Japanese Sales Chart Lunacy!

I'm back after a VF4 and general life-induced absence with the latest sales chart. Stolen from Media Create, who only supply the top 10 to non-paying customers, as near as I can tell, but hey, it's recent and in english.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Media Create
TOP 10 Weekly Software Sales (July 22 - July 28, 2002)

©2002 Media Create Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
The Copying or Reproduction of this chart is Strictly Forbidden.

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Uh, just forget that last part.


Ranking Platform Title Genre Publisher Release Date MSRP
1 GC Super Mario Sunshine ACT Nintendo 2002.07.19 \6,800

Apparently this Super Mario thing's working out okay for Nintendo, but not as well as you might think. Check out the market analysis after the list.

2 PS2 GioGio's Bizarre Adventure ACT Capcom 2002.07.25 \6,800

Power Stone with drag queens? Japan's diggin' the newest game based on the weirdest mainstream manga going.

3 PS2 Yamasa Digi World 3 (inc. Limited Edition) TBL Yamasa Entertainment 2002.07.25 \8,800

4 PS2 Jikkyo Power Pro. Baseball 9 SPT Konami 2002.07.18 \6,800

I wish Konami'd bring this series out here. Who doesn't want to see a super-deformed Pudge Rodriguez? Oh wait, never mind...

[b]5 PS2 Night of Kamaitachi 2 (incl. Special BOX) ADV Chun Soft 2002.07.18 \9,800

6 PS2 My Summer Holiday 2: Sea Adventure ADV SCE 2002.07.11 \5,800

The sequel to the not-so succesful My Summer Holiday: Grandma's Boring Smelly House Adventure hangs in the top 10.


7 GBA Custom Robo GX RPG Nintendo 2002.07.26 \4,800

Smooshed robots + GBA = gold Jerry, gold!

8 Xbox MURAKUMO ACT From Software 2002.07.25 \6,800

Hey now! There's life in the mean-green yen bleedin' machine yet. But who decided that every other game this fall has to include mechs? Ah well, beats the zombie craze.

9 PS2 Pachinko Slot! Aladdin A (incl. Limited Edition) TBL Sammy 2002.07.18 \4,800

Everyone's favourite Price Is Right game comes home in the form of Japan's most bewildering gaming trend. Gambling without the money? Where do I not sign up?

10 PS2 Ape Escape 2 ACT SCE 2002.07.18 \5,800

The original dual shock gimmick-game is back! For whatever reason, stick a monkey in a game, and they will come. I'd find out why, but arts.rec.monkey scares the hell out of me.


If anybody cares, I'll dig up a more complete list later, or for the Japanese-abled, check it out here: Dengeki Online



Here's Media Create's analysis:

Total sales for the top 100 titles this week represent 61.19% of last week's total and 108.70% of the weekly average. Though "Super Mario Sunshine" remained at the top position of the ranking this week as well, the momentum of sales have appeared to be slowing down. Moreover, the accumulative sales units for two weeks are 436,035 units, which are not as good as expected and some retailers have expressed concern over the summer selling season according to our survey.
Total sales units remained almost the same as that of the same period last week (23/Jul/'01 - 29/Jul/'01), but the structure of the market has changed significantly. Total number of sales units for the new releases has decreased about 60,000 units this year, but this decreased portion has been covered by the older releases. Whilst the sales unit for the 100th ranked title last year recorded 783 units, this year was 1,512 units which is almost doubled the amount of last year. It could be said that the market has been recovering its depth now.

Back to me:
Japan's been in a financial slump pretty much since Reagan left office, so the fact that things are coming together overall is a good sign, and the chart is representative of this. As you may have noticed, video games are pretty dang expensive in Japan, so if people are buying them it means they feel good about things and have money to spend. What does that mean to you and me? More niche games that have some sort of appeal to you and I, unless you're big into pachinko/horse racing/answer-every-damn-question-exactly-how-she-wants-and-maybe-you-get-a-kiss-you-sad-loser games, in which case you're nicely catered to already.


And finally, market share:

Share
PSone 2.23%
PlayStation 2 48.34%
GameCube 11.31%
Game Boy Advance 28.12%
Xbox 3.53%
WonderSwanColor 0.80%
SwanCrystal 5.66%
Total 100.00%

That entire Xbox share is pretty much made up of Murakumo and Crazy Taxi 3. It needs those games MS is supposed to be developing in Japan, and fast. MS can't really afford to quit on Japan, but they can't really afford to hang in there the way things are going.

Mario's put the Cube's share on the map, which has been hovering around a dismal 15 000 units total for all games on the market each week. But Nintendo's still gonna need a big showing stateside this christmas to even things out.

Combine the PS and PS2's share, and Sony single handedly controls 50% of the market, without even seeing a major release. Juggernaut? I think so.

Nintendo controls an impressive 39.43% of the market.

Impressive indeed.


Still, the big N has a way to go to catch Sony...

(Which has more than half of the game sales with 50.57%)

This is horribly reminiscent of the sales charts of 1999 when Sega had a whopping 6% market share with the Dreamcast, and would have but one title on the top 10 chart with the rest being PS1 games and game boy games (pokemon). The difference is that Microsoft can anchor the sinking ship known as xbox to their gigantic anchor of a wallet.

Quote:

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Originally posted by StriderKyo

4 PS2 Jikkyo Power Pro. Baseball 9 SPT Konami 2002.07.18 \6,800[/b]

I wish Konami'd bring this series out here. Who doesn't want to see a super-deformed Pudge Rodriguez? Oh wait, never mind...

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As a fan of both the Power Pro Baseball game series and the Texas Rangers, I take offense to this :mad:

Just kidding, Strider, keep up the good work, funny stuff :D

Just don't ever badmouth Pudge again...or else :sneak:

Nintendo is still doing off, IMHO.

The "One-dozen Swan color" as they say, isn't a match for that GBA, nor is anything. Console wise, it's decent at best. Mario will continue to sell for years, though 430 in 2 weeks is poo.

Who would have thought a mario game would only sell that so far. I was expecting 1:1 or close to it.

:(

Jojos bizzare adventure isnt a very good game ...........all you do is control some adrogynous fools through some ugly ass envirrnoments.From what Ive seen the first guy you can control only has three moves; fierce punch(press three times for a SOResque combo), a move in which this tree jumps out of the ground and impales your foe , and some move where some spirit leaps out of his body to attack his opponnent..........

I guess Nintendo shipped the right amount of Marios afterall..

Quote:

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Originally posted by Player 1
This is horribly reminiscent of the sales charts of 1999 when Sega had a whopping 6% market share with the Dreamcast, and would have but one title on the top 10 chart with the rest being PS1 games and game boy games (pokemon). The difference is that Microsoft can anchor the sinking ship known as xbox to their gigantic anchor of a wallet.

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How many times are we going to hear this? Do you honestly think that if Microsoft could or was willing to buy their way in, they wouldn't have done so? Why would they continue to bleed cash profusely if the end of their woes was so easily achievable? Anyone who thinks Microsoft can use money to overtake Sony or Nintendo is dreaming.

Man, I'd love to see Powerful Pro Baseball over here. I love that kinda' stuff. :) Are we getting that Jo Jo game or is it staying in Japan? I love the first 2 2D games, and this one looks excellent as well.

Jo Jo is coming to US, some times this fall, or winter.