D3Publisher's portable port of PS2 giant insect shooter knocks latest Dragon Quest Monsters from top spot after a single week in stores, PSP retains lead on 3DS sales.
While gamers in the West will need to wait for this summer's Insect Armageddon for a new helping of Earth Defense Force, Japanese gamers are tiding themselves over with a macroinsecticide fix on the go. Media Create today released its Japanese sales chart for the week of April 4-10, revealing the newly released PSP port of Earth Defense Force 2 as the best-selling game of the week with 63,795 copies sold.
Originally released on the Japanese PlayStation 2 in 2005, Earth Defense Force 2 sees players fighting off an invasion of giant alien insects as a member of the military force. Released as part of D3's Simple 2000 line of budget-priced games, Earth Defense Force 2 eventually received a European release in 2007 under the title Global Defense Force, but it has never been released in North America.
In claiming the best-seller title, Earth Defense Force 2 knocked off Square Enix's Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 Professional after a single week atop the charts. The monster-collecting spin-off to the Dragon Quest role-playing game series slipped only a single spot to second place, selling 42,397 copies. Sales for the rest of the top 10 dropped precipitously after that, with EbiKore + Amagami on the PSP the only other title to break the 20,000 threshold, and the top 10 rounded out by a pair of titles that sold fewer than 10,000 copies: Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity. Electronic Arts' newly released Crysis 2 made little impact in its Japanese debut, finishing 15th overall with 5,814 copies sold.
The PSP once again beat out the 3DS for the top of the hardware charts, selling 35,478 systems compared to the Nintendo handheld's 32,910 units sold. The PS3 was a distant third with 22,431 sold, while the Wii slipped below the 10,000-unit mark with 8,825 systems sold.
JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF APRIL 4-10
Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1. Earth Defense Force 2 Portable / D3Publisher / PSP / 63,795
2. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 Professional / Square Enix / DS / 42,397
3. EbiKore + Amagami / Kadokawa Shoten / PSP / 23,849
4. Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection / Square Enix / PSP / 19,392
5. Dynasty Warriors 7 / Koei Tecmo / PS3 / 17,002
6. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd / Capcom / PSP / 12,060
7. Kimi ni Todoke: Tsutaeru Kimochi / Namco Bandai / DS / 11,229
8. Nintendogs + Cats / Nintendo / 3DS / 10,997
9. Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy / Square Enix / PSP / 9,484
10. Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity / Sega / PSP / 8,822
Hardware:
PSP - 35,478
3DS - 32,910
PS3 - 22,431
Wii - 8,825
DSi LL - 8,386
DSi - 8,035
Xbox 360 - 1,906
PS2 - 1,395
DS Lite - 514
PSP Go - 356
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
@mariokart64fan where in that comment did i compare anything with psp. I made a statement about you combining sales numbers of 3ds and ds when they are from different generations. Being made from the same compony doesn't matter. I guess by YOUR logic sony wins against microsoft this gen since they made more money overall with combining CONSOLES ps1,ps2, ps3 sales. EVEN though ps3 is losing in sales to Xbox 360. lol
chaos , lol why do you compare them to psp huh if im not allowed to combine the handhelds sales together then i guess you should not be comparing a 3ds to a psp or ds its only fair , and i can cause its another nintnedo platform the money goes in the same spot lol
Zelda and Biohazard are coming out in June in Japan..I am picking both those games up :D! PS2 lost a little steam..:(
This just shows how much the Eastern and Western culture differ. For instance, compare Call of Duty with Final Fantasy. In Final Fantasy, it's mainly about the characters past,motivations, personalities, and dreams. All really phsycological. In Call of Duty, it's mainly about the actions you accomplish, the heroism of your team, and mostly about what you are doing now. You never really get an in-depth look at the characters past. This is all really through actions. The funny part is, you can still trace this back to ancient myths in both cultures like Beowolf and (insert Japanese myth here). (Sorry, I don't really read up on Japanese mythos, but I have read a few, just don't remember the titles.)
it seems in japan its just sony vs nintendo intresting dosent matter to me tho i enjoy both systems wii and ps3 and on june 3DS an psp :D
Ahh EDF you single handily justified my purchase of a 360 and is now eagerly awaiting for Armageddon.
The Japanese adore the PSP this much is clear. I expect the NGP to do quite well there also.
I sure hope EDF isn't too small a game for my local video store to rent. They didn't rent The Sims 3 for crying out loud! I wanna blow up some bugs!
@mariokart64fan Why are you combining 3DS sales with DS sale?. They are different portables even if they are made by the same company. DS CANT play 3DS games. So it should be separate
3ds still doing good adding ds to that 8300+ 8100+ 514= more handhelds then sony , sony did win the console as expected fem how the heck can sony be leading if ds is still out add those sales with 3ds genious !!! oh and wii still holds a big 40 m lead in sales , so ya not dying fast world wide just in japan cause e1 has one plus wii 2 should be out soon
PSP outsells 3DS again...lol PSP Go should just be discontinued as this point, seriously.
7 out of the top 10 games on Sony consoles? Sony dominating in both the handheld and home console market? The numbers are in. Sony is king.
Man, every time I saw those games, it makes me jealous of not living in Japan. I mean, we see a good variety of great games in the japan top ten and sometimes those games don't come to the US because americans don't care about those games, and they only care about playing COD and that's what we see in the american top ten.
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