It's often the case in Japan that the top hardware platform for a given week matches the top selling game for the week. Not this week, though. While Dragon Quest VI topped the software sales charts this week, DS was beaten out by its portable rival, the PSP.
Over the week of 1/25 to 1/31, the DS remake of DQVI outsold all other games in the top ten combined, with over 900,000 sales. In comparison, the remakes of IV and V sold, respectively, 597,000 and 644,000 units in their first weeks. This is the first time VI has been ported or remade since the Super NES original hit back in 1995, so there was presumably pent up demand.
It was a week full of new releases, including Resonance of Fate (End of Eternity in Japan) and Ar Tonelico 3. Both placed in the top 10, joined by MAG, which appears to be selling well for a foreign title. MAG actually sold out of 96% of its stock, explaining the sell outs that have been observed at retail.
Here's the full top 10 covering 1/25 to 1/31.
- Dragon Quest VI (Square Enix, DS): 906,000
- Resonance of Fate (Sega, PS3): 118,000
- New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo, Wii): 84,000 (3,201,000)
- Ar Tonelico 3 (Namco Bandai, PS3): 82,000
- Friend Collection (Nintendo, DS): 45,000 (2,742,000)
- Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo, Wii): 33,000 (1,583,000)
- Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep (Square Enix, PSP): 30,000 (713,000)
- End of Eternity (Sega, X360): 27,000
- Valkyria Chronicles 2 (Sega, PSP): 24,000 (118,000)
- Massive Action Game (Sony, PS3): 19,000
Debuting outside of the top 10 this week were Mystery Dungeon 3 Shiren the Wanderer Portable (Spike, PSP) in 18, and Tatsunoko VS Capcom Ultimate All-Stars (Capcom, Wii) at 20. For Japan, this version of Tatsunoko VS Capcom is just an updated version of the game that was released in late 2008. Capcom offered it at a lower price point.
Despite DS's Dragon Quest dominance, it looks like the game sold mostly to current system owners, as the system did not see a major spike. PSP topped the hardware charts (the standard version -- PSP go was once again at the bottom) . It's unclear if there's a specific reason for this, or if the system has just settled into a standard sales trend.
Here's the full hardware chart:
- PSP: 47,875
- Wii: 42,309
- DSi LL :34,863
- PS3: 34,431
- DSi: 24,783
- DS Lite: 6,811
- Xbox 360: 4,089
- PS2: 2,182
- PSP go: 1,645