Retail

3DS takes number one in Japan as Vita continues to slip

Thu 23 Feb 2012 9:04am GMT / 4:04am EST / 1:04am PST
Retail

Konami's dating sim New Love Plus causes sales surge for Nintendo handheld

A sales boost for the 3DS left Nintendo's handheld at number one in the Japanese hardware charts by a wide margin.

According to data from Media Create, reported by Andriasang, the 3DS sold 94,667 units over the seven-day period ending February 19 - significantly up from the previous week's total of 67,558.

The surge was in part due to the release of Konami's girlfriend simulator New Love Plus, which took number one in the software chart with sales of 104,969 units.

However, sales of the PlayStation Vita continued to slip - from 13,939 units last week to 12,309 this week - leaving Sony's new handheld behind both the PlayStation 3 and the PSP in fourth place

Sega's Binary Domain and Square Enix's Theatrhythm Final Fantasy took second and third place in the software charts, with Tecmo Koei's Samurai Warriors 3Z Special entering at number seven.

The full hardware chart is below. Last week's totals are in parentheses.

  • 1. 3DS: 94,667 (67,558)
  • 2. PS3: 21,993 (22,002)
  • 3. PSP: 14,824 (15,860)
  • 4. PSV: 12,309 (13,939)
  • 5. Wii: 7,874 (8,206)
  • 6. PS2: 1,433 (1,239)
  • 7. X360: 983 (1,139)
  • 8. DSi LL: 901 (957)
  • 9. DSi: 656 (651)

The full software chart is below. Last week's totals are in parentheses.

  • [3DS] 01. New Love Plus (Konami, 02.14.2012): 104,969 -- NEW
  • [PS3] 02. Binary Domain (Sega, 02.16.2012): 73,683 -- NEW
  • [3DS] 03. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy (Square Enix, 02.16.2012): 67,206 -- NEW
  • [3DS] 04. Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo, 12.01.2011): 22,015 (1,506,522)
  • [3DS] 05. Super Mario 3D Land (Konami, 02.16.2012): 17,791 (1,348,776)
  • [3DS] 06. Monster Hunter 3G (Capcom, 12.10.2011): 17,490 (1,249,833)
  • [PSP] 07. Samurai Warriors 3Z Special (Tecmo Koei, 02.16.2012): 17,125 -- NEW
  • [3DS] 08. Resident Evil Revelations (Capcom, 01.26.2012): 15,666 (231,907)
  • [PSP] 09. Genso Suikoden (Konami, 02.09.2012): 13,695 (75,479)
  • [PSV] 10. Gravity Daze (Sony, 02.09.2012): 10,219 (53,680)
  • [3DS] 11. Tekken 3D Prime Edition (Namco Bandai, 02.16.2012): 9,421 -- NEW
  • [3DS] 12. Good People Die (Chunsoft, 02.16.2012): 9,307 -- NEW
  • [PS3] 13. Gran Turismo 5 Spec II (Sony, 02.02.2012): 8,169 (42,198)
  • [WII] 14. Just Dance Wii (Nintendo, 10.13.2011): 7,643 (542,589)
  • [PSV] 15. Good People Die (Chunsoft, 02.16.2012): 6,538 -- NEW
  • [PS3] 16. Armored Core V (From Software, 01.26.2012): 6,430 (212,784)
  • [3DS] 17. Inazuma Eleven Go (Level-5, 12.15.2011): 6,268 (393,130)
  • [PSP] 18. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd PSP the Best (Capcom, 09.22.2011): 5,223 (197,031)
  • [WII] 19. Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo, 11.11.2010): 5,135 (873,120)
  • [3DS] 20. Nintendogs + Cats (Nintendo, 02.26.2011): 4,839 (501,169)

9 Comments

Michael Shamgar
Post-CEO

Nocturnal Entertainment Australia

These numbers are starting to look scary/back to the years from the mid-2000s:
- 3DS has 60% of the entire weekly hardware market
- 6 of the top#10 games are for the 3DS, including 4 of the top#5
- 3 titles in the top#10 have sold 1m+, all for the 3DS
- the "legs" are back (several titles selling consistently, after 10 weeks in the charts)
- 3DS outselling the competition (PSV + PSP) combined by 4:1

Now, its just about software support. Lets see how things look in 3-4 months...

Posted:A year ago

#1

Mac Ko
Director

Backdrum Entertainment

The power of Love Plus for the DS series is simply astounding. D:

Posted:A year ago

#2

Tony Johns

GIVE ME MY LOVE PLUS GAMES!!!!!

Dam you western society always ruining my fun. Taking all the best Japanese games away from me and instead giving me nothing but western fps, western rpgs, casual games and mobile social networking stuff that I DO NOT WANT TO PLAY.

I want to play more games like LOVE PLUS.

But I somehow feel that I will be forced to move to Japan all because of Nintendo Region Locking 3DS.


Posted:A year ago

#3

Peter Dwyer
Games Designer/Developer

It's only a matter of time before the Vita price drops. At that point I would strongly advise Sony to have a plan in place to compensate the early adopters.

A selection of high qaulity PSP downloads will do the trick but, they need to be high quality not non sellers.

It's going to be brutal.

Posted:A year ago

#4

Rodney Smith
Developer

Vita's suffering the same issue the 3DS had post launch. Lack of AAA games. Anyone looked at the upcoming releases?

Posted:A year ago

#5

Codie Collinge
Studying Computer Science with Games Development

University of Hull

As said by Peter, Sony have to give the vita a price drop soon. And then do something equivalent to Club Nintendo.
I think once it gets a price drop and has a few stronger games under it's belt, it will get a lot more buyers, LBP alone will probably see a noticeable rise in PSV sales.

Posted:A year ago

#6

Dr. Chee Ming Wong

Opus Artz Ltd

Its highly unlikely VIta will see any price drop. They've really set it competitively this time around is what i feel

Posted:A year ago

#7

Terence Gage
Freelance writer

Rather than getting any kind of price drop, I suspect Sony will bundle it with a game or two instead (or some download codes) and perhaps a memory card. I'm pretty sure they favoured bundles for the PS3 until it started getting some price drops a little while before the Slim model was released.

I think as long as the games are there then the price is absolutely reasonable. They still need some big releases to really appeal to the Japanese (The Legend of Dragoon 2 please) and need to make sure its release schedule is more consistent than it was with the PSP. I also think a lot of their in-house developers will follow the set-up of Naughty Dog-Bend Studio or Guerrilla-Cambridge Studio, in that they'll create portable versions of established home console franchises.

Posted:A year ago

#8

Fran Mulhern

Recruit3D

I think the Vita is overpriced - but then I knew that when I bought it. Seems to me that, if Sony want to really compete in the NGP market, they need to sell it at a loss. £179.99 for the wifi, rather than £229.99 rrp, is a better price - and bundle a memory card with it. Loving the Vita, but do think the price will need to drop for it to find more mainstream buyers (I'm a bit of a FIFA addict, and hoping they'll do an NHL for it too).

Posted:A year ago

#9

Login or register to post

Take part in the GamesIndustry community

Register now