Big in Japan: Nov 14-20: MW3

The popularity of Modern Warfare 3 has gone beyond North America and Europe. The latest Activision shooter has beaten out two prominent Japanese intellectual properties made by well-known publishers in the recent Media Creates sales update: the PlayStation 3 version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 sold 180,372 and is placed first; the Xbox 360 version was at seventh place, with 30,467 units sold.

The shooter was praised for its climactic campaign and variable challenges in the game's Spec Ops mode; check out GameSpot's coverage for more information. Japanese gamers should note that the version on the charts is the subtitled version with the English voices intact. The dubbed version will reportedly be released next month. The publisher of Modern Warfare 3 in Japan is Square Enix.

One Piece Gigant Battle! 2, the 2D fighting game sequel based on the One Piece anime/manga franchise, debuted at second place, with 116,062 units sold. The game features story content from the Post-War and New World arcs in the series. New playable characters in the fighting game include the time-skip versions of the main protagonists and former support characters from the first game, like Coby and Smoker.

The PS3 version of Ninokuni also debuted on the charts, as the game placed third, with 67,032 units sold. The role-playing game features the artwork from renowned animation company Studio Ghibli and an Imajinn system, which allows players to breed fantasy creatures in their own way for combat. For more information, check out GameSpot's previous coverage on the title.

Other highlights on the list include the debut of Saints Row: The Third. The PS3 version placed fifth, with 36,222 sold, while the Xbox 360 version placed 14th, with 15,380 units sold. The PS3 version of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was at 10th place, with 22,436 units sold; the Xbox 360 version was presumed to not sell more than 8000 copies and was nowhere within the top 20 Media Creates list.

On the hardware side of things, the 3DS and PSP were still in the top spots of the hardware sales chart. Nintendo managed to sell 96,219 units of the former. Sony's numbers for the PSP and the PS3 doubled since the last sales update, possibly due to the availability of the red-and-black value bundle for the former and the new colors for the latter. These colors are gold and white (Ninokuni PS3 bundle), scarlet red, and splash blue.

Japan game sales week of November 14-20:

Software
Rank/Title/Publisher/Platform/Unit sales
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3/Square Enix/PS3/180,372
2. One Piece Gigant Battle! 2/Namco Bandai/DS/116,062
3. Ninokuni/Level-5/PS3/67,318
4. Super Mario 3D Land/Nintendo/3DS/62,318
5. Saints Row: The Third/THQ Japan/PS3/36,222
6. Final Fantasy Type-0/Square Enix/PSP/30,543
7. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3/Square Enix/Xbox 360/30,467
8. Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Extend/Sega/PSP/30,042
9. Sengoku Basara 3 Utage/Capcom/PS3/25,771
10. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3/PS3/22,436

Hardware
3DS – 96,219
PSP – 41,069
PS3 – 40,085
Wii – 13,613
DSi XL – 1,813
Xbox 360 – 1,763
PS2 – 1,291
DSi – 897
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