Big in Japan: Monster Hunter spin-off MonHun Nikki
By
Brendan Sinclair, Senior Editor
Capcom game dedicated to feline helpers sells a quarter million in chart-topping debut, doubles PSP sales week-over-week.
The Monster Hunter franchise is practically the embodiment of "Big in Japan," a fact bolstered by Media Create's Japanese sales figures for the week of August 23-29. The latest entry in the series, a PSP spin-off centered around the off-duty exploits of Monster Hunter's catlike helpers, topped the charts with more than four times the sales of the second-place title.
MonHun Nikki: Poka Poka Ailu Mura sold 256,076 copies for the week and helped move plenty of new PSP systems in the process. Sony's handheld sold almost exactly double its week-over-week sales total, topping the hardware charts with 55,112 units sold. The PS3 came in second despite selling less than half as many systems as its handheld counterpart, with Nintendo's trifecta of the DSi LL (DSi XL in the West), DSi, and Wii once again coming in third through fifth, respectively.
The PSP's hardware performance was no doubt also bolstered by the other two new release games to hit the top 10. Namco Bandai's Ace Combat: Joint Assault flew as high as second place on the charts, finishing the week with sales of 57,785, while Idea Factory's romantic adventure Hakuouki: Zuisouroku Portable landed in fifth with 24,469 sold. The PSP game arrived almost a year to the day after the original PlayStation 2 Hakuouki: Zuisouroku.
As for enduring sellers, Nintendo's Wii Party again showed its legs, coming in third with 54,673 copies sold, easily outpacing the previous week's best-seller, Another Century's Episode R. The Namco Bandai PS3 game was forced to settle for fourth place with 28,354 games sold. The bottom half of the top 10 also featured a number of familiar faces, from Level Five's Inazuma Eleven 3 DS games to Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Capcom's Sengoku Basara 3.
JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF AUGUST 23-29, 2010
Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1. MonHun Nikki: Poka Poka Ailu Mura / Capcom / PSP / 256,076
2. Ace Combat: Joint Assault / Namco Bandai / PSP / 57,785
3. Wii Party / Nintendo / Wii / 54,673
4. Another Century's Episode R / Namco Bandai / PS3 / 28,354
5. Hakuouki: Zuisouroku Portable / Idea Factory / PSP / 24,469
6. Inazuma Eleven 3: Sekai e no Chousen!! Spark and Bomber/ Level Five / DS / 15,889
7. Super Mario Galaxy 2 / Nintendo / Wii / 11,977
8. Art Academy / Nintendo / DS / 10,301
9. Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X / Namco Bandai / PSP / 9,371
10. Sengoku Basara 3 / Capcom / PS3 / 8,834
Hardware:
PSP - 55,112
PS3 - 25,053
DSi LL - 19,010
DSi - 17,057
Wii - 15,989
DS Lite - 3,925
Xbox 360 - 2,665
PS2 - 1,358
PSP Go - 836
By
Brendan Sinclair, Senior Editor
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.
38 comments
I'm glad i don't live in japan, those games S-U-C-K, i just cant imagine going to a friends house and play those games, or friends coming over and play those games. Good for the Japanese keep buying those lousy games, so that non of those games arrive in the US.
How many sequels/rehashes/iterations can Japanese people take. Anyone remembers why people hate Activision? Because of the constant sequels of Guitar Hero and CoD but in Japan they would make yearly sequels and perhaps like two spin-offs a year
Wow! Capcom and Sony made a fat penny this week. Maybe they could use some of their earnings to accommodate the English folk over here in the States.
The PSP is as strong as the DS. The Japanese make good video games besides they also have visual novels! Why does the PSP Go suck on its home country?
@ pretty much everyone Because the Japanese are intelligent enough to realise that the PSP has many good games thus continually support the system instead of people that come here boasting that their PSPs gather dust due to a lack of good games. So WHY BUY IT THEN? It your money your wasting people! :)
Over in Japan the PSP is really popluar and over here in the UK most retail stores don't sell PSP games that much.
see all u need to move hardware is gd software psp has near to 0 gd games since its realease so when a gd one comes along ppl are shocked
Wow! PSP Go sold better than last week by 100 units! :D MonHun sold pretty good, but Ace Combat Joint Assault sold pretty bad despite its first debut. I know it shouldn't launch with another big title from the same system. :( ACE R dropped hard. From 200k+ units last week to 20k+ units this week. :(
Pretty good numbers, but just imagine when Monster Hunter 3rd gets release over there....
Monster Hunters felynes are awesome. I still haven't checked out what that spin-off game exactly is, but I want.
Hey Capcom.....how bout a Monster Hunter game on ps3 and 360? Oh and releasing it outside of japan would be nice too.......
I will import this as soon as possible. If it has Monster Hunter in the title it will be worth it. Now I have to play through it with the old pick and guess play until they bring it out in english.
Sengoku basara 3 coming to english next few mths. It better not be renamed Devil Kings 3 and a rescripted storyline
At first, it looked almost like Animal Crossing, to me. Yeah, but it looks pretty interesting
why the thumbs down? it was 600 last week. 200 systems jump is a big boast for a system that sells under 1 k each week.
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