Period: The week of June 25th – July 1st (2012)
Top-seller: Pokémon Black/White 2 – 420,780
Nintendo 3DS sales: 66,391 | Total sales: 6,418,988
PlayStation Vita sales: 25,636 | Total sales: 804,739
This week, Japanese sales are serving up a doze of surprises, some pleasant and some…not so pleasant. Let’s take these in order, one by one:
Culdcept for Nintendo 3DS sold 55,469 copies in its first week. That’s great for such a niche game, and for comparison, Culdcept on the DS in 2008 debuted at 50,374 copies sold.
Robotics;Notes opened at 54,753. The game looks like its riding off of Steins;Gate’s reputation, as they’re both by the same developer. For perspective, 5pb’s president said that retailers ordered 100,000 copies of Robotics;Notes.
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection on the Vita sold about half of Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D on the 3DS. Of course, HD Collectionwas already released on the PlayStation 3 prior to this, so that would explain the low Vita version sales.
Project Zero 2: Wii Edition (25,280) outsold the .hack Hybrid Pack (17,446). At this point, I believe the only way to make .hackrelevant again is to release a high-quality RPG on the PlayStation 3, which is where Namco’s anime audience is. Whether or not Namco Bandai will think it’s worth the risk remains to be seen.
Unsurprisingly, Project Zero 2: Wii Edition (a remake of Fatal Frame 2) didn’t manage to outsell 2008’s Fatal Frame 4 (also on the Wii), which sold 33,456 copies in its first week.
Tokyo Jungle could eventually reach close to 200,000 sold. That’s pretty great for a quirky game where you play as a bunch of animals in a post-apocalyptic world.
In other news, Sony released the Crystal White PlayStation Vita model last week, which accounts for the increase in Vita sales. Next week, we should see its numbers go back to normal. Next week’s sales chart will also tell us how Anarchy Reigns, Etrian Odyssey IV, and The Little Battlers: Explosive Boost sold.
The top-20 software sales chart for the week is as follows:
| Lw | Tw | Title | Weekly Sales | Total Sales | Sys. | Publisher |
| 01. | 01. | Pokémon Black/White 2 | 420,780 | 1,982,518 | DS | Pokémon Co. |
| New | 02. | Atelier Ayesha | 60,548 | New | PS3 | Gust |
| New | 03. | Culdcept | 55,469 | New | 3DS | Nintendo |
| New | 04. | Robotics;Notes | 54,753 | New | PS3 | 5pb |
| 04. | 05. | Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry’s Wonderland 3D | 45,207 | 766,381 | 3DS | Square Enix |
| New | 06. | Resident Evil: Chronicles HD Collection | 33,393 | New | PS3 | Capcom |
| New | 07. | Project Zero 2: Wii Edition | 25,280 | New | Wii | Nintendo |
| New | 08. | Metal Gear Solid HD Collection | 20,139 | New | PSV | Konami |
| New | 09. | .hack Hybrid Pack | 17,446 | New | PS3 | Namco Bandai |
| New | 10. | The IdolM@ster: Anime & G4U! vol. 9 | 16,139 | New | PS3 | Namco Bandai |
| 10. | 11. | Persona 4: Golden | 15,497 | 181,866 | PSV | Atlus |
| New | 12. | Robotics;Notes | 14,908 | New | 360 | 5pb |
| 07. | 13. | Mario Party 9 | 14,049 | 461,175 | Wii | Nintendo |
| 05. | 14. | Tokyo Jungle | 12,391 | 177,404 | PS3 | Sony |
| 08. | 15. | Mario Tennis Open | 11,500 | 209,548 | 3DS | Nintendo |
| 04. | 16. | Kenka Bancho Bros. | 11,298 | 33,095 | PSP | Spike Chunsoft |
| New | 17. | Jake Hunter: Rondo of Revenge | 6,834 | New | 3DS | Arc System Works |
| New | 18. | Strike Witches: Wings of Silver | 6,698 | New | PSP | Kadokawa Games |
| 11. | 19. | Super Mario 3D Land | 6,423 | 1,637,781 | 3DS | Nintendo |
| New | 20. | Dies irae ~Amantes amentes~ | 5,669 | New | PSP | Fuse |
<< Last week’s software sales chart
