Sony PSP Vaults Past Nintendo DS in Japan
This is why Sony may yet rule the console-verse in spite of all its missteps and bungled first-gen games and cynical press. Because pretty much out of the blue, a game like Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII can come along in the right market (Japan) and turn a mediocre selling handheld system into a top seller six times the PSP's prior week sales. Snap. Just like that. Crisis Core's sale to-date in Japan? 486,659. (The game comes out here sometime next spring.)
Last week's Japanese hardware sales, courtesy Media Create:
95,487 Sony PSP
79,974 Nintendo DS
26,181 Nintendo Wii
13,128 PlayStation 2
13,101 PlayStation 3
1,243 Xbox 360
Aside from a plaintive "Ouch, Xbox 360, just ouch," it's another reminder that games move hardware faster than you can say "Too bad no Metal Gear Solid 4 'til 2008, grasshopper." Final Fantasy XIII too, which I'm actually betting we won't see stateside until 2009 at this point. Then again, those franchises are bigger in Japan anyway. For instance, as I'm typing this, I'm listening to the Final Fantasy IX Piano Collection. What's that? You didn't know they had solo piano arrangements of Nobuo Uematsu's music? You don't know who Nobuo Uematsu is? Exactly.
Sony's going to retake the Japanese market from Nintendo probably sooner than later, but what about over here? Let's see, Lair was pretty much a disaster and I expect to see that reflected in sales figures going forward, i.e. it won't be a game that sells well despite its critical drubbing (the way, by contrast, pretty much every EA sports title does). Heavenly Sword is getting decent reviews, but it's more of a niche action title without the franchise recognition Sony needs to churn out Halo-sized numbers.
What's on deck for the rest of the year in terms of PS3 exclusives?
Folklore is supposed to be a "dark fantasy adventure inspired by western fairy tales," and sounds a bit Diablo to me, i.e. central town hub, venture out to do battle with monsters on intermittent quests, button-mashy combat. Unique stuff includes using the SIXAXIS to "shake" enemies and "yank" their powers away to use for yourself. It's getting mixed press so far. Release: Early October.
The PSP's "Size Matters" was fantastic, so let's hope Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction is even better. I don't know where this one's buzz went, since no one seems to be talking about it. Have we lost interest in platformers? Release: Late October.
Umm, that's about it. Yeah, kind of a bum holiday season for PS3 owners, though to be fair, Microsoft's Xbox was tapping the Halo IV (as in "eye-vee," not the roman numeral) its first couple years before stuff like Splinter Cell and Ninja Gaiden and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic finally showed up.
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"Sony's going to retake the Japanese market from Nintendo probably sooner than later, but what about over here?"
What? I really hope you just didn't think this through. I'm not here to be mean, but when the DS has a 13 MILLION sales lead on the PSP and the Wii has a lead of over 2 Million on the PS3, I just have to wonder. To add to that, those numbers are also from Media Crate. So really, I'm just wondering how you think one week of a 16K lead is suddenly going to make up 13 million sales. In fact, even if a game as big as this came out every week (which it doesn't), a 16K lead would take multiple DECADES to even it out.
I agree with the previous post. I'll also add that whilst Sony may be wanting to put their hands in the air and then take a bow for the recent hit - the real congratulations should go to Square Enix who have done all the work and should be expect a big cheque from Sony otherwise without Konami & Square Sony would be looking at 12 months survival at best.
Speaking of companies covering Sony's backside... Bluray doesnt have much of an axis any more so what would happen if Warner Bros made the decision to just do HD-DVD ?
Regarding Sony playing catch-up in Japan, I was thinking the PS3 specifically, and my bet is sometime in the next 365 days, assuming MGS4 hits its spring 2008 release date.
I concede that a 2 million lead after a year is much more surmountable than a 13 million lead. Thank you for not taking that as an attack, and the response. I still believe that the DS has showed the true nature of the Japanese market, and that the Wii will follow it, but MGS4 is a powerful argument no matter the situation.
The real news here is the utter collapse of Wii sales in Japan. Just a few months back, the Wii was selling to the tune of 120,000 units per week. Today it can barely manage 120,000 units sold per MONTH. Every week birngs a new weeky sales low, with the latest week at just 26,181 Wii's sold.
And while the Wii was outselling the PS3 by a massive 6:1 back in June, today, the Wii is not even managing to outsell the PS3 by 2:1, and that with the PS3 selling for over twice the price of the Wii, and with no prce cuts or any of the PS3's great games being released.
There is little doubt in my mind that the PS3 is going to start outselling the Wii in Japan soooner rather than later. When the PS3 gets a price cut in Japan, backed by the release of super PS3 games in Japan like Final Fantasy XIII , Biohazard 5, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Monster Hunter 3, Devil May Cry 4, the PS3 will blow the Wii out of the water in Japan.
I realize that those are all big games for the hardcore market, the market that Sony is after. But if Nintendo continues with what they are doing, this sudden downturn will only turn up come holiday season with releases just as big to the casual crowd as the ones you listed are to the hardcore. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (a kind of hardcore/casual mix i suppose), Wii Fit, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3 (I apologize if this has already been released, I'm not sure). Obviously not quite the same crowd, but it's a very powerful stable of games, not to mention the continued week to week success of Wii Play and Sports. Finally, all of this is BEFORE the third parties in Japan take to the Wii like they have to the DS.
No, a PS3 comeback is not impossible in Japan, but I don't think it's a sure bet by any means.
# 1. I don't buy the "casual games sell, and hard core games don't sell" spiel." The Wii outsells the PS3 in Japan because the PS3 sells for 62,000 Yen , while the Wii i selling for just 25,000 Yen. The PS3 is selling for over twice the price of the Wi plus another 12.000 Yen again. If you sell the PS3 for 25,000 Yen today, and the Wii for 62,000 yen, the PS3 will outsell the Wii by far, "hard core" games or not.
# 2. Wii Play and Wii Sports sales in Japan have collapsed along with Wii sales. Last week, Wii Play and Wii Sports came in at #13 and # 1 in the Japanese software charts, their lowest level ever. They are currently selling around 12,000 a week. Meanwhile, there were only 3 Wii games in the japanese top 50.
#3. I don't see any major Wii release in Japan till Super Mario Galaxy on 11/1. For the rest of Sep and Oct, I don't see Wii sales going up by much.
The sharp fall in Wii sales in Japan over the past 5 weeks:
August 13 - 19, 2007
Wii - 73,938 sold
August 20 - 26, 2007
Wii - 46,283
August 27 - September 2, 2007
Wii - 39,371
September 3 - 9, 2007
Wii - 29,088
September 10 - 16, 2007
Wii - 26,181
That's a fall of 47,000 units sold per week in just 5 weeks.
While Wii sales are at all time lows, the PS3 is actually selling better than it did back in May and June , when the PS3 only averaged 9000 units a week, as compared to the current 13,000 PS3's sold per week.
There is some anecdotal evidence that shows Nintendo is shipping consoles to markets other than Japan at the moment, but it's purely speculative.
1) Of course the Wii is selling because it's cheaper. I don't believe for a second it could compete if the price points were different, but I believe that a low price is simply part of the casual market. Likewise, Wii games would not sell at the same price point as 360 or PS3 games.
2) Yes, there has been a downtrend, and yes, I probably tried to play it off in my last post. However, ask yourself what games ARE out for the Wii, and you'll see that it has essentially been outselling the other two with nothing but Zelda (which disappointed in Japan) Wii Sports and Wii play.
3) If sales don't go up in the next two months, oh well. At the LOWEST sales of the Wii and the highest of the PS3, the Wii is outselling the PS3 2:1. And when those big games finally do come, Wii sales AND PS3 sales will go up, but a lead is already there.
@mariofan361,
The Wii is actually in plentiful supplies in Japan righ now actually.
They are in stores everywhere. They are simply selling in far less numbers than they used to, that's all.
As for Super Mario Galaxy(comes out 11/1 in Japan), I doubt if it's going to do much for Wii sales in Japan. Pre-orders for Super Mario Galaxy on Amazon Japan have not been that great, plus the bigggest system sellers for the Wii have been the mini-games/party games of Wii Sports, Wii Ply, Mario Party etc, and sales of Wii Sports keep hitting new lows every week in Japan.
The Japanese have had their fill of Wii Sports/Wii Play already. Last week Wii Play hit it's lowest sales rankng ever in the Japanese charts, at # 19, which naurally led to the Wii itself hitting its's lowest weekly sales # ever at Wii 24,992 sold .
Hardware - This Week | Last Week | YTD | LTD
1. PSP - 56,439 | 58,861 | 2,192,400 | 9,857,477
2. NDS - 47,455 | 48,884 | 1,661,075 | 22,834,125
3. WII - 44,525 | 48,480 | 1,743,935 | 6,360,094
4. PS3 - 14,359 | 17,973 | 565,677 | 2,207,348
5. PS2 - 11,768 | 7,673 | 275,049 | 21,202,089
6. 360 - 4,776 | 5,104 | 77,285 | 584,625
Ok, so Wii's lead has gone up to 4 million, DS's lead has pretty much stabilized, though the market seems pretty saturated, and the PS3 is selling more due to big name games, but not as much as the Wii. Sounds about right. (Media Crate data 6/30/08-7/6/08)