Sales Chart: PS2 continues to kick goal and DS still flying off the shelves

Week ending 4 February 2007

Another week, another sales chart. PS2 is yet again at the top of the games sales chart, kicking some goals with another soccer management game J.LEAGUE プロサッカークラブをつくろう！5 from Sega. Can you believe that? That makes two in a row for PS2. Well, can't say PS2 is doing all that bad at the moment. Publishers are still coming out with games for the PS2, just like GBA games. Well, I guess backward capability of the hardware (GBA on the DS, some PS2 on the PS3) is a factor here. I mean, you still play PSX games on your PS2, right?

Anyway, Nintendo still dominates the top 10. DS games occupies 6 spots while Wii takes out 2. The best selling game for the DS is the millionth make of Harvest Moon. Seriously, do people still play that? After all, this game has been incarnated on almost every platform imaginable. I must admit, though, it was fun... and very addictive.

On the hardware side, no prizes for guessing which won this week. DS Lite sold 146,073 units, outselling PSP with a factor of 4.68 (PSP sold 31,216). Wii (65,740) again outsold PS3 (18,727). But this week, PS3 has done something right, it's outselling its bigger brother.

And on the side note, XBox360 continues to die.

Best selling games for each platform (that is on the chart) this week:

DS - Harvest Moon
Wii - Wii Sports
PS2 - J League Soccer Club 5
PSP - Monster Hunter Portable

Number of titles in the top 50 for each platform this week:

DS - 32
PS2 - 9
Wii - 6
PSP - 2

Source: Media Create

Yet another Final Fantasy DS Special Edition

After the success of the Final Fantasy III Special Edition DS, SquareEnix have decided to follow the same path with their latest offering on the DS, Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings. The game is the squeal to FFXII, following Vaan and Penelo and their sky pirate way of life. But let's not worry about that for the moment. I'm more interested in the Special Edition DS. Let's put the two DS side by side:


Final Fantasy III Special Edition


Final Fantasy XII Special "Sky Pirate" Edition

Which one do you prefer? In case you're colour blind, it only comes in white. And only available in Japan.

For 21,840 yen, you can take one of these baby home after waiting in line for 6 hours. Oh sorry, you can only import them, so I guess you can skip the line then.

I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark here, but a Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicle: Ring of Fate special edition is coming too, right?

Sales Chart: PS2 has a new game on top, and the DS Lite continues to obliterate the PSP

Week ending Jan 28 2007 - PS2 has a new game on top, and the DS Lite continues to obliterate the PSP

According to Media Create, you don't need to understand Japanese to see that Sony didn't even manage to sell 20,000 units of their new(-ish) PS3 AND was destroyed by their old(er)-gen console, the PS2, by 999 units.

So what this is saying is that more people are buying the old-gen video game console than the next-gen. Now, I'm not an "industry insider" on gaming, but I think Sony is panicking.

I mean, your literally shinny toy is getting its ass kicked by your old stuff? That's is just bad. To make a comparison, for every 1 PS3 sold, more than 4 of Nintendo's new baby (which still Wii on the floor) found a new home.

Now lots of you is probably going to say, "But there wasn't any PS3 stock to start with." I put this to you, "Well, there weren't any good games on the PS3 to start with." Only 1 PS3 game (that's right, ONE) made it to the top 50 chart for the week.

No doubt the top brass at Sony is hurrying guys at SquareEnix to finish Final Fantasy XIII. The PS3 definitely needs not one, but lots of big budget titles to keep it afloat.

As if adding salt to PS3's injury, this week's top selling game is on the PS2! Ironic, isn't it? GTA:SA made it to the top this week, finally dethroning a Nintendo title, any Nintendo title from ichiban for the first time this year.

Out of the top 10, 8 are on Nintendo hardware, with 3/4 of them developed by Nintendo themselves. They are smiling? Damn right they are. They are laughing all the way to the bank.
Why wouldn't they, the DS Lite is killing the PSP. It just goes to show, hardware is nothing if there's no good software to support it.

Oh, by the way, these figures are for the Japanese market only.

Wii are winning?

According to a study done by an online traffic metrics website Compete, the Nintendo Wii has more demand than either the Sony's PlayStation 3 or Microsoft's XBox360.

Sounds like good news for Nintendo fanboys. XBox360 is no doubt still ahead in terms of number of install base, given that it has a year head start, but Nintendo and Sony are definitely catching up. And if the graph is anything to go by, then Nintendo is surely going to win the Console War III (tm).

I'm eager to see the day when Nintendo will once again rule the console world. What Nintendo could really do to capitalise (besides meeting demand) is to release more sports games (or exercise games). That in itself is a good marketing strategy to get fat people obese individual to buy a Wii and do exercise to lose weight. I mean, it has been proven that playing the Wii can lose weight.

That would really break the "video games are nothing but violent" mode. Maybe Nintendo can tempt one of those nay-sayer to buy one?

You can read about the results at Compete.

Nintendo Wii is out, and so are the crowds.

Compared to the scene that PS3 caused just a few days ago, the Nintendo Wii launch is anything but. There are no guns, no fight, no riot and no robbery. I guess the low price of $250US helped with the "no robbery" bit. The mob probably went, "Nwh, it's only $250, not worth robbing."

Anyway, whatever the case, the Wii seemed to have had a smooth start to the launch, with ample supply all around the North American, anyone who wanted one is pretty much guaranteed to get one. And the games at launch, it seems like Zelda is making to the top of Wii chart without any problems. Funny Nintendo doesn't start with Mario, given its strong fanbase. But I'm sure Mario (in one form or another) will make many many appearance in the life of Wii.

As for the rest of the world, and that includes Japan, we'll just have to wait. Japanese launch is next week, and the European / Australiasia launch is the week after. It seems odd that the country of origin would have a wait a week before they get their hands on their console. Why? Is it some kind of ploy by Nintendo to see how it fare in NA first?

With Christmas approaching, Sony is so going to get hammered with PS3 shortage. Xbox360, hope you die in hell, and so the Wii wins.... Ah, a perfect world.