This week’s Japanese sales charts are now in thanks to Media Create. There’s a couple of new entries in the charts this week including A Story of Seasons Fairytale for the Nintendo 3DS and also Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition for the PlayStation 4. Interestingly Splatoon has held on at number three and has proved to be a surprise hit for Nintendo who will no doubt be pleased with its success. Here’s the best-selling software and hardware this week in Japan,
Software Sales (followed by lifetime sales)
- [3DS] Rhythm Heaven: The Best+ (Nintendo, 06/11/15) – 66,416 (224,008)
- [3DS] Return to PopoloCrois: A Story of Seasons Fairytale (Marvelous, 06/18/15) – 46,491 (New)
- [Wii U] Splatoon (Nintendo, 05/28/15) – 43,653 (310,582)
- [PS4] Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition (Capcom, 06/18/15) – 35,872 (New)
- [3DS] Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden (Bandai Namco, 06/11/15) – 16,443 (91,102)
- [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition (SCE, 03/19/15) – 9,703 (209,693)
- [Wii U] Mario Kart 8 (Nintendo, 05/29/14) – 8,660 (1,037,923)
- [PS4] The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Spike Chunsoft, 05/21/15) – 6,150 (117,985)
- [PSV] The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Evolution (Falcom, 06/11/15) – 4,666 (25,150)
- [3DS] Pokemon Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire (Pokemon, 11/21/14) – 4,332 (2,643,436)
- [3DS] Girls Mode 3: Kira Kira Code (Nintendo, 04/16/15) – 3,983 (155,177)
- [3DS] Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition (GungHo Online Entertainment, 04/30/15) – 3,848 (266,975)
- [PSV] Shiren the Wanderer 5 Plus (Spike Chunsoft, 06/04/15) – 3,553 (25,848)
- [3DS] Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (Nintendo, 09/13/14) – 3,460 (2,246,991)
- [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf (Nintendo, 11/08/12) – 2,621 (3,985,433)
- [3DS] Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX (Sega, 05/28/15) – 2,533 (54,017)
- [Wii U] Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Nintendo, 12/06/14) – 2,522 (646,705)
- [PS4] Alien: Isolation (Sega, 06/11/15) – 2,060 (8,287)
- [PS3] Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 (Konami the Best) (Konami, 06/11/15) – 1,882 (3,980)
- [3DS] Yo-Kai Watch 2: Shinuchi (Level-5, 12/14/14) – 1,826 (2,616,984)
Hardware Sales (followed by last week’s sales)
- New 3DS LL – 17,642 (19,620)
- Wii U – 14,616 (16,413)
- PlayStation 4 – 13,850 (10,822)
- PlayStation Vita – 11,748 (10,797)
- New 3DS – 4,506 (4,329)
- PlayStation 3 – 2,819 (2,633)
- 3DS – 1,126 (943)
- 3DS LL – 790 (880)
- PlayStation Vita TV – 540 (566)
- Xbox One – 201 (100)
While console sales generally arent really as great as they could be, WiiU is doing quite well compared to other systems in Japan, which makes me wonder why it seems that Japanese 3rd parties dont make much content for WiiU? Wheres SquareEnix, Sega, Capcom, Konami, BandaiNamco etc. support? Even Ubisoft did better support for WiiU than these companies despite low sales.
If Japan was the only market, I don’t doubt they would be giving support. But as the Wii U isn’t doing well outside Japan, they don’t want to take the risk.
But heres the thing, if thats the case why BandaiNamco is releasing TalesOf games for Vita when that console isnt doing well here in west? Atleast WiiU has stronger presence worldwide than Vita has.
:/ That’s debatable. They’re about on par as far as hardware sales – or lack thereof.
Wii U does have more recognizable games though. That’s for sure.
Supposedly, Vita has a higher attach rate for most of the games released on the platform. Not just for specific big name exclusives here and there.
Nintendo messed up their launch by seeking third parties to sell their consoles. Had they sort out their studios to make games like splatoon or Fatal frame 5 early on, the WiiU would be in Wonder world.
Nintendo should have done a lot of things.
>Went after the casual market: It sold 101 million Wiis and made them billions. They listened to hardcore gamers bitching because hardcore gamers were butthurt that a company doesn’t have to kiss their ass to do well.
>Don’t put Super Smash Bros. on the 3ds: The 3ds has SSB, Mario Kart, 5 Zeldas compared to the Wii U’s 3, Mario, and third party support. People can get their Nintendo fix with the 3ds and it’s cheaper. WORST DECISION!
>Bundles: Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. bundle with the black Wii U for $325 and the white Wii U bundled with Wii Fit U/Wii Party U for $275 would have sold like hotcakes. On the holidays they could cut the black one to $300 and the white one to $250.
>Name change: My dad thought the Wii U was an add on for the Wii. He said, “The Wii U… Is that like an extension of the Wii?”
Nintendo has burned most bridges with 3rd party support for consoles – even for the Wii, many third party games were shovelware crap that was rushed to take advantage of the fad surrounding the console. It’s their responsibility to initially sell the console to consumers to incentivize 3rd parties to make games for it. That, and the fact that they would have to tailor-make their game to use the gamepad, leads most 3rd parties to not jump on board.
One thing you said that was incorrect. No developer has to use the gamepad it is a choice. Nintendo didn’t want to have the same policy that was in place for the Wii.
They don’t have to, of course, but I’m pretty sure Nintendo really, really, REALLY wants them to. Don’t kid yourself: Nintendo wants games to use the gamepad because that’s their main selling point for the system.
Also, if you have a 3rd party game on the Wii U, and they don’t use the gamepad, then there’s no difference between it and the game on another console – except it’ll look work and probably not have as many features like possible online support, so most people would thus not buy the Wii U version if they had a choice between that or another console version.
And if the game is one of those rare 3rd party exclusives for the Wii U, you can bet that the developer is looking to make it take advantage of the gamepad simply because it IS a third party party exclusive and you don’t get many of those on the system, and Nintendo is probably working more closely with them in that regard.
*it’ll look worse
Except that many of 3rd parties want to jump on the Wii sucess and develop games, even if it was the casual/fad install base.
If that were the case, we’d see more Wii U games. Period. Developers can usually tell when something will sell and will thusly capitalize on it. Nintendo made the mistake of trying to repeat the success of the Wii, then didn’t understand that it WAS a fad and a “one-hit wonder”, and spectacularly failed with the Wii U. Devs saw that the Wii appealed to casuals and that it was a huge success because you could visibly see how it was different and even your grandmother could play with you. That’s not the case with the Wii U, and that’s why they don’t support it – because the market doesn’t support it.
No. Nintendo made the mistake of listening to third party companies and going after hardcore gamers. Nintendo should have waited a year and make some games for the Wii U, THEN launch it. Instead they listened to third party companies who said they would make games for them at launch. It backfired. NEVER put your product’s fate in the hands of others.
The Wii U isn’t for hardcore gamers either. It’s still for the casual gamer. The reason the Wii U isn’t selling well is because most of the people that had a Wii just plays games on their tablet or phones now and have no use for the Wii U.
Third party games are almost always either invariably crap or licensed unsaturated edgy messes with adult human protagonists with cut-and-paste dramatic Hollywood movie storylines. Honestly, the reason I like Nintendo is because they don’t have a strong third-party, and instead focus on their first and second parties to give us cool, colorful games that set themselves apart from the other brands.
And that seems to be the direction Nintendo is going – and if so, then they need to put it up front and officially say that they just don’t give a fuck about 3rd party support anymore. Whether their console can survive with a few good games a year, well….it hasn’t been going that well for them so far.
It wasn’t doing “well” in Japan until the past month or so. That’s why.
comparing wiiu to vita SHUT THE FUCK UP SONY SLUTS
wiiu is doing fine in sales and has been for a long time
splatoon isnt a supprise hit its a hit fullstop anyone whos a gamer seen this coming….
vita LTFOL
Im not comparing WiiU to Vita, if thats what you mean? WiiU is WAY better system, i just dont understand why Japanese 3rd parties wanna support Vita when a system like WiiU has stronger WorldWide presence thats all. Im sure all agrees that Vita is piece of garbage compared to WiiU.
Handhelds have the bigger install base in Japan.
But worldwide WiiU has bigger install base than Vita and WiiU does quite well in Japan too. So they could reach Japanese audience with WiiU and get more sales WorldWide aswell.
I think you will find the PsVita has sold more globally…..
Really? surprising that even without games you can still gain sales!
It’s not a massive lead in sales but yeah, globally the Vita has sold better. Then again, it did have a few months head start. That said, the Vita has a ton of games, just like the Wii U.
But they both were marketed terribly and have suffered for that among other reasons.
Vita is ahead, but not by much – going by VGChartz (yes, I know, not the most accurate, but it’s the best we have right now), there’s less than a million unit difference between the two.
I think a lot of people don’t realize how dismal 10 million units sold is. Those are awful numbers. It may be on par with Vita numbers, but developing games on a handheld is a lot cheaper, faster, and easier on a handheld. That’s why the Vita gets games.
In what world has the Wii U been doing fine in sales? It only recently picked up in Japan. Even Nintendo has come out and said they know it hasn’t been selling well.
We all knew that. The only problem is Nintendo marketing was day dreaming. Now they know how fans really feel. They need to release a slew of games for the WiiU next year, in readiness for an NX 2016, 2017 release schedule.
They’re not going to heavily invest in a dying console with a new console a year away. And frankly a person would have to be a fool to buy a console they know is soon to be replaced and the manufacturer only barely supports themselves.
The Wii U isn’t doing fine in sales. It’s sold barely 10 million in almost 3 years. Those are terrible numbers.
Are this new wiiu sales from people that haven’t bought any console or those regreting buying a ps4?
Those buying it for Splatoon, it would seem.
Haha Xbox ONE you still suck!
That is really great good. If I’m not mistaken, that should bring Splatoon at around 1.1 Million worldwide now.
Splatoon a “surprise hit” for Nintendo? They marketed that game like there was no tomorrow- it should hardly come as a surprise that it’d sell well. If they made a new Golden Sun game and advertised it like it was the best thing ever all over the internet and tv, it’d probably sell just as well.
So outside of the 3DS the Wii U continues to be the top selling console in Japan for the fourth straight week! I play all systems however the Wii U hands down to me personally has the best exclusives currently and that will be released this year (Star Fox, Super Mario Maker, Yoshi Wooly World, Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival) plus unknown eshop and virtual console titles! Sony has some great stuff coming but most of those big suprises at E3 are years away!
By the way, has anyone done the math? If Nintendo has sold close to 10 million Wii U’s at $300 per machine, that’s 3 billion dollars in sales! Now if we could just see how much each console costs to make and advertising dollars we could get an idea on profit.
Most of the time companies lose money on hardware sales. Wii U has been out for a while so the Wii U may be profitable now, but only marginally. Profits usually come from software sales, and with an install base of only 10 mil, they’re not making much money. Last year was the only profitable year for them in the last 4 or 5.
Yeah, so much for the bh N’s bad e3, nintendp is doomed, BULL SHIT! In japan, wiiu is over ps4 in sales, sorry sony dick suckers, you loose, you thought they would slump in sales after e3, and they did not, sorry losers!
The “this cannot be happening” guy hasn’t commented yet, anybody knows what happened?
I am missing the lulz
>>>His forces are being decimated by the minute in Japan>>>
“Splatoon” has legs and a half. Glad to see the Wii U pulling better numbers in its wake.
Mario Kart 8 got them legs still…
Thanks to Splatoon, the Japanese Wii U hardware sales drop has slowed.
Meanwhile, Xenoblade X dropped off from the Dengeki charts as of that time period. What a run.