This Week In Sales: Some New, But A Lot Of Old

By Ishaan . December 22, 2010 . 4:23pm

The second-to-last sales post of the year! …and half of it is dominated by Nintendo titles, owing to the holiday season. Points of interest on the sales chart for December 13th – 19th are as follows:

You already know all about how well Monster Hunter Portable 3rd is doing. It’s now the fastest-selling PSP game of all time in Japan. You can read this update for the latest on the game’s performance.

Ni no Kuni would appear to be out of luck in its second week. It remains to be seen if Christmas and New Year Sales, and word-of-mouth of its most accepting audience will help it bounce back on its feet. We’ll keep a close eye on it.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is doing fabulously. Kirby’s Epic Yarn and Mario Sports Mix are holding up reasonably well, too, but DKCR is in another league. However, none of the three can hold a candle to Super Mario All-Stars, which is the real star of Nintendo’s Wii holiday line-up.

Yet another nod to Magician’s Quest: The Merchant’s Store of Sorcery, valiantly keeping up with the competition. Konami have probably taken notice.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni also released in Japan during the same week, but failed to show up on the top-20 chart. One wonders if we’ll ever know what Alchemist’s expectations of the game really were.

Poor Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

Tales of Graces: F is nowhere to be seen.

The top-20 chart for the week is as follows:

Lw	Tw	Title	Weekly Sales	Total Sales	Sys.	Publisher
01.	01.	Monster Hunter Portable 3rd	581,543	3,161,801	PSP	Capcom
New	02.	Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3	185,908	New	PS3	Namco Bandai
New	03.	Inazuma Eleven 3: Challenge the World – The Ogre	175,604	New	DS	Level 5
03.	04.	Donkey Kong Country Returns	152,990	316,300	Wii	Nintendo
04.	05.	Pokémon Black/White	115,438	4,744,211	DS	Nintendo
New	06.	Shining Hearts	106,733	New	PSP	Sega
06.	07.	Wii Party	92,949	1,411,824	Wii	Nintendo
05.	08.	Mario Sports Mix	87,114	299,534	Wii	Nintendo
02.	09.	Ni no Kuni: The Jet-Black Sorcerer	74,329	244,877	DS	Level 5
08.	10.	Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-land Mayhem	54,628	163,929	DS	Nintendo
13.	11.	Kirby’s Epic Yarn	46,392	304,600	Wii	Nintendo
11.	12.	Super Fossil Fighters	41,103	161,748	DS	Nintendo
12.	13.	Magician’s Quest: The Merchant’s Store of Sorcery	38,140	175,195	DS	Konami
15.	14.	Wii Sports Resort (w/ MotionPlus)	37,239	123,348	Wii	Nintendo
07.	15.	Super Mario All-Stars Collector’s Edition	29,872	742,861	Wii	Nintendo
17.	16.	New Super Mario Bros. Wii	27,543	4,106,019	Wii	Nintendo
New	17.	Castlevania: Lords of Shadow	27,155	New	PS3	Konami
18.	18.	Taiko no Tatsujin Wii Everyone’s Party Sandaime	26,970	77,509	Wii	Namco Bandai
New	19.	Call of Duty: Black Ops (dubbed version)	23,253	New	PS3	Square Enix
19.	20.	Mario Kart Wii	22,579	3,044,425	Wii	Nintendo

Sales data sourced from 4Gamer and Media-Create.

Rarutos

I-If Shining Hearts is doing that well, does that give it more of a chance for Sega to localize it?! Probably not huh? ;_;
- https://twitter.com/#!/Ojsinnerz Firo_Prochainezo
  
  Well, unlike Bamco, they at least try to bring a lot of their games over.
  
  The REAL problem is their lack of marketing for anything that’s not sonic.
androvsky

Didn’t Final Fantasy XIII for the 360 go on sale this week too? ;)
- Hraesvelgr
  
  The entire idea of that seemed pointless to me. When the game first came out on the PS3, it sold nearly two million in the first week and then… more or less dropped off completely. I can’t imagine there are too many people that interested in buying the game at this point, especially on the 360.
  - Code
    
    A silly decision from Square >O>!? What is this madness!?
    - http://thrust-the-sky.deviantart.com/ WildArms
      
      Yooo~ Code answer the question i made you in the arcana hearts 3 post D:< im showing interest in the series! as my ps3 pal YOU GOTTA CORRESPOND MEeee. The only fighting games ive ever liked are blazblue/guilty gear, and the naruto ultimate ninja storm games (with the new fighting game style).
      
      And i couldnt help but laught when i read androvsky's post xD, i didnt even remember about FF13… gotta beat the game, i did play a lil' bit some days ago
      - Code
        
        Hm what question about the space fillers xpx? If you like Blazblue and Guilty Gear I figure you’ll likely like Arcana Hearts >w<~!
      - http://thrust-the-sky.deviantart.com/ WildArms
        
        ＜「・。・」＞～。　yo-yo!!
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1472407455 Charles Lupula
    
    Wow, it did even worse than I predicted. Can’t say I’m unhappy about that. ^_^
    
    Hopefully, this factors into Versus XIII staying exclusive.
    - http://myfigurecollection.net/collection/ashgail Ashgail
      
      I like how you think >_<
malek86

Shining Hearts looks like it had the best first week sales of any Shining game in the last several years. Hopefully that will bode well for a localization, even a PSN version would be ok.

MHP3 is just monstrous (appropriately…). Sales almost didn’t drop at all from last week. Looks like it won’t have much trouble reaching MHP2. A localization can’t be far off, but I hope it will come sooner than later.

Ni no Kuni didn’t do too bad, for its second week. We’ll see how sales go after the holidays, though.

Is that a new version of Inazuma 3? Sales seems to be a far cry from the original’s 500.000 first week.

And the lack of Shiren 5 makes me want to cry myself to sleep.
- http://thrust-the-sky.deviantart.com/ WildArms
  
  But didnt inazuma 3 had 2 versions, like every inazuma game? i think the other ver is the spark… im kinda confused, those games get released at the same time… right?
- http://www.siliconera.com/ Ishaan
  
  I’m gonna have to say Ogre’s doing okay. Inazuma 3 did 500k with two versions (Spark and Bomber) combined. Ogre’s first week sales are higher than individual numbers for Inazuma 2 Fire and Blizzard.
  
  Now, for some odd reason, Media-Create seem to believe it isn’t selling as well as expected, and are waiting for some sort of “Pokémon” word of mouth/DS linkage effect to keep it going…but I honestly can’t see what they’re basing this on. It’s “another Inazuma 3″ so naturally, it isn’t as big a deal as an entirely new game would be…
  - Ladius
    
    It’s a matter of sold versus shipment, the same problem NiNoKuni is facing.
    - http://www.siliconera.com/ Ishaan
      
      M-C don’t mention shipments, so while that could be the case, we’ll never know. They mention a shorter gap between IE3 and Ogre, which is what I said earlier as well. It has the Inazuma 3 name on it, which is a big difference from calling it “Inazuma 4″.
      
      Ni no Kuni’s situation isn’t the same either. Ogre re-uses assets, is essentially a “second” Inazuma Eleven 3 game, and was likely budgeted smartly, knowing Level 5. Ni no Kuni is an entirely original game, developed in collaboration with one of the most widely-recognized anime production houses, and had a lot more time/money spent on it.
  - malek86
    
    Why did they make another IE3 anyway? Was this already announced since the release of the first one? Kinda weird.
    - http://www.siliconera.com/ Ishaan
      
      This one ties in with the new movie I believe.
joesz

Bought the new gundam but kept it wrapped till the weekend.I can’t wait to try it out:)
- goronyan
  
  is this musou 3 so good? i’m not so fond of cel-shaded graphics and i dunno if the gameplay is similar to a.c.e, that’s why i still didn’t bought it
http://thrust-the-sky.deviantart.com/ WildArms

Darn, poor level 5, i was actually expecting them to get to the square enix/capcom/andthosekindofcompanies level soon T_T, and they should have the “guilbi studios expecting to be a hit” look into their faces

Shinning hearts did well it seems! LOCALIZE TIMEEEEEeeee!
Also i hope konami localize magician quest 2
https://twitter.com/#!/SplashdownTiger STiger

In other news: Recettear is $6.50 on Steam for another 17 hours as of posting this.
- https://twitter.com/#!/Ojsinnerz Firo_Prochainezo
  
  Just bought it earlier today. Also bought Bully.
Souji Tendou

Good start for Shining Hearts. SEGA, would you localize the game for me… uh, for us. PLEASE….?
- Guest
  
  It’s a dating sim RPG. Unless it’s NIS I dont see it coming here. I’d rather Sega bring us Yakuza Black Panther, Now THAT’S an awesome PSP game from Sega. And maybe the new PSP2
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Morandi/100000837836996 Daniel Morandi
  
  You make a lot kind of bread in Shining Heart using ingredient that you can pick everywhere (towns, farms, dungeon), it feels like Atelier somehow lol. Love that Tony Taka desing are more lively this time…I mean the character make expresions, move their mouth, close their eyes, etc.
Guest

So wait a minute whats going on with Tales of Graces F? all that cosplay helped for nothing? And wheres Arcana Heart 3?
- http://thrust-the-sky.deviantart.com/ WildArms
  
  Well, they surely are getting a lot of money from that cosplay xD, but i guess that wont be shown here… In my opimion, instead of a way to get more people, the costume thing is more to milk the people that already brought the game.
  
  Arcana hearts 3 was released last week? o.o i thought it was released recently D=
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Tommy-Lee/518924335 Tommy Lee
  
  Arcana Heart 3 isn’t being released for consoles until next month on the 13th.
- Ladius
  
  There’s nothing strange here. Vesperia PS3′s third week sales were 26k, ToGF is probably in the 20k range and, since this week has many good sellers, it is out of the top20.
  
  The little decrease between ToV PS3 and ToGF’s sales is simply a matter of ToGF being released in a far more crowded timeframe and with a steeper pricetag.
  - HarryHodd
    
    TOGf is also a Wii port.
    - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1472407455 Charles Lupula
      
      A Wii port that outsold the lifetime sales of the Wii version in its first week.
http://tristsantithesis.tumblr.com/ Tsunayoshi Sawada

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 is out doing Donkey Kong Country Returns and Kirbys Epic Yarn? Darn, this Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 must be some pretty hot stuff to be outdoing Nintendo’s games. I must have gotta check out Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 once it releases.
- http://www.youtube.com/user/EnvyMizuhashi Garyuu
  
  Dam straight, I’m surprised and glad to see this result. Can’t let go of you gundams.
- http://www.siliconera.com/ Ishaan
  
  Of course it’s outdoing them. It just released last week. A game’s performance is always strongest in its first week, and then it starts to taper off.
http://flailthroughs.blogspot.com Flailthroughs

If Banco Namdai will just announce DW Gundam 3 for the US, all my current fondest gaming wishlist entries will have been fulfilled.
HarryHodd

So will white knight chronicles outsell Ni No Kuni DS?
Tom_Phoenix

“Poor Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.”

Good. Maybe now, Konami will finally learn that 2D is the way to go with Castlevania. Knowing them, however, they will rather run the series into the ground before admitting that. It’s not like the commercial failure of previous 3D Castlevanias managed to sway them….
- http://twitter.com/gabriel_may_uk Gabriel May
  
  Gotta disagree with you. Konami -with the help of Mercurysteam – manage to at last create a good 3D Castlevania game after five failed attempts (though some would argue the two on the PS2 were decent). I’m not against having a 2D Castlevania (I love the games on the GBA and Nintendo DS and hope to see more) but to say they should stop after this fine effort I would have to go against.
  
  I’d say the poor sales are waiting long to release it.
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1472407455 Charles Lupula
    
    I have to disagree on the long wait being any sort of factor. I mean, Final Fantasy XIII was a how many years long wait? And that sold almost 2,000,000 copies. This was lack of interest, most likely after knowing how little like the previous Castlevania games it was, or maybe even just general apathy about the series in general.
http://twitter.com/gabriel_may_uk Gabriel May

Yeah pretty much a given that Monster Hunter Portable 3rd would be Christmas #1. it will hit 4 mil. 5 mil may be a struggle but it’s not impossible.

Inazuma Eleven 3: Challenge the World – The Ogre and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 doing well was not a surprise either, with Inazuma Eleven having become a recent phenomenom and…Well we know how much Japan loves Gundam.

Have to disagree that Ni no Kuni: The Jet-Black Sorcerer is in a bad spot. It’s still in the top ten and 74k+ sales is still a respectiable amount. Though it may be a bit of a struggle Ni no Kuni will at least hit 40k.

Tales of Graces: F is nowhere to be seen. Ouch. Surely even being a Wii port couldn’t have hurt it’s sales that much…Well I guess it did lol.
Darkrise

Shining Hearts! Someone plz bring it over, it did so well so that might justify it a little right? =( Sad to hear about Umineko though…
Joanna

-I wonder just how much MH3 will sell in it’s life time. 3 million is a crazy amount already.

-Ni no Kuni: It’s not doing bad for a DS game, but I bet L5 had bigger expectations. Hopefully it will have long legs because I really really want to see both games here. Giant Spell Book please~

-Magician’s Quest: I wish Konami would bring this over. I really liked the first game, it was exactly what I wished Animal Crossing had been. Although, given that the DS is having its swan song right now, I’m keeping my hopes really low.

-Umineko: aw, now my hopes of seeing this come here are dashed. I guess Manga Gamer could pick up the PC version, but I much prefer gaming on my consoles. Oh well, it’s better than nothing.

-Mario Kart Wii: I am amazed this game is still in the top 20. When was it first released? Two years ago? Crazy.

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