PSP sales rocket in Japan
Crisis Core held responsible.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII has prompted an enormous PSP sales surge in Japan, GamesIndustry.biz reports.
Figures were up by over six times on the previous week, according to Media Create data, making it the best selling piece of kit on the market.
It puts an end to what has been a routine dominance of the region by Nintendo platforms. Where, despite two new Pokémon titles, the DS had to settle with second place as the PSP total climbed to 95,487 for the week.
A full run down can be found below.
Hardware:
- PSP: 95,487
- DS: 79,974
- Wii: 26,181
- PS2: 13,128
- PS3: 13,101
- X360: 1243
- GBA: 836
- Cube: 97
Software:
- Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP)
- Pokemon Fushigi no Dungeon: Toki no Tankentai (DS)
- Pokemon Fushigi no Dungeon: Yami no Tankentai (DS)
- Fate/Tiger Colosseum (PSP)
- Another Century's Episode 3: The Final (PS2)
- Taiko no Tatsujin DS (DS)
- Mario Party 8 (Wii)
- Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles - Ring of Fates (DS)
- Sengoku Musou 2 Mushouden (PS2)
- My Housekeeping Diary (DS)
You may also like...
-
Happy Action Theater Review
-
Call of Duty: Black Ops has best game ending ever, says Guinness World Records
-
Mass Effect 3 Demo: The First 20 Minutes
-
Why Devs Owe You Nothing
-
Tim Schafer: publishers aren't evil
-
Face-Off: Final Fantasy 13-2
-
Halo 4 Master Chief action figure flaunts new suit design
-
App of the Day: Monkey Bump
-
Sony's $50m Vita marketing campaign targets PS3 owners
-
Sony confirms PS Vita 1st Party digital only game prices
-
UK Top 40: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning beats Darkness 2
-
Fallout: New Vegas dev asks fans what game they would like it to Kickstart
-
Retrospective: Star Wars Episode I Racer
-
EGTV: Eurogamer playtests PlayStation Vita
-
Metal Gear Solid 5 expected between April 2013 and May 2014
-
Metal Gear Solid 3D demo on eShop this week
-
Digital Foundry: PS3 Skyrim Lag Fixed?
-
Making FIFA Street in the FIFA engine's image
-
Ridge Racer Unbounded delayed by four weeks
-
FIFA Street footage pits France vs. Germany
-
Activision: games are relationships, "brands in people's lives"
-
No plans for Journey PlayStation Vita version
-
DICE working on multiple Battlefield 3 fixes
-
Gotham City Impostors Review
-
Lollipop Chainsaw screenshots show off custom costumes









Comments (55) Latest comment 4 years ago
Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Just shows the power of even a single a decent software franchise, especially when the cost of the platform is relatively low (as we are seeing with the Wii I suppose).
"Where, despite two new Pokémon titles,"
Particularly interesting methinks.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
.....till next week or the week after
Comment below viewing threshold Show
PSP ftw
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Either that or everyone in Japan already has 3 DS's
Comment below viewing threshold Show
"
Hardly, the 77,777 (included in that 95,487 figure) limited edition FFVII:CC slim PSP's sold out of pre-orders available months ago. It was inevitable the day would come when consumers where allowed to pick up their pre-ordered console. :/
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
There is still some hope for mankind, one would think.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Although you're right about them not being proper Pokemon games, both titles sold a combined 569,000 copies that week, which is hardly bad.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
/cue Sony rep announcing they are market leaders and that this clearly shows which device is better...
Comment below viewing threshold Show
LOL, that sounds like them alright.
Let's see if they have been learning to be a little bit less arrogant over the last couple of years.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I'm very happy both PSP and Final Fantasy are doing well!
Comment below viewing threshold Show
How can you "take them away" though. That doesn't make any sense at all. They sold them.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Europe shafted for release date again. Argh! I hope MGS4 sets an example in the future.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Good work! Help yourself to a biscuit!
UncleLou - Well, you can't take them away obviously, it's still an enormous boon for Sony. I think the point is, though, that those 77,777 weren't really sold in this one week. They we're pre-order sales that Sony have essentially held back and then released all in one go, making the sales spike bigger than it would have been otherwise. I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that a lot of those buying them were existing PSP owning FF fans.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
"Meanwhile, the PS3 is being outsold by the 360 3:1 and the 360 is catching up with the Wii in the US... "
Lol. What on earth is your actual point?
@GingerNathan
I was just expressing general surprise that such a thing could happen. The DS has been so ludicrously successful in Japan I woudln't have thought that just one title could tip the scales for sales of the actual platform itself.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
"Take away the Limited Editions they only sold 17,710 PSP's that week"
I have to second UncleLou on this one. That quote above is just crazy talk. In what way do limited edition PSPs not count?
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I have to second UncleLou on this one. That quote above is just crazy talk. In what way do limited edition PSPs not count? "
I didn't say they did count, they where pre-ordered months ago so they can be discounted in terms of showing how the game has increased the weekly sales of the console, especially when you factor in that the majority of the limited editions would have gone to FF fans, and people trying to get hold of a early PSP slim. The 77,777 console could have been released and picked up anytime, the remainder of the consoles sold (17710) represents weekly off the shelf sales and whether or not (not in this case) a particular game (FFVIICC in this case) had any effect on the normal console sales. After all Sony can't rely on pre-ordered Limited edition FF console each week.
Having said that they may not have to, it'll depend on how the PSP Slim takes off. Whether it has a DS Lite effect on consumers, or an initial spike which soon drops off.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Except that there's a game of the calibre of FFVII CC now part of the PSP library.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Oh? we have another "killer app that will save the PSP"?
Were I heard that before ... GTA:LCS? MGS:A?
Please ...
Also DQ IX is DS exclusive and Dragon Quest is much bigger in Japan that Final Fantasy and FF XII:RW sold 180,000 if the first week.
This kind of sales rocket are bad because they are one trick pony, they are not sustained increased sale numbers and in a week or two its back to were they were ... also the issue of the PSP is game sales since people do own a PSP but they are not using it to play PSP games.
DS won long ago, its over.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I'm sorry, the PSP is far from dead, get over it.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
The PSP lost? Fuck me, I'd better sell mine.
While we're at it, we'd better tell people to stop reading Shakespeare- Harry Potter pwned him ages ago, the sales figures speak for themselves. And we should get rid of Green and Blacks because Mars Bars sell more. And Pizza Express has got to go- who needs Pizza Express when MacDonalds is evidently the more successful brand?
Silly boy.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
er, you havn't bought a PS3 ave ya?
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Not even close, 127 million people living in Japan, 20 million (approx) DS's bought in Japan.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I think hairs are being split somewhat here. When talking in terms of how many units have been sold, it doesn't really matter WHY they were sold. A number is just a number. The article may discuss why the sales have peaked the way they have, but that doesn't change the actual numbers.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
"While we're at it, we'd better tell people to stop reading Shakespeare- Harry Potter pwned him ages ago" etc.
+1
Comment below viewing threshold Show
I think you misunderstand me, I'm not trying to undermine the market position of the PSP by trying to discount limited editions of a console. Just noting that for a Final Fantasy VII game I don't think it's made as much impact on the usual sales of a PSP as expected, especially when you take into consideration the vast amounts of the software which was sold. It's seems like the software was really only bought by customers who already owned a PSP.
Just find that rather surprising, I was expecting off the shelf sales of PSP's to be pretty much the same amount as the 77,777 limited edition pre-orders. Having said that maybe a factor would have been at that point in time the normal PSP slim hadn't been released, maybe a lot of people are waiting for that? I know if I wanted a PSP for FFV7CC and I didn't manage to get myself one of the limited editions, I'd wait a week or so for the new Slim PSP's.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Using that logic could you say that most launch sales for the 360 and Wii should be discounted because most were pre-orders (most notably Wii which was sold out for ages).
And the first week PS3 sales were overblown because of pre-orders?
How about when Halo is released next week, should we discount all the preorders and claim that the difference is what Halo3 ACTUALLY sold? Because "pre-orders don't count"?
What about the Elite and the Halo3 edition 360's?
I see your logic but it still has no bearing in reality. Removing pre-orders to get the actual "sales" caused by a game doesn't make any sense (notwithstanding that you have no evidence to show that many of the handheld pre-orders could be BECAUSE the game was released, in the same way some people are pre-ordering the Halo3 edition 360 to get with the release of Halo3).
This is a non-sequitir anyway because I'll guarantee this is the equivalent of a pi$$ in the ocean, just like the PS3 price drop "spike" (in the US at least) and we all know how long that lasted.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
+1"
Since I honestly never thought anyone would be so stupid ...
PSP have awful sale figures in terms of UMD movies and games, because of that publishers are not willing to invest much in then.
The idiocy of comparing Shakespeare to Harry Potter is the argument is ... well it is in fact true .... Harry Potter books currently sell more that Shakespeare books and publishers rather invest in "Harry Potter" that in "Shakespeare" ... they are in the business of making money after all.
Also trying to justify saying "you should get a PSP instead of a DS" with that argument is idiotic since it can be used to say "you should get a Ngage instead of a DS" ... fact is when it comes to a game library the DS is the unquestionable leader of the market, just like Windows is the leader of the OS of the market ... never mind if OS X is better or not, Windows have most support.
With the DS huge installed base (that does, in fact, buy games for it) there is not much incentive of making PSP games ... this is basic: Investment-Return.
PSP games require a larger investment that DS game but offer a lower return, there is not much commercial reason to invest in PSP games.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
More DS games, more competition. Plus Nintendo traditionally dominates software sales for its own hardware platforms, so yes, there is plenty of incentive for making a PSP game.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
And the first week PS3 sales were overblown because of pre-orders?"
For Fuck sake, can some of you read?, I've never said the 'actual' sales of PSP's that week where 17xxx units, they where clearly the best part of 100K. I'm just surprised that the release of a FFV7 game hasn't produced more PSP off the shelf sales, nothing more, nothing less.
For example when DQ9 comes out I'd be very surprised to see the DS's sales below 200k regardless of any limited edition consoles.
My comments are based on my surprise at the lack of power to shift hardware of a strong Square-Enix franchise, not of some fanboy trying to undermine a good week of sales for Sony.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
As for me, I didn't buy a €165 PSP Slim & Lite until Monster Hunter Freedom 2 popped up here and found out that Final Fantasy Tactics: Lion Wars is coming up rather soon. Add Patapon, Echochrome, CRUSH, Locoroco, Tekken V, MGS
It's a bit like the Gamecube. Never touched it until it got really cheap and had a small, but very nice library of great games. Which were also cheap. In the end, consoles are all about the games.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
No, more like annoyed of Sony fanboys that cannot figured out that the PSP as a handheld console (and UMD player) never picked up since they are too blind by their fanboyish to see reality.
I hate idiots but I hate even more people that allow themselves to be blinded, Sony fanboys are now the later and not the former.
"More DS games, more competition. Plus Nintendo traditionally dominates software sales for its own hardware platforms, so yes, there is plenty of incentive for making a PSP game."
Sure, the DS have more competition but it also have a much bigger usebase ... it justifies the risk of investment.
And true, Nintendo games do sell but then again "Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker" and "Final Fantasy III" sold over 1 million, what is required to make a profit is a question of returned investment ... if $500,000 is spend and $5,000,000 is returned it does not matter how much units it sold.
The only incentive of making a PSP game is the stagnated PSP game market ... it is the same incentive as making a Xbox or CG game in "old gen" were the PS2 dominated.
I do wish the PSP had more support but it would be foolish of me to say the PSP is equal to the DS in the game market since it is not and that is what is being questioned ... this game is simply too little and far too late to change the market.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Hello?
Comment below viewing threshold Show
You're an irritating little cock.
Just needed to get that outta my system.
Comment below viewing threshold Show
My evidently too-subtle point was that the relative hardware and software sales for either system have little bearing on whether or not I enjoy playing on my PSP. There are great games out for it, and more on the way. Ditto the DS. That good enough for you?
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Holy shit dude. Way to miss the point. The fact you then go on to write 10 paragraphs based on how you missed the point.... funny.
Let me clarify for you. In a nutshell, talk of who won or lost is pointless and childish.
I thought that dirigiblebill's heavu use of sarcasm made the point perfectly. You seem to have confused yourself by trying to find logic in what he said. That logic simply wasn't there, which was entirely his point I believe.
"I hate idiots"
Heeheehee. That is ace.
@GingerNathan
Ah, I see your point. The article was suggesting that the FF title was responsible, but I understand what you mean regards the slim line pre-orders all going out at the same time (a cynic might suggest market manipulation of a sort
Comment below viewing threshold Show
[edit] also it's after 1 am and i'm really drunk so excuse any grammar/making-sense errors!
Comment below viewing threshold Show
Comment below viewing threshold Show
'No, it's not the app that will "save" the PSP, it's just it's bestselling game ever. '
Actually, Monster Hunter Portable 2 sold more units on its first day than FFVII:CC. FFVII:CC has to shift another 650000 units to get even close to MHP2.
But who cares much?
Comment below viewing threshold Show
And this just goes to show how much the Japanese love their RPG franchises. Just wait till Dragon Quest comes out for the DS, you will probably see half a million DS's sold in a week
Comment below viewing threshold Show
<a href=http://www.vgoldseller.com/age-of-conan-c-1 216.html/fiesta-c-896.html>Age of Conan Gold</a>
<a href=http://www.vgoldseller.com/age-of-conan-c-1 216.html/fiesta-c-896.html>buy Age of Conan Gold</a>
<a href=http://www.vgoldseller.com/age-of-conan-c-1 216.html/fiesta-c-896.html>aoc gold </a>