While PS Vita's hardware sales continues to reach new lows in Japan, the Nintendo 3DS saw a surge in system sales there alongside popular third-party releases like New Love Plus (pictured).
New and old 3DS titles dominated software sales in Japan last week -- eight out of the twelve top-selling games in the country were for Nintendo's handheld, including Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land, according to data from Media Create.
And while Nintendo platforms are often criticized for favoring first-party releases, all of the other games are from third-party publishers, such as Capcom's Monster Hunter 3G and Resident Evil: Revelations, Namco Bandai's Tekken 3D, and Chunsoft's Good People Die.
Konami's 3DS dating sim New Love Plus shipped last week and was the best-selling title, moving 104,969 copies. Square Enix did well with its new 3DS rhythm release Theatrhythm Final Fantasy too, selling 67,206 copies even though it was reportedly supply-constrained.
Tekken 3D's debut, however, fell well below previous debuts from the franchise. The fighting game pushed only 9,421 units in its first week -- compared to PSP releases like 2005's Tekken: Dark Resurrection (54,764 sales in its first week, according to Famitsu) and 2010's Tekken 6 (29,240 sales).
The only other notable release last week, Sega's Binary Domain, was the second biggest-selling game with its PlayStation 3 edition. The third person-shooter, which was developed by the same team behind the Yakuza series, sold 73,683 copies.
On the hardware side, 3DS benefitted from those new releases and sold 94,667 units last week, compared to 67,558 in the week previous.
PS Vita, though, didn't get much help from its version of Good People Die or Gravity Rush, and hit a new low of 12,309 systems sold.
I think it's pretty good for the health of a system. If niche (3rd party) titles can sell 100k in a single market that bodes well for more developers jumping on the system. Lets just hope we don't get the shovel ware X(.
Yes much better if several million people in the US and Europe buy a game on day one, where the player can massacre hundreds of civilians on an airport, then when 100k people in Japan buy a dating sim, where they have to win over the heart of a female character.
However, those Vita sales look dreadful...when are the system sellers coming out? Sony might have to pull a Nintendo (price drop + release huge system sellers) soon. I guess the market isn't willing to buy $300 portable game systems, a lesson both companies have unfortunately learned.
I want a Vita, but the high price (with game and memory card) definitely stops me...Also, why is no one complaining about the fact that it doesn't have a TV output cable? It seems logical for an HD portable to have it, and the PSP has it. I love the fact that my PS1 and PSP games look just right on an HDTV. I bet the new Vita model will have TV output. And yes, I know it's a portable, but when playing at home, that is an awesome feature!
I really thought Gravity Daze would boost PS Vita system sales. Although the game itself seems to have sold okay (something like 10% of the PS Vita install base bought it in week 1), it doesn't seem to have had any effect on system sales.
However, those Vita sales look dreadful...when are the system sellers coming out? Sony might have to pull a Nintendo (price drop + release huge system sellers) soon. I guess the market isn't willing to buy $300 portable game systems, a lesson both companies have unfortunately learned.
I want a Vita, but the high price (with game and memory card) definitely stops me...Also, why is no one complaining about the fact that it doesn't have a TV output cable? It seems logical for an HD portable to have it, and the PSP has it. I love the fact that my PS1 and PSP games look just right on an HDTV. I bet the new Vita model will have TV output. And yes, I know it's a portable, but when playing at home, that is an awesome feature!