Japanese charts: PS3 closing in on Wii
Fallout 3, Naruto help Sony's cause.
New releases Fallout 3 and Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm have helped the PS3 narrow the sales gap with Wii across Japan.
Nintendo counted 32,333 console sales for the week ending 18th January, while Sony's flagship machine notched up 20,690 sales, according to Media Create data (recreated by NeoGAF).
The increased competition echoes in the software chart, where both platforms count two top 10 entries. The Wii representatives are new entry New Control Play! Mario Power Tennis at one and Wii Fit at nine. The PlayStation 3 candidates are newcomers Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm at three and Fallout 3 at seven.
Nintendo sees 11 entries for Wii across the top 50, while Sony fills eight places with titles on PS3.
Both consoles are streets ahead of Xbox 360 and PS2, which record 9576 and 5760 sales, respectively. The Microsoft console only has one top 50 game entry (Race Driver: GRID at 44), and the PS2 has two.
Unsurprisingly, though, DS sales remain dominant for the region, and nearly double those of rival handheld, PSP.
The DS occupies 23 - just under half - of the top 50 software slots, while PSP games fill just five.
| This Week | Last Week | Title | Platform | Weekly Sales | Lifetime Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Entry | New Control Play! Mario Power Tennis | Wii | 56,509 | 56,509 |
| 2 | New Entry | Megami Ibunroku: Devil Survivor | DS | 55,466 | 55,466 |
| 3 | New Entry | Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm | PS3 | 44,065 | 44,065 |
| 4 | 1 | Dissidia: Final Fantasy | PSP | 29,355 | 848,000 |
| 5 | 2 | Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP the Best) | PSP | 27,032 | 332,000 |
| 6 | 3 | Rhythm Tengoku Gold | DS | 25,488 | 1,594,000 |
| 7 | New Entry | Fallout 3 | PS3 | 24,488 | 24,488 |
| 8 | 5 | Wagamama Fashion: Girl's Mode | DS | 22,628 | 667,000 |
| 9 | 4 | Wii Fit | Wii | 21,847 | 3,177,000 |
| 10 | New Entry | DS Uranai Seikatsu | DS | 19,881 | 19,881 |
| Platform | This Week | Last Week | This Year | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nintendo DS | 81,334 | 101,630 | 413,642 | 25,451,951 |
| PlayStation Portable | 42,559 | 60,495 | 314,142 | 11,618,033 |
| Nintendo Wii | 32,333 | 41,243 | 193,541 | 7,672,442 |
| PlayStation 3 | 20,690 | 28,144 | 109,488 | 2,731,916 |
| Xbox 360 | 9576 | 10,554 | 39,824 | 870,364 |
| PlayStation 2 | 5760 | 6628 | 24,936 | 21,424,460 |
| Platform | This Week | Last Week | This Year | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nintendo DSi | 62,525 | 78,201 | 140,726 | 979,296 |
| Nintendo DS Lite | 18,809 | 23,429 | 42,238 | 17,416,632 |
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Comments (69) Latest comment 3 years ago
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God, can't believe I wasted the veneer on my keyboard even typing it.
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where are they going to stop
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Naruto on X360 is great and I got the Storm for PS3 but not yet got the chance to unwrap the wrapper and hoping it a good game too, I never watched the TV series but for some reason the game franchise just appealed to me!
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Very mediocre. Mostly 7s. Well it is Naruto.... the Japanese buy anything that has the Naruto name. The Ubisoft versions are superior except in cutscenes.
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[link url=http://www.dailytech.com/Sony+to+Re port+Massive+29B+USD+Loss/article14030.htm
]http://ww w.dailytech.com/Sony+to+Report+...[/link]
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The Balance Board increases the lead over the PS3
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If people actually read these stats and thoughts about them then it might not matter so much, but most won't and will just take the headline at face value.
You'd expect better from a supposedly professional gaming site.
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The Ubisoft games also have full Japanese and they have clips from the original series.
Anyway... yea only Japanese people are allowed to make manga based games. I get it.
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either way it's done its job and got the hits.
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Lol, that's the best comment here
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If you say Broken Bond visually looks broken im afraid your opinion isnt to be taken seriously. The game looks amazing. Reviewers agree on the fact that its absolutely gorgeous. It really is. One of the best looking games in 2008. The sharpness is just incredible.
edit: and its in japanese btw. The cutscenes is taken from actual episodes too and they look good. But the actual gameplay graphics looks even better. You actually feel like you are watching (or participating) the anime when playing ranked matches online.
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Well, they obviously mean the gap in weekly sales, rather than the lifetime total.
Dizzy - "Very mediocre. Mostly 7s. Well it is Naruto"
Stop now. Bad Dizzy; 7/10 is a very respectable score and probably indicates a purchase if someone is a fan of the genre or franchise.
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Thanks. I take it you have actually played both games and actually have a valid opinion. Waiting for the third Naruto from Ubisoft then.
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When the western dev produces this: [link url=ht tp://www.gamersyde.com/pop_image.html?G=9491&N=6
]http://ww w.gamersyde.com/pop_image.html?...[/link]
And the Jap dev produces this: [link url=ht tp://www.gamersyde.com/pop_image.html?G=9040&N=8
]http://ww w.gamersyde.com/pop_image.html?...[/link]
When the reference point is this: [link url=http://1.bp.bl ogspot.com/_ouC92wvILSw/SKliiQRUKAI/AAAAAAAADSQ/4q4Z4gFTnlI/ s400/Uchiha-Sasuke-naruto-anime.jpg
]http://1.bp.blogspot .com/_ouC92wvILSw/SK...[/link]
I know which I consider to be more authentic, but please let me illustrate better:
Ultimate Ninja Storm: [link url=http://w ww.gamersyde.com/stream_9219_en.html
]http://ww w.gamersyde.com/stream_9219_en....[/link]
Broken Bond: [link url=http://w ww.gamersyde.com/stream_9471_en.html
]http://ww w.gamersyde.com/stream_9471_en....[/link]
It this case, yes the Jap dev is more authethic to the source material than the western dev.
;o)
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I hope.
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Indeed... I just replied to the question if it was as good as Broken Bond. It is the weakest of the Naruto games on next gen systems. So if you are a fan 7.5 is still rather good yes, but there are better
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A bit tenuous considering the Wii still sold a third more units. No gap closing there.
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LOL!
That's quite funny. Who's paying him?
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Well, they obviously mean the gap in weekly sales, rather than the lifetime total.
Yes, it's obvious when you read the article and realise that they in fact haven't closed the gap at all and have instead sold almost 12,000 consoles less. Then you look for other, reasonable, interpretations of their poorly-worded statement (because you're reasonable) and you come to the conclusion you did.
It's wrong though as both the Wii's and the PS3's sales are down on last week. In terms of raw numbers the Wii is down more, selling 8910 consoles less than last week compared to the PS3 selling 7454 less than last week, however if you look at it as a percentage of last week's sales then the Wii's 32,333 is 78.39% of the previous weeks sales while the PS3's 20,690 is 73.51% of the previous weeks sales. So in fact the gap in sales is widening.
There is no way that they are "closing in on Wii".
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Microsoft
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The numbers are quite low TBH. It needs a few weeks to do "well". That being said Oblivion did some ok numbers as well. Maybe some Japanese have an obsession for anything Western probably claiming on forums as we speak that "Only US/European companies can make good WRPGs".
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Let it go dude. We have moved on.
Ultimate Ninja Storm is the best ok? You obviously are the expert.
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It's good to see the Japanese picking up more PS3s too: roll on the bonkers Japanese 'not a game' 'interactive screensaver' titles! I really enjoy that sort of creative nonsense
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Neither game is brilliant, and about as good as each other.
I'm satisfied now so yes, lets leave it there.
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Yeah, with the XB360 selling like this, the XB720 is all primed to take over Japan...
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Try to play Guitar Hero on it if you don't believe me.
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Even the Japanese are starting to aknowledge that the 360 is better than the competition. Its almost unpatriotic for them to buy an American console, but for those who dear to do it never look back. Next generation console wars should be exiting. I really hope Sony make a PS4 but i think they might throw in the towel.
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Broken Bond made me a Naruto fan and i thouth it was brilliant. One of my favourite games.
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"you sure are delusional"
You wish! Being a owner of both HD consoles (traded in my PS3 though) i understand why the Japanese suddenly buy the evil breakable noisy American console. You just dont get it. You are delusional my friend.
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If you say so...
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"If you say so..."
Well you said it first. Still friends i hope.
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I kid, I kid!
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I was talking about the 720 vs PS4. Next gen isnt this gen anymore is it? The 360 are selling alot more consoles in Japan than i expected. Not nearly enough to really compete with the Japanese consoles of course. I bet most Japanese 360 owners already owned a Wii and maybe even a PS3 when their bought it.
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Cant be Broken Bond you are talking about. That game is far from dull. Its kind of a mix of Ubisoft Montreals own POP and AC mixed with a very good fighting game and with a lot more variety than those games. Dull - No way.
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Not correct. The PS3 released in Japan before Europe remember.
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What is the world coming to?
Edit: The Asian version of Fallout 3 still hasn't been patched, so Asian gamers couldn't care less about DLC (which requires the patch)...
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The environments I give the edge to the 360 version. They look very good and sharp and definitely a much better recreation of the village.
The gameplay I defintely give to the 360 version. Though Ninja Storm is a beutiful game, it is also very boring and reptitious. My Son and I grew very bored of it quickly and we didn't even finish the game. Also the combat is about as simplistic as it gets since you only use one button to attack. I do not mind simplisty within my fighting games but Ninja Storm became boring pretty quick.
On the 360 version, they did a great job of putting you into the story arch. It's also good that you get to use more characters than just Naruto. Even though the 360 version could get tedious, they way the game is layed out made it more fun to play and complete.
The way I see it, the Developers on Ninja Storm spent so much time on getting the graphics and animation right, they forgot to actually anything for the gameplay and it suffered.
In the end, Ninja Storm is the better looking of the two games but Broken Bond will be the game you enjoy the most to actually play.
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Obviously to close the absolute gap, one system needs to sell more than the other in a period. But to close the relative gap, the system that's behind has to only sell more relative to the ratio 'system behind'/'system in front' at the start of the period that's being measured. So if there are 3 times as many Wii's as PS3s at the start of the period, if PS3 in over the period sells more than 1/3 of the number of Wii's, it's actually closing the relative gap.
As installed bases grow, the relative gap becomes more and more important versus the absolute gap. E.g. at the start of 2008 there were roughly 18m 360s sold versus around 12m PS3s (if I recall correctly). That's an absolute gap of 6m and the 360/PS3 ratio (relative gap) was 1.5. At the end of 2008 the numbers were 28m 360s and 20m PS3s. Absolute gap has grown 2m but the relative gap closed (ratio is 1.4).
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I don't know what's the big deal, if Portugal launched a console, even if inferior I would buy it. Day one, probably.
lol.
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Let me quote Madona:
"Hey DJ, put your record on, I wanna dance..."
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It would take very poor sales to not close the relative gap at all, especially for a console late out of the gates. Plus, as numbers grow, the relative gap is almost assured to shrink. To say that you've lost ground, but are still happy because your relative gap has shrunk, though, is a bit of a stretch.
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"@Les: I've never read so much bollocks in all my life lol."
Just because you can't grasp something doesn't necessarily mean it's bollocks. Though I can't blame you for not seeing the difference, I can blame you for assuming the worst... I think my numerical examples are illustrative enough for someone of average intelligence to understand - though it's a tough call for me to make given my peerless intelligence...
But as I'm always willing to educate the people that are willing to learn, let me try another example. Surely you get that when deciding whether to create something for consoles A and/or B, there's a big difference between te following two situations:
1) Console A has an installed base of 12m, console B has an installed base of 4m (gap is 8m)
2) Console A has an installed base of 120m, console B has an installed base of 100m (gap is 20m)
hint: It has something to do with critical mass...
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I think we all understand you, but that doesn't make your comments any less a load of bollocks.
I don't think Sony/Ninty/MS would be happy about "relative" anything if their console is losing by millions while the gap continues to grow. I'm sorry, but it just makes no sense. The day the PS3 went on sale, its relative gap with the 360 began to shrink. Do you think Sony's happy about that, even though the overall lead has grown by 1-2m? Maybe if Sony were on crack that would make them happy (and some may argue they are). Otherwise, I doubt it...and I doubt their stockholders are happy either.
By your logic though, Sony should be happy if by the time they reach 100m consoles sold, the 360 has sold 137m. So, their relative gap is now 1.37, but they're now losing by 40m instead of 7 or 8. lol
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Either Famitsu have been raving about it, or japanese tastes are changing...
As for Naruto: UNS, it looks incredible, and the fights are jaw dropping, but it's really very shallow. The adventure mode was extremely lazy, theres an excellent recreation of the Hidden Leaf Village, but aside from Hide & Seek and scroll collecting theres very little to do in it. The missions rather than consisting of action adventure stages where you explore outside the village, are just a mix of 3 mini-games and fights, selected from the pause menu.... and theres no voice acting at all in the village, its eerily quiet!!... I still actually enjoyed it, but despite the visuals, the 360 Naruto games look more appealing to me, so no need to be jealous of this one!!
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Hmm I have to disagree, the Ubisoft games excel in the additional twists they added to lengthen the game and with the sequel they actually paid for the voice talent (both english and Japanese) and animated the cutscenes themselves, was all very impressive. Otherwise the gameplay is completley broken, again the sequel performed better in this aspect but the game is far from polished, still fun overal.
The CC2 Naruto games I find vastly more interesting, combat is fast paced and true to the anime, and so far the purists consider Ultimate Ninja 3 on the PS 2 the pinnacleof the Naruto fighting series thus far. The Ps3 version looks and plays very well, the attacks and special moves are mind blowing in terms of animation which is so true to the anime it hurrts and execution. However the fighting system was dumbed down dramatically and the explore mode is extremely lackustre compared to Broken Bonds on the 360 which is actually very good fun!
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And in a post-nuke setting too of course - interesting ...
Fallout 3 does seem to divide people though. It's absolutely not true to say that anyone who loved Oblivion will love it too - I loved Oblivion and I really like Fallout 3 too but some of my Oblivion-loving friends *can not stand* Fallout 3!