This week's Media Create sales provide some interesting news bits. First is the undeniable power of Animal Crossing and its new home, the 3DS. Consumers plowed through Animal Crossing New Leaf's initial shipment of 600,000 units and then some, meaning it had a better first week than last year's Final Fantasy Type-0, Tales of Xillia, most Yakuza games, and plenty of other heavy hitters. I can say from looking, that as of today, November 14th, shops still have "Sold out, make a reservation" signs up, despite NIntendo having sent over 100,000 more copies out to retailers. The game had an obvious effect on hardware, as this week's 3DS sales double those of last week.
Another interesting storyline continuing to unflod is the slow rise of the shooter. While still not a huge genre in Japan, first-person shooting is becoming more popular here, little by little. Borderlands 2, a hybrid first-person shooter/RPG, was met with great success when it launched recently; now, Halo 4 surprisingly emerges as the overall third-place seller on the game charts, bested only by two of Japan's national favorites. While true that its 40,000 sales are only one-fifteenth those of the first place game, that's a pretty exceptional showing by that particular game, and third place is nothing to sneeze at. Tales of Xillia 2 is only in its second week on the charts, but Halo 4 was able to top it.
1. (3DS) Animal Crossing: New Leaf
2. (PS3) Dynasty Warriors 7: Empires
3. (360) Halo 4
4. (PS3) Tales of Xillia 2
5. (3DS) New Super Mario Bros. 2
6. (3DS) Bravely Default: Flying Fairy
7. (PS3) Silent Hill: Downpour
8. (PSP) World Soccer Winning Eleven 2013
9. (PS3) Okami HD
10. (PS3) Yakuza 1 & 2 HD Edition
11. (PS3) World Soccer Winning Eleven 2013
12. (3DS) Style Savvy: Trendsetters
13. (3DS) Tousouchuu: Shijou Saikyou no Hunter-Tachi Kara Nigekire!
14. (PS3) Resident Evil 6
15. (NDS) Pokemon Black 2 / White 2
16. (PS3) Dark Souls with Artorias of the Abyss Edition
17. (3DS) Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
18. (3DS) Nicola Kanshuu: Model Oshare Audition Platina
19. (3DS) Taiko no Tatsujin: Chibi Dragon to Fushigi na Orb
20. (PSP) The Idolmaster: Shiny Festa
Vita sales continue to spiral downward toward disaster. The machine barely held the 4k line this week. We all knew it would drop below last week's 4,800 figure, since it had no new games released and the new colors were so close, but to take that much of a plunge is still enough to make the eyes grow wide. Red and blue Vitas go on sale tomorrow, as well as Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Assassin's Creed Lady Liberty (what we call Liberation), so perhaps next week will see the system climb a bit.
3DS – 187, 077
PS3 – 18,043
PSP – 12,076
PSV – 4,021
WII – 2,921
360 – 2,908
PS2 – 1,187
NDS – 424
So for every time someone went out and bought a Vita in Japan last week, about 46 people bought a 3DS. I'm not sure if I can recall a console war beatdown this bad in my life.
