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Big in Japan Jan. 18-24: Valkyria Chronicles 2

Sega's PSP-exclusive turn-based strategy sequel sells nearly 100,000 in first week but can't outpace the super-selling New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

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After two weeks playing second fiddle to Kingdom Hearts' PSP debut, New Super Mario Bros. Wii recaptured the top spot in the weekly sales chart for Japanese tracking firm Media Create . For the week of January 18-24, Nintendo's multiplayer mascot platformer tallied 110,918 sales, good enough to regain the best-seller designation.

Note to self: When designing a tank, don't use brightly colored parts for weak points.
Note to self: When designing a tank, don't use brightly colored parts for weak points.

Sega's PSP turn-based strategy game Valkyria Chronicles 2 gave New Super Mario Bros. Wii a run for gamers' money, debuting in second place on the charts with 94,444 copies sold. Trailing in third place with more than 76,000 copies sold was the week's other big new release, Namco Bandai's anime-based 3D fighting game Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Battle of Aces.

Sales for the best-seller of the previous two weeks, Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, sagged significantly. The latest entry in the publisher's Disney crossover line fell to fourth place with nearly 60,000 units sold, down more than 65 percent week-over-week. The remainder of the software chart was filled with familiar faces, including a reentry to the charts for Capcom's Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, which was recently rereleased in a budget package.

On the hardware front, there was little change. Every system saw sales declines from the week before, but the pecking order was unchanged. The PSP took first place with nearly 53,000 sold, while its digital distribution-bound cousin the PSP Go was dead last with fewer than 1,800 new systems sold. On the console front, the Wii once again came out on top, with its 45,167 tally easily besting the PlayStation 3's 26,966 systems sold. Meanwhile, Microsoft no doubt can't wait for the recently announced Monster Hunter Frontier to hit Japanese Xbox 360s, as the system sold a relatively meager 3,343 systems for the week.

JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF JANUARY 18-24, 2010
Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1) New Super Mario Bros. Wii / Nintendo / Wii / 110,918
2) Valkyria Chronicles 2 / Sega / PSP / 94,444
3) Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Battle of Aces / Bandai Namco / PSP / 76,088
4) Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep / Square Enix / PSP / 59,566
5) Tomodachi Collection / Nintendo / DS / 45,002
6) Wii Fit Plus / Nintendo / Wii / 33,640
7) Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles / Capcom / Wii / 23,245
8) Monster Hunter Freedom Unite / Capcom / PSP / 16,117
9) Wii Sports Resort / Nintendo / Wii / 15,753
10) Inazuma Eleven 2: Kyoui no Shinryokusha - Fire and Blizzard / Level 5 / DS / 13,951

Hardware:
PSP - 52,909
Wii - 45,167
PS3 - 26,966
DSi XL - 24,059
DSi - 20,373
DS Lite - 4,966
Xbox 360 - 3,343
PS2 - 2,088
PSP Go - 1,773

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biokrysty

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iterresting

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Stryder_18

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I wish I could just download the japanese language into my head like in the matrix, then I wouldn't have to wait for these awesome games :D

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Kou-Nurasaka

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Does it bother anyone else that the PS2 only undersold the XBox 360 by 1000 units? The Japanese market for that thing is pitiful. (I'll stick with my PS3 as well).

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VXLbeast

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@Rottenwood: Interesting points, although I still don't believe in all digital media. I do hate DLC though, hate it with a passion. It has turned from a tool to enhance a game experience to an easy way for a greedy game devloper to nab an extra 10 bucks.

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canx12

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@Yuck too i liked ur joke xD

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Rottenwood

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@VXLbeast Besides, it's the secondhand game market that is making developers so aggressive about DLC/digital distribution to begin with. The more used games people buy, the faster they'll try to phase out physical media.

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VXLbeast

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@Rottenwood: WHy would we want to get rid if used game stores?!? Its bad for game devlopers, but great for gamers!

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VXLbeast

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@badmrfrosty7: First of all, music is completely different and doesn't make sense in that context, and second of all, netflix is renting, not owning. Big industries want digital media to be the future, but the average gamer does not. I know I don't. No more game sharing, no more used games= not good.

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Yuck_Too

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Guess it's the PSP Go-ing going Gone...

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Legolas_Katarn

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@VXLbeast I agree on both posts (unless the digital games are ones that are expensive or for older systems, I would never want to pay to download current games at the same price that I could buy a copy for)

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Rottenwood

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As a regular Steam user, I can personally vouch for digital distribution. Having a huge library of great games at your fingertips, many of them out-of-print and quite cheap, sure beats trolling E-Bay. The PSP Go is a good idea, executed poorly. The prices are too high and it was borderline insane to introduce it in the middle of a hardware generation that started with physical media, thus alienating most of your user base. The faster we can eliminate used game shops, the better.

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badmrfrosty7

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@VXLBeast Uh, you know iTunes is a form of digital media right? And that's doing pretty damn well. Netflix offers forms of digital media with their movies and their stock has been ridiculous even through the rough economical period. PSPgo has the right idea but mostly the wrong price tag and the fact it basically shuns people who already own a PSP. But digital media is a great idea, especially for a portable console. New console games aren't far away (you already see the 360 sell best sellers of current and last-gen games in their marketplace which the PS3 should be doing with their PS2 games soon as well as full PS3 games eventually.) Digital media is the future people. And it's going to be okay.

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Paladin_King

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wait, VC 2 is a PSP exclusive?! :(

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St_muscat

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@ THE-ZOZ, dude Bayonetta come out 3 months ago there, so why on earth should it still be on the 10 ten list?

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THE-ZOZ

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judging from the top ten software , japan doesn`t have that many hardcore gamers if there`s any , i`m even suprised not to see Bayonetta or Final fantasyXIII in the list.

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ayumi_miyazaki

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@ClintKeys Hi clint-san, sorry I cancelled my facebook account. I was receiving too many e-mails. I agree with what you said. The competition between NINTENDO and sony is epic this gen. In japan its truely exciting. Its a close match and it should spawn so truely fantastic games. The Xbox brand is slowly dying in worldwide sales unfortuantely. I still lovexbox though

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SlowMotionKarma

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The problem with the DS's "slumping" sales is the fact that there are 3 versions on the market. Add those together and it's just under the PSP. Anyway, stuff like this is really only important to businessmen/women. So what if one system is outselling another this week? The only item of note I can see is the abysmal sales of the GO. Like VXLbeast said, this is hard evidence that people don't want DLC-only-based systems.

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tony382

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And this concerns us how?

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VXLbeast

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Oh, and hopefuly the failed PSP Go will show Sony, and other companies, that we do NOT want all digital media.

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VXLbeast

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Glad to see Valkyria Chronicles selling well, it deserves it.

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Rottenwood

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I love how a game like Valkyria Chronicles can top charts and move hardware in Japan. I wish incredible 'smaller' games like that got more attention here in the States. Mass Effect 2 deserves every drop of praise it has received, but the little guys need love too.

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twv25

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and with monster hunter coming out on the 360 you will more than likely see a increase in 360 sales.

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twv25

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the 360 doesnt sell well because japanese people like playing rpgs more than fps. thats why i own a ps3.sure the 360 has rpgs but not as many as the ps3.

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x-2tha-z

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Why does the 360 sell so poorly in Japan? I mean, there's plenty of games that play to Japanese tastes on the 360. I think it's blatantly obvious it doesn't sell well because Microsoft isn't a Japanese company.

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ZippyDSMLee

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why not just make it DLC for the PSwii60 state side? Then sell the PSP game for 70$ :P

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Rahnyc4

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ds still owns japan. the hardware numbers are still high and the ds is at 23 million sold, surpassing the ps2 life time record. on the software front the Ds has the most games on this chart than any other gaming platform. sorry to bust anyone bubble, but the Ds is still japan's crowned champ.

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Tauu

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So what's the big deal about Japanese game sales? Do they care about American game sales? What are sales like in Europe?

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felipebo

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Good to see people appreciating VC

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Bangerman15

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why would they make the second on the psp?? that'd be like making super mario galaxy for the wii and then making super mario galaxy 2 for the ds... it just seems rather pointless :/ especially for those large amount of people with a ps3 that don't have a psp at the same time or vice versa :(

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Rhen_Var

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It did surprisingly well~! A PS3 port is inevitable at this point :D

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Excedra

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:D

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Hanzoadam

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Its the game I'm most looking forward too this year

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Morthas

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im regretting selling my psp for this game =/

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Axelander999

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Wow! I didn't expect to see PSP so high in these lists! Especially Japan, the land of DS!

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ClintKeys

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I'm starting to like the competition between Sony and Nintendo.^^

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ayumi_miyazaki

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Post holiday sales for the wii is still extremely high worldwide. Incredible really.

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Chico_Azteca

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well, they actually stated that if this sold well we would get another ps3 game so... no surprised

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Kleeyook

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Is it only me but I think that KH BBS's release is somewhat, not such a big news. :(

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GodsPoison

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I might have been more excited for Valkyria Chronicles 2 if it hadnt been on the psp......i mean why?

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Madertus

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@sartnd - true, true. Hey guys, I dunno if it's right - 110 918 people bought Super Mario Bros. IN A SINGLE WEEK???!!!

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sartnd

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Wow PSP but not GO lol

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kamizuka

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"ironically PSP is top selling hardware in Japan and PSPGo is lowest. Who woulda figured?" it is kinda like the same console. so why would they post a whole spot for the pspgo but not put it as just "PSP sales' because all that money goes to one company and it is posted on the overall sales of the psp. i just dont get it

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kikitube

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Where's Final Fantasy XIII?

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DaGamingDude

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ugh psp selling nice !!!

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LordRaymond

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Lol 4 Nintendo hardware, 4 Sony hardware, and 1 Microsoft hardware. If only VC2 was on PS3 I would buy it the next time I go to a store definately.

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soulless4now

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This looks to be the psp's comeback year.

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xxsuperbananaxx

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Yeah Valkyria Chronicles suffered because it didn't get much promotion when it was released, and I also learned in my game theory class that it got poor shelf placement because stores didn't think it would sell well. Shelf placement and promotional posters, commercials, etc. make a huge difference.

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Pices

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The reason why Valkyria Chronicles 2 is on the PSP was because of the sales of the first one

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kejigoto

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Wait what? VC2 is on PSP only? What the heck? The first one is awesome but I don't want to get a PSP... Guess I'll have to miss that one =(

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Young_Charter

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Why PSP :(

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