Nier makes number one debut in Japan

Latest role-playing game releases dominate charts, but sales figures remain low

News by David Jenkins Contributor

Published on April 30, 2010

A suite of new role-playing game releases have made their mark on the latest weekly Japanese sales charts, with Square Enix and Cavia's NieR RepliCant on PlayStation 3 debuting at number one.

Although the game sold only 60,174 units this represented over 90 per cent of first week stock and suggests Square Enix's decision to release different versions of the game in Japan and the West was a sound one.

Despite the name change the PS3 exclusive NieR RepliCant is identical to the Xbox 360 game known as NieR Gestalt (which debuted at number 11 this week) except for a different main character.

In the West Gestalt has been released on both formats as "Nier" and features an older male character. In Japan RepliCant has proven much more successful with its younger and more androgynous lead.

The second highest new entry of the week is Atlus' Tokyo Mono Harashi: Karasu no Mori Gakuen Kitan on the PSP, which roughly translates as "Tokyo Demonologist: The Mysterious Tale of Ravenwood Academy". A spin-off from the Tokyo Majin series, the game sold 21,953 units.

New at number five is Ys: The Oath In Felghana for PSP, a remake of the third entry in Nihon Falcom's long-running role-playing series. Despite its cult status though the game only sold a lowly 16,167 units.

The final new entry in the top 10 is the PlayStation 3 Game of the Year Edition of Western role-playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, with 12,479 units sold. The Xbox 360 version entered at number 19.

In terms of hardware sales this week, little changed in the status quo with almost identical sales figures to the previous week.

Sales figures for the top three formats all remained extremely close, with the PSP edging the Nintendo DS out by a few hundred units thanks to combined sales with the PSPgo.

The Japanese software chart for the week ending April 25 was as follows: