Tag Archives: Japan

Vague sales reports are coming in from the front lines of Vita’s Japanese launch, and while apparently things are going fairly well, they’re not going quite as well as Sony could have hoped. The Vita has not sold out according to Japanese retailers, but memory cards have. More »

According to a poll conducted by Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, Uncharted: Golden Abyss is the most anticipated PS Vita game.

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If there are two things former Team Ninja head Tomonobu Itagaki knows, they’re action and talking. And hey, it just so happens that he thinks most Japanese developers are miserable at both.

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Our incredibly large Japanese reader base will be thrilled to hear that their magical portal to the PlayStation Store has finally re-opened.

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The Xbox 360′s troubles in Japan are obviously still continuing as Microsoft managed to sell just 6,000 units in all of Japan from May 16 to June 12.
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Nintendo’s announced a special Wii bundle and limited edition for The Last Story in Japan.

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Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune may have gotten the hell out of Capcom so fast that his office chair’s still spinning, but that doesn’t mean there’s not time for one last parting jab.

Actually, make that six or seven parting jabs. And then maybe a baseball bat to the face.

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What are your plans for the summer? Road trip? A little R&R at the beach? Some time with the family?

Well, your plans pale in comparison to Samus’. She’s going to hunt aliens. In Japan.

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Apparently, a whole mess of people thought bigger screens and a fatter stylus were just the tweaks the DSi needed in order to attain portable perfection. Case in point: Japan. After a mere two days, the DSi LL has already done its uber-popular family of handhelds proud by selling 103,524 units, according to Enterbrain’s estimates.

For comparison’s sake, the DSi moved 170,779 units at the same point in its infancy. The PSPgo, meanwhile, limped across the finish starting line with 28,275 units at its Japanese launch.

Thanks, Siliconera.

Dragon Quest selling well in Japan? Naaaah.

But somehow, that’s just what it’s doing. According to Famitsu (via andriasang), the latest installment in the ultra popular franchise continues its rampage around Japan, surely giving Godzilla a gray hair or two in the process.

The game has, as of July 26, sold a total of 3,217,502 copies. Can five million be far off?

We’ll give it until the end of the year. If it hasn’t reached the big five-OOOOOO by then, we’ll eat something. Not a hat factory, though. We already ate that.

The hot summer sun isn’t the only thing that’s making people sweat at the moment, what with the burning question of how to handle the economy on everyone’s minds. Fortunately, Nintendo still seems to be in good financial spirits, seeing as how it recently handed out the biggest summer bonuses in all of Japan.

Japanese summer bonuses are down 16.6 percent since last year, but Nintendo still managed to top a very large list of generous souls — one that includes nearly 700 Japanese business firms.

Kotaku‘s got the details, if you’re interested.

Game sales in Japan are currently in a freefall, it would seem — with a 24.4 percent year-on-year drop in hardware and software sales since the beginning of 2009, according to GI.biz.

More specifically, hardware sales have fallen right off Mt. Fuji, losing 27.6 percent compared to 2008, while software sales have taken a 21.8 percent hit.

For the first half of 2009, Japan’s gaming market did a total of ¥218 million worth of business.

Click through the link for more depressing stats. We’re going to go buy some earplugs to block out the wailing and gnashing of teeth currently taking place on the streets.

After sales unbefitting of a GTA game in both Europe and North America, GTA: Chinatown Wars is taking its cel-shaded, dual-screened brand of automobile thievery to Japan.

Cyberfront’s publishing, but hasn’t announced a release date yet.

Here’s hoping the game’s plight fills Japan’s gaming population with sorrow, giving rise to a new influx of sales. Chinatown Wars is great, people. Please buy it.

Thanks, Tiny Cartridge.

Earlier today Nintendo launched a new Japanese site for Metroid Prime, featuring a peek at two Wiimakes and Metroid Prime Corruption. At the bottom of the page there is some text stating “Another Side Story coming soon” and, “The Metroid Prime history followed from the perspective of a space pirate”.

IGN thinks that the new stuff will be nothing more than “web-based content detailing a side story”, but fans can always hope for more.

Japanese gamers will be getting the New Play Control version of Metroid Prime on February 19.

More through the link.

According to a Famitsu report uncovered by Kotaku’s newshounds, Japan’s videogame market took another tumble last year — and the hill’s looking mighty steep.

2008 saw the market pull in a total of ¥582.61 billion, while 2007 ponied up ¥687.95 billion. Especially noticeable, hardware sales dropped from ¥327.41 billion to ¥250.5 billion. Software sales, on the other hand, escaped with minor injuries.

Click through the link for a better view of the rising sun’s rapid descent. You might have to stand up to see over all the numbers, though.

By Nathan Grayson

Well this is strange. According to a report by Siliconera, Sonic’s latest adventure won’t be making a pit stop in Japan until spring of 2009. However, the game’s release date remains unaffected in other territories.

And that’d be fine – if not for one perplexing detail. Apparently, Sega is slowing Sonic’s Japanese release in order to improve the game’s quality. But unless Sega unleashes a patch when the blue blur finally collides with the land of the rising sun, it appears that everyone else will miss out on the game’s elongated spruce-up. After all, the game arrives next week in North America and soon after elsewhere.

We just wonder what kind of “improvements” Sega feels shouldn’t migrate out of Japan. The eyes, maybe? Or other, er, regions?

By Nathan Grayson

Bloody hell fire. According to this, citing “leaked Famitsu figures”, Super Smash Bros. Brawl sold over 500,000 units on its first day on sale in Japan this week. The Wii fighter, which has been the subject of endless attention from the media recently, is down for a March 9 release in the US, with no confirmed date as yet for Europe.

According to Media Create figures for January 21-26, Wii Fit is still flying in Japan, leading the all format chart and having now hit sales of 1,283,000. Wii Fit sold 90,000 for the charted period. Second place goes to the newly launched Pro Evo PSP title, World Soccer Winning Eleven: Ubiquitous Evolution, with sales of 77,000. Bring up the rear is some random PS2 thing called Lucky Star: Misasagi Sakura Gakuen Sakura Fuji Festival with sales of 72,000. Here’s the chart.