped lagging 3DS sales surge over the prior week as well, with the system moving 40,651 units compared to 24,123 units last week.

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World of Tanks developer Wargaming has opened a new publishing office in Tokyo, Japan in recognition of the country’s important in the games industry.

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Devil’s Third was announced back in June 2010 under defunct publisher THQ. Valhalla Studios head and Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki has broken radio silence to say that the violent third-person game is still in development.

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Nintendo Japan has announced a Monster Hunter and Ace Attorney-focused Nintendo Direct presentation for this Friday.

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Summon Night 5 debuted on the Media Create charts at number one in Japan, knocking Tomodachi Collection: New Life off it’s cushy spot for the time being. The Namco title moved 105,511 units on PSP. Hardware was down again this week. You can get both charts below.

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