Japan game charts: June 19-25

It's not always just reliability but how a company deals with its problems. MS reacted as if they would with a North American customer base and they lost any support they were going to get. Initial sales weren't bad, people were giving it a chance. And don't get me started on cars. I remember being in Japan in the late 80's, early 90's when American car makers would send huge cars that would barely fit on Japanese streets. The price of gas we see in North America NOW is what Japan had to pay back then. Did any of you know that Japan drives on the opposite side of the street? Well I guess American car makers didn't because the American cars I saw selling there had steering wheels on the left side, just like in North America. The prevailing attitude for American companies in Japan seem to be: This is how we make our stuff, take it or leave it. In a customer friendly country with lots of competition, one mistake and you lose people forever unlike perhaps in North America where your fans make excuses for all the shortages and problems for you.

First off as far as the Japanese go they are very Nationalistic people when it comes to their electronic and automotive products. These industries are what account for most of the wealth in Japan. That said I don?t think that Microsoft?s failure is due to the reliability of their hardware or Japanese Nationalism. If it were reliability then the Japanese would dump their PSII?s and buy only Nintendo. If it were National Pride then other American Cultural icons would fail miserably. The reason that Microsoft failed during round one was that they simply did not understand the Japanese market. To break into gaming and take market share from Sony they had to focus on American sales first and that?s why XBOX was so top heavy with shooters. Now its round two and Microsoft is committing vast resources to court Japanese publishers in an effort to win in Japan. I still don?t think that they fully understand Japanese gaming taste but they are certainly doing far more to court the Japanese consumer this time around then they did. Sony?s problem is that rather then concentrate on a gaming machine and produce something that has competitive pricing with X-Box. They are trying to shove this Blue-Ray down our throats and that is a fatal mistake on their part. I think that many like myself with instead choose to buy a Nintendo Wii and simply wait until Sony realizes their mistake and starts making a machine for gamers. This is an awesome opportunity for Microsoft to take big chunks of market share away from Sony not only in North America but throughout Europe as well as most of Asia. In my opinion Microsoft will take North America and Europe with Nintendo dominating in most of Asia. Sony is going to be in real trouble if Microsoft figures out how to crack Japan before Sony can get their act together.

1 jugg3rn4ut Surprise, surprise... the PS2 and DS dominate the Japanese market. Oh, well they can have it. A 6-year-old console and a children's handheld are the consoles of choice in Japan. Sounds ironic and funny at the same time. This is why the Xbox actually does well in the US, people look at Nintendo as a kid's toy. In Japan, the games are taken seriously no matter how they look or who makes it. It should be evident that it's not only good games that sell the xbox in the US, it's also the image. 2 Oni I have to come to bat for US here. So what if Xbox360 isn't doing well over there. Japanese are guilty of the "Pride" 7 deadly sin. The main reason IMO, Microsoft fails in Japan is because it's not a Japanese company. Period. Plus, I don't base my game buying decisions on what Japanese gamers think either. Don't forget this is a country where pornographic dating Sims are hugely popular. They are missing out on many great gaming experiences because of their Pride. They will someday come around .. and like the rest of the world, they will see Americans aren't so incompetent after all Pride? Most visitors to Japan will tell you are they are too quickly adopting American culture and losing their image. Box Office bust in North America always make money in Japan, washed up American music groups resurrect their careers in Japan, and the best way to make money for American stars is to do a commercial in Japan. Hardly seems like they don't like American things. But there is one thing that the Japanese do know and it is electronics. If you are trying to break into the Japanese market as a new company whether you are Japanese, Korean, Europen or American, one false move can taint your image forever. I still look at the disc scratching incident on the original xbox as its failing. Most Japanese retailers pulled the system because those kinds of things aren't suppose to happen. ANother problem was the response. There should have been MS reps on the street and on tv bowing and asking for forgiveness and kissing as many customers' rear ends as possible. Any of you out there who have been to Japan know when I say that as a customer, you are treated with unbelievable service in Japan. It doesn't matter if you spend 50 cents or 5000 dollars, the service is always great and they always take pride in their product. When MS had their incident, they let everyone down. It was a black mark on the company and an embarassmet to the retailers. In North America, if something is sold out, you see a big sold out sign. In Japan, it's a "we are terribly sorry but this item is sold out" WIth a picture of a clerk bowing apologetically. MS had to overcome this bad image and they didn't with their games. Different types of games sell in Different places. It's not enough in Japan to say Nintendo is kiddy, we are cool so buy our stuff. Ever noticed Japanese anime and games? They have feeling, they have story. That's why RPGs do well. It has a story you can be drawn into it where you can imagine yourself as hero or heroine. Perhaps people in North America like playing the role of the guy who shoots people in the head but it doesn't work in Japan. Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime Hunters etc barely crack the top 50 in Japan. Most of you say that Nintendo has been slipping in North America the last decade because their games are made for everyone (kiddy). Well I say Xbox games doesn't work well in Japan because their games are made for Americans.

No Surl, the facts are the facts and most people bring them back to the stores first before they ship them to Microsoft. What motive do I have to lie? I am a Sony fan! I don't even own a Gamecube. At the moment I am waiting for the PS3 but because of the price I might just wait till some good games come out for it and pick up a Wii. No motives just facts.

Chub, most people posting on forums are angry. The majority of 360 owners do not have issues. I have a PSII, 360, PSP. As far as reliability. Game Cube is #1 followed by DS, Xbox, 360, PSP then last PSII. As far as dead systems at time of sale. PSP takes the number 1 slot by a very wide margin followed by PSII, X-Box, 360, DS and Gamecube. I remember the morning I opened my store with a line of well over 100 people waiting for PSP's. We had around a 20-25% return mostly because of dead pixels. 360 was lower then 5%.

Here's my story of the week. I went into EB to get a new game, looked at the PSP section, checking out how much the Pirates game was, and then picked up Oddworld Stranger's Wrath for 31 used. The last game I got for PS2 was Kingdom Hearts 2, and I can't even remember what game I got before that for PS2. The lesson here, when a system has hit it's midway of it's selling cycle, that's when it's a great time to buy.

dominated by ds and ps2........ and is that a psp game I see?

I saw someone put up that they were a store manager for EB and had less Xbox returns, and that 360 was doing great? Wow, someone was barking up a load of crap. Of course a manager of EB isn't going to tell you something bad, its all marketing for him. Besides, you don't return them to the store, you send them back to Micro$oft. I know more people in this area who have owned 3 or more Xboxes in the life span of one fat PS2, myself included. I'm currently on my second 360 which microsoft sent me. Besides that, This chart is interesting. Why can't we get some of these games over here, instead of the mass market crap we get?

"or praise Japans genius innovation and act like they have never put out an average game. But the fact of the matter is Japan makes just as many half-baked titles as any other country." They make more half-baked titles than any other country, because they make more games. I don't know if a higher percentage of japanese games are good, versus other countries, but when you're making a TON of games, with a built in fanatic market, you have more room to make the good as well as the mediocre and the bad. I mean, Dynasty warriors whatever-number-it's-at-now is a DOWNSIDE of the japanese market. If you read the posts, no one is saying Japan is some magic genius game making machine. People are saying that when people with VERY limited shelf space (I think you need to appreciate just how limited too...) have to choose between 360 or ps#... it's not a hard choice. Frankly, although I will get a 360 once some more interesting games are out in addition to a PS3, if I HAD to choose, it's a no brainer to go for the PS3.

Go to the forums and see for yourself, even people who take extra care of their 360 still have them freeze up on them and crap out. People on the forums talk about sending in their 3rd 360 for repairs.

Really Chub.... I was an EB store manager for a couple of years and had far fewer returns on X-Boxes then I had with PSII's. I have a close friend that is still an EB manager and last I talked to him 360's were doing just fine. Where do you get your facts from?

I thought the Xbox 360 wasn't going to do well in Japan. In Japan, violent games isn't the best way to go. I own a PSP, and some of the games are pretty good. I also on a DS, and it's fun too. I think the DS is slightly better, because they make games fun and enjoyable. I also think the Wii and going to dominant the market, because it's new and different. That's the thing I like about Nintendo so much, they are always trying out something new, and many of there games can be enjoyed at any age. Don't get me wrong the Xbox 360 is a great system, but they should start making more games that are good for younger children too. The PS2 and the DS are definitely the best game systems out right now. I still haven't lost faith in Xbox 360 though. If they start making more games for younger children, then they might stand a chance.

guys lets face it vp and shin megami series kick ass and for the xbox 360 i dont really see any cool game there

i live here in japan, gta as you can see is non-existent here due to the violent content which is why we import even at high price and even if half of population of japan bought gta lcs it wouldnt show on japanese charts coz our purchase counts for the region where our gta was first bought. 360 doesnt sell great here coz of lousy support, even buying from the store, the store clerks didnt even know its features which falls down to MS for less ad force. playstation 2 etc sells coz its sony (a high quality tv brand) which translates to high quality gaming unit. nintendo will never die here, as long as there are kids born and a gameboy version 21XX to purchase the nintendo legacy will live. wii (mind the ugly name) can even out the console war with ps3 with proper game support from third parties. rockstar on nintendo??? gta on wii??? hhmmmn sales charts ^_^ kudos to tri-ace for topping up the chart with vp silmeria, tried it a a retail store and its really good, not enough to topple the sales of ffxii though. btw with free online on wii and ps3 i think that may somehow put a nail to pin down the xbox 360 permanently (japanwise). as you can see most people love freebies and are now certainly interested.

itnetpro, I see I may have hit a nerve in my comments about american autos. I never addressed the quality of the cars themselves remember, and I won't. Things like fuel efficiency however, and the tendency to market hulking SUV's and pickups instead of more sane cars does take american car makers down a notch in my opinion. While every company is trying to break into that market in the US, it is not foreign automakers that drove the "how big can my car get at 1 mpg" craze. That said, I'd rather drive an F150 than a Kia Sephia. I'd also rather drive a mercedes than a chevy or a that same F150. As far as success of GM vs Nissan or other automakers... did you see the recent numbers out of wallstreet? Earnings for GM and other american automakers just took a huge nosedive, and predicted at least 30% more loss. Toyota gained 14%. That said, I drive a Volvo, so don't think I'm pitching cars here, just making a point. Also, I'm not trumpeting japanese culture. The Japanese ARE incredibly racist on the whole, and pretty homogeneous. That does not however, translate into nationalistic game buying habits. Also, americans are absurdly racist as well, so I didn't feel the need to denegrate one culture for something we're guilty of ourselves. As for exlusive deals and the like, that's true, but game developers have shown a willingness to jump ship from one platform to another when it's profitable, and go multiplatform as well. I'm not going to get into a chicken and egg argument over this, because up until now we've been talking about the choices the CONSUMER, not the corporations make, and those corporations have their eye on the bottom line. Believe me, if the PS3 flops, japanese developers will be courting MS and Nintendo in a heartbeat. If that happens, then gamers will go where the games go. There is also one critical fact: A lot of game developers that are popular are not American. We have some excellent ones, but not a majority. Also, a lot of great american game devs get really sc**wed. Psychonots... case and point. Finally, athough he's an idiot, zash did raise an interesting point, albiet unintentionally and in the most a** way possible. If you like anime you know that sometimes what's hilarious to a japanese audience, is not to most americans, and visa versa. Hentai, humour, and many other things share a lot in common with other cultures, but are also VERY different. Is it any wonder that games made for a japanese audience, originally in japanese, with japanese pop and classical cultural references do well in JAPAN? By the same token, the japanese practically inhale our music, our language (although in very odd ways I'll grant you), our food and much more. However, Americans seem to like their games and animation more than they like ours. They like our... 50's hairdos and pop rock more than we do. The germans love David Hasselhoff... you get my drift? Just because something is cultural or racial, does not make it wrong or bad, sometimes it's just well made and marketed. P.S. On the topic of GM and Nissan etc... you might enjoy this :) http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/04/news/companies/renault.reut/index.htm

Oh and Chubbums I can respond to that. I have owned a 360 since Feburary and I have not a single problem with it, ever. I do have a friend who had to send his in for fixing after about 3 months. On the other hand...I have about 5 friends who had to replace their PS2 in under a year. Every console has problems, except anything made by Nintendo, because they rock and they are the only company around who still makes sturdy hardware.

It should be intersting to see how games like Blue Dragon do in Japan. With the incredible talent behind that title I wonder if it will make the 360 something worth getting in Japan. But lets be honest with ourselves for a moment here. This list is not impressive. VP2 looks very good and SMB is always a hit....but look at the others. King of Fighters 11? Digimon Story? Three different brain training games? The only word I can use is "Yuck". We can call each other racist until or fingers are numb, or praise Japans genius innovation and act like they have never put out an average game. But the fact of the matter is Japan makes just as many half-baked titles as any other country. You can call 360 names all you want but the J-RPGS coming out on that console in the next few years alone show more promise than the past 5 years of boring cookie-cutter, throw-away J-RPGS on the PS2. And with companies like Nippon-Ichi pumping out another lame title every year, its no wonder the genre has become so watered down and over saturated with uninspired titles. What ever happened to the J-RPG glory days of the PS1? Id rather play Xenogears than ANY J-RPG on any current gen console, and that isn't even the tip of iceberg from what the PS1 had to offer. Hrrmm....I guess Japan isnt so perfect when you actually read the article and put things in perspective. Or we can keep living in 1994 when 2-D fighters were still cool. Video games are becoming more and more like any other form of entertainment. The best movies are never the ones that sell the most tickets, and if you want to hear the best music, you wont hear it on MTV. So don't judge Japan by this list of games, becuase I know I dont want them to judge us by our lame lists of top 10's....(nervous chuckle)

Yeah Microsoft has proven how reliable and durable the 360 is. Almost every 360 craps out in less than 2 months. People who try to defend Microshaft on this need to start thinking for themselves. Why in the world would you praise a product that breaks under 2 months?

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Nappan, Japanese game manufactures publish more games for the PSII because they have long standing relationships with Sony. It is very hard for a company like Microsoft to gain support from these companies because of these long standing relationships. Microsoft is doing a better job recruiting but they need to get more support before they will sell their system in Japan. Point two. Rather they simply defending Japanese culture you instead choose to bash American. Your logic about American cars being crap is wrong. GM has pushed Japan aside and moved into the number one slot in China for total car sales. China is the second largest market in the world! They are not doing it because they are C**P cars. I always bought Japanese cars up until only a few years ago. I now own a Buick Lucerne CXS and the quality of that car is just as good as my Honda Accord or Civic. Sure some American cars are C**P but many products now score high for reliability. You also get far more car for your money when you buy American. If you do your homework you will find that Mercedes, BMW, VW and Audi all rank far below American Automobiles for reliability and durability and yet they don't share the same image problem as American cars. Infact Nissan (A Japanese company) is making cars that are consistantly showing up on the bottom of the reliability list and yet most folks like yourself think that they are reliabile. Before you go out and BASH anything American you should get your facts straight first. Oh and I do love Anime! Berserk and Last Exile were my favorite Animes.

"The bottom line is Good Games Sell Consoles, not the other way round. " That's the bottom line all right. Anyone who thinks that people in a country other than the one they live in are so different that they think "I love this game, but it is AMERICAN MADE, and that is VERBOTEN!!!!" is totally nuts. People buy what they like, and people like a lot of fun games. Now, the whole "buy american cars" c**p, despite the fact that anyone who buys some hulking SUV deserves to be shot, is nationalistic. Games, movies, animation, music, etc cross cultures all the time. ujinyumeno said it perfectly.

Ok.. The way I see it, the reason for Xbox360 not to do well in Japan is not because of nationalism or Racism. The only thing that matters, is the games and whether it suit their taste. I am currently living in Singapore where all kind of people from different race lives in harmony. These people loves their DS and Playstation 2. XB360 has its fair share of fans but it not doing fantastic, at least it not doing as well as micrsoft singapore wish it could be. The reason is because Singaporean knows there stuff, when it comes to FPS which XB360 has plenty, PC just rocks better than Console and they know it. And the lack of titles and little variety of games just doesnt justify the cost of the console. Where DS and PS2 has all the games that different people loves, while XB360 has games that only full blooded teenagers and hardcore FPSer likes.... so... u see...the market direction is simply different.... So while things issnt looking good for microsoft now, with more japanese game makers having games in their pipeline for XB360. hopeful things changes. The bottom line is Good Games Sell Consoles, not the other way round. I dun care if your console has 100 GHZ processor or 100 G ram. With no good game that I like, I will not buy it even if it only cost be a dime. Cheers.

It's unbelievable how much success can Square Enix have with any of their games.

i hope they make the import of valkyrie ASAP...

go DS i have a 360 and a DS and you know what? i like my DS better and ya i have oblivion and GRAW and all the good games for 360 and they're good but the DS is just....... fun, different, and innovative and that's what matters in a game and japan realizes that

"I mean seriously ..Microsoft runs a monopoly here in the states and still manages to look like a noob in the console market!!!" So true it hurts. You'd think with a now-unchallenged monopoly they'd be putting more pressure on sony. PS3, despite it's price (not bad considering it's a Blu-Ray player) is actually next-gen. The 360 is just... half-assed.

Microsoft really needs to pull up it's socks if it plans to succed with the japanese among other markets .Success in the japanese market is a clear indication that a console has game. I mean seriously ..Microsoft runs a monopoly here in the states and still manages to look like a noob in the console market!!! Bill gates needs to leave his succesfull software budsiness and focus on the xbox360 division coz it could sure use a helping hand!!

"I guess the same way westerners don't litsen to oriental music nor watch oriental movies, oriental gamers don't play nor buy westerner games." Are you nuts? Ever watch "the ring"? Orrrrrr any samurai film, EVER? The name Kurosawa ring a bell? As for the music, jpop is absurdly popular in the US, as it's come along with games and anime. "Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive, Panzer Dragoon, Jet Set Radio, and Otogi" Wow, 5 games over the lifespan of a console. I can't imagine why, in a country where space is at a premium, you wouldn't just shell out for an xbox to play a handful of games. Yeah, it's gotta be racism, not practicality. That must be why the PS2 leads in the USA as well. By the way, Dead or Alive, Panzer Dragoon, Jet Set Radio, and even Otogi (1 and 2) don't beat monster PS2 titles popular here and in japan like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Onimusha, Suikoden, Shin Megami Tensei (just to name a few we get here, not to mention all the great games we do NOT get imported) and nearly every rythem game (since they started THERE, not HERE). Ninja Gaiden is a great game, but it's hardly going to unseat the ps2 alone is it? Really, step back for a minute and if you don't know anything about japanese consumers, don't make assumptions about them, especially really nasty ones like "they must be racist". It makes the rest of us look bad.

Yeah, you guys are totally right about Japanese gamers not being hardcore nationalists and Xbox failing because it was nothing but FPS. I mean, if it had top-rated exclusive Japanese franchises like Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive, Panzer Dragoon, Jet Set Radio, and Otogi, it would have caught on even though it's a gaijin-made console. It's all Microsoft and America's fault and there is absolutely NOTHING racist about the Japanese, right?

I guess the same way westerners don't litsen to oriental music nor watch oriental movies, oriental gamers don't play nor buy westerner games. It's funny how there is no game made in Eu or America that is selling well in Japan on either system. Like DMX said, "What these b****** want from a n****?" "Tell me!"

Illumination77... try to wrap around this one: Why do we drive japanese cars? Why do you buy japanese electronics? Why DO we play japanese games? Why is japanese animation so popular? Could it be that... they make these things better than we do most of the time? Frankly, most of the best games come from other countries, and not just japan. Crytek vs ID anyone? It's not about racism, it's about the companies that develop games, where they are based, and the markets that give birth to them. Oh, and what Chubbums said too, because he is right on the money. I mean, there's a HUGE market for japanese import games and the chips to play them here right? You think they're clamouring for gems like Pirates of the Carribean? Don't blame them for setting our pop cultural standards (action movies, animation, games, cars, electronics). Blame us.

It's not because of where the games come from, it's the fact that the games suck and that's why the Japanese don't buy into the whole 360. You ever hear that old saying "One mans trash is another mans treasure", well thats how it is, 360 is trash to them but its popular for americans. It's not about being racist, just different tastes. They like a story to go with their game and the 360, with all its games being FPS's, is not making this happen.

Why do the Japanease NEVER EVER play non-Japanease games? Are they racist or something? We play their games to death why does the opposite not occour?

Go Nintendo DS.

================= enoslives7 Where are all the xbox and gamecube games ???? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. Sony owns the competiion ================= You realise that the Nintendo DS is from the same creator of the Nintendo Gamecube right? ... right?

Go NDS! that's why I always love my NDS Lite!!!

enoslives, you're about as old as my last post...what was that, 10 minutes ago? First of all, everyone knows that Microsoft has a pathetic base in Japan, that's nothing new. As for Nintendo, the Gamecube is old news there. The DS is where it's at....no need to dominate the charts with two systems when one does the trick. Oh, and about Sony....nevermind....you're infantile mind would explode if tried to explain to you how they are far from pwning the competition.

Where are all the xbox and gamecube games ???? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. Sony owns the competiion

It is great to see KOF XI on this list! I got it and it is easily the best of the series!

I think it's pretty dumb that they're actually trying to say that it's any kind of a competition between the DS and anything else. This is the most I have seen of software for SONY's machines on these charts in a long time. The DS has consistently had 8 of the top 10. This week, three new releases for SONY consoles just halted that for a little while. Next week, it'll be the same old story.

Yeah no doubt, apparently I'm supposed to stop playing mario and zelda games because I played the first ones when I was 7. Me getting older means I have to play uninteresting and boring games like GTA according to some of these 360 fanboys. Sex, Violence and Guns don't make a great game, these charts prove that.

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They sure do love their hand helds over there.

God can Nintendo sell more DS games. As long as the Big N brings those game State side I'll be happy. I enjoy the Brain games, but I can't wait for Zelda DS and FF3 to hit. It's nice to see the PSP get some love. If it is a brain game rip-off, it's said that Sony has rip Nintendo off to get sales. I'd love it if some worth while PSP games would come out.

Very interesting to see that a PS2 got the top spot. Valkyrie Profile is a very strong franchise and it will be interesting if the game remains in the top spot for more weeks. Definitely the leader is the Nintendo DS with a lot of games in the top 10.

oh cool 6 of the 10 are DS games. quality !!!! how many psp? one? heheh. how many 360? oh right none. so is 360 officially a failure yet, after all it didnt crack Japan and probably never will..

DS just keep doin what you do and the reason there isn't a lot of 360 support is because there aren't many rpgs out for the 360.

KOF XI needs to be #1, that game is the s&^&*!!!!

Sadly enough you never find a PSP title in the Top Ten charts.Wonder why.Don't think release of MGSPO in Jp will change the trend.As far as i know MGS is not that popular in Jp as it is in US and EU.Hail MGS