Nintendo of Japan has revealed the final box art for the forthcoming Fire Emblem Awakening. You’ll notice the Nintendo Network logo on the side of the box, which indicates that the game will be getting the DLC that Nintendo promised. Fire Emblem Awakening is due for release April 19th in Japan, and is due later this year in Europe.
Nintendo has announced that the Nintendo 3DS is the fastest selling console ever in Japan. The Nintendo 3DS sold five million units in just fifty-two weeks according to Nintendo. Sales for the Nintendo 3DS were rather lacklustre initially, but as soon Nintendo slashed the recommended retail price and released games such as Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 sales for the system soared.
This weeks Media Create and Enterbrain sales figures are in from Japan and once again they clearly show that the Nintendo 3DS is trouncing the competition in the land of the rising sun. The Nintendo 3DS was the best-selling piece of hardware in Japan selling 67, 558 units, while five of the top ten games were either on the Wii or the Nintendo 3DS.
Japanese gaming publication Famitsu has posted its readers most wanted games for this year. You’ll notice that there are only two Nintendo related games in the top ten which are Dragon Quest X: Rise of the Five Tribes Online and Monster Hunter 4. Dragon Quest X, which was previously number one, has been overtaken by Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma which is coming out for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
The Pokemon Company has unleashed two new Japanese commercials for the highly anticipated Pokemon + Nobunaga’s Ambition. Nintendo has yet to confirm whether or not there will be a Western release for the game, but we may hear something at E3. Pokemon + Nobunaga’s Ambition comes out in Japan on March 17th.
Nintendo took the highest share of game sales revenue during January according to Enterbrain and Famitsu. For the month of January, which covers December 26 through January 29, Nintendo was the top publisher with the Kyoto based company accounting for 23.6% of video game revenue in Japan. Namco Bandai followed at 18%, with Capcom in third with 10.9%, Square Enix in fourth with 6.9% and Konami in fifth with 6.2%.
Mario Kart 7, Monster Hunter Tri G and Super Mario 3D Land took the top three positions during January in Japan according to sales data from Enterbrain. Six of the entire top ten titles were on Nintendo related platforms. Here’s the Japanese top ten for last month:
Famitsu has published its readers most wanted games of 2012 and Dragon Quest X: Rise of the Five Tribes Online for Wii, and eventually Wii U, has topped the list. There are a total of five games for Nintendo related platforms in the entire top ten. Here’s the games the Japanese are looking forward to playing the most this year:
Marvelous AQL, the developers behind the Harvest Moon franchise have revealed that Japanese model Miho Tanaka will be the image girl for the forthcoming Harvest Moon 3DS. Miho will appear on numerous television commercials and print adverts for Harvest Moon 3DS which is due for release in Japan on February 23rd.
Ubisoft has revealed that when Rayman Origins 3D launches in Japan on April 12th it will retail for a mere 2,500 yen which is roughly $32 on all-formats. Compared to other new releases such as Soulcalibur V for PlayStation 3 which is 8,380 yen ($110) and Resident Evil Revelations which costs 5,990 yen ($79) you can see that Rayman Origins is a steal. I’m not entirely sure why Rayman Origins 3D is launching so cheap in Japan, but it’s a shame it isn’t here in the West.
