The Japanese Media Create charts are out in Japan and, despite some positives, are likely to cause some disappointment in Nintendo HQ. This is due to an attempt at mainstream success for a long-established franchise falling flat at launch in the country.
The game we're referring to is Chibi-Robo!: Zip Lash, which has only managed 9th place and little over 14,000 sales at launch in Japan; that's rather poor considering recent comments that this could be a last chance for the IP to achieve mainstream success. Based on its early performance in Japan it'll have to rely on the game - perhaps helped by its charming amiibo - performing well in the West.
Elsewhere in the software top 20 Pro Yakyuu Famista Returns, a baseball title on 3DS, is the highest new entry, with a scattering of new releases on various platforms delivering modest sales. The results are below with lifetime sales in brackets.
- [3DS] Yo-kai Watch Busters: Red Cat Team / White Dog Squad (Nintendo, 07/11/15) – 28,244 (1,627,659)
- [3DS] Pro Yakyuu Famista Returns (Bandai Namco, 10/08/15) – 25,597 (New)
- [PS4] Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection (SCE, 10/08/15) – 24,867 (New)
- [Wii U] Super Mario Maker (Nintendo, 09/10/15) – 24,533 (299,865)
- [PS4] FIFA 16 (EA, 10/08/15) – 20,909 (New)
- [PS3] Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 (Konami, 10/01/15) – 17,833 (66,306)
- [PSV] Tokyo Xanadu (Falcom, 09/30/15) – 15,535 (104,415)
- [3DS] Picross 3D 2 (Nintendo, 10/01/15) – 14,299 (44,766)
- [3DS] Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash (Nintendo, 10/08/15) – 14,096 (New)
- [Wii U] Splatoon (Nintendo, 05/28/15) – 13,186 (709,639)
- [PS4] Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 (Konami, 10/01/15) – 12,607 (51,624)
- [3DS] Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer (Nintendo, 07/30/15) – 12,563 (1,077,583)
- [PS4] Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (Konami, 09/02/15) – 12,381 (398,552)
- [3DS] Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon (Nintendo, 09/17/15) – 11,912 (227,645)
- [PS3] FIFA 16 (EA, 10/08/15) – 10,442 (New)
- [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition (SCE, 03/19/15) – 7,574 (359,173)
- [PS3] Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (Konami, 09/02/15) – 6,782 (181,471)
- [3DS] Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (Square Enix, 08/27/15) – 5,946 (791,531)
- [PSV] Yoru no Nai Kuni (Gust, 10/01/15) – 5,743 (38,647)
- [3DS] Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Airou Village DX (Capcom, 09/10/15) – 4,900 (94,679)
Moving onto hardware, the PS4 retains top spot following its recent price drop, though has lost around a third of sales in the past week. The new 3DS LL (XL) is still going relatively well with just a modest drop, while the Wii U continues to sell in five figures. Results are below with last week's sales in brackets.
- PlayStation 4 – 30,349 (46,177)
- New 3DS LL – 17,856 (18,136)
- PlayStation Vita – 14,368 (15,237)
- Wii U – 11,594 (12,843)
- New 3DS – 4,031 (4,367)
- PlayStation 3 – 1,929 (2,088)
- 3DS – 1,131 (1,160)
- PlayStation Vita TV – 670 (761)
- 3DS LL – 548 (587)
- Xbox One – 224 (203)
A disappointing week overall considering the disappointing Chibi-Robo!: Zip Lash sales, albeit Nintendo's hardware and evergreen releases are still ticking along with decent sales.
[source gematsu.com]
Comments 68
R.I.P Chibi-Robo! Your Gamecube game was in my Top 5 for the system. I wish we'd gotten the DS Japan only sequel at least, but alas Nintendo gave me Park Patrol, Photo Finder and Zip Lash instead.
PS4 iz deeeeaaaadddd!!!
I really hope they don't ditch Chibi for good. The game is really good, and they were sooo close to making a game that could become main stream. If they ditched the wheel and product placement stuff it would have been just what the masses would have loved. And honestly, I don't mind ether. I'm still enjoying the mess out of that game.
Bye bye Chibi-Robo. I can only agree with other people here. I loved your GC game. I even enjoyed takibg stupid photos with you on the 3DS...I just wished Nintendo would have taken better care of you
Well PS4 held on a little better then I thought so I'll eat some of my words from last week. If it continues then Wii U needs a 100$ discount. Get the system in people hands Nintendo and sell more games per system.
As for Chibi did anybody expect otherwise. It should be an eshop only title at 19.99$ at best.
Support Chibi!! Let's all buy an extra copy for our friends.
Same for Captain Toad Treasure Tracker too please..I want a sequel 😀
Too bad Chibi-Robo didn't sell that we'll, but hopefully Nintendo can test Chibi-Robo again through releasing the DS sequel as a VC in Japan. I am not sure if I am going to get Chibi-Robo Zip Lash, but I can just write it in on my Christmas wishlist so someone can buy it for me at least.
(Unlikely, but does anyone think there is any chance of the Chibi-Robo DS sequel being translated and being released as a VC for the Wii U or a digital title for the 3DS? Personally I would say unlikely, but never say never I guess .).
Honestly 14,000 is not the incredible bomb that it could have been. I think hitting the top 10 is a good thing. Hopefully sales in the west will be better.
I'm hoping that in a few years we see a smaller scale release that is similar to his original gamecube/DS games.
@Spoony_Tech Well if it makes you feel any better PS4 had both FIFA (20k) and Uncharted (25k) new last week, so even w/o the price cut PS4 still may have sold 30k last week. There's usually more than 1 variable to consider. Wii U needs price cut though, regardless of every variable imaginable.
Do you know if Chibi shipped w/ the amibo in Japan? I know Yoshi is $50 w/o and $60 w/ the amiibo, Chibi might have done better as a cheaper download w/o the amiibo and I think these #s are retail only. Me and my variables.
To be fair, that baseball game looks really great.
@Toadsfriend
As much as I and many others would not want this to be Chibi Robo's last game, many of us do not want to support a game that would tell Nintendo to stray away from the original Chibi Robo formula. I do not understand what was going on in their heads to think that people wanted a beloved franchise with pretty fun gameplay to be turned into (what seems to be, from reviews and such) a generic platformer with a suspicious amount of food advertisements in it.
"You want a new Animal Crossing/Chibi Robo/etc. so we'll give you these games in a format you don't even want them to be in", what.
@Kimite
You could always rally people to try and pull an Operation Rainfall/Operation Zero for Chibi Robo.
I would buy that baseball game in a heartbeat if it was ever localized!
@Bagels I don't think I am the right person to do it as I have never really played a Chibi-Robo game, except for a decent demo of Photo Finder/3DS game ;^^.
Still if the NX has Gamecube VC support at launch then Nintendo could just test the Chibi-Robo game or on Wii U if the Wii U gets VC Gamecube support :+).
So why are we not getting Pro Yakyuu baseball? It's a great baseball game and we are baseball poor.
RIP Chibi Robo... it's a shame Nintendo rushed your last game instead of giving it the effort it deserved.
@Spoony_Tech I think Pro Yakyuu should head west. It's a wildly popular game in Japan. Heck send it with the Japanese pros I don't mind.
Ouch... Guess this robot's dead. On the plus side, I just contributed to New 3DS sales over here in the UK. I halped! 8D
So torn over the Chibi Robo stuff. It was a lose/lose situation. If it didn't sell, it was likely the end, but if did sell, it would likely continue as a mediocre 2D platformer.
@bezerker99 I would even get the baseball game if they left the Japanese pros in it. It's a great baseball game.
Not Looking so good, for are robot friend.
Chibi-Robo's fate now makes me wonder the fate of Star Fox, Metroid and F-Zero whether they would be hard to create new ways to play or not. Either way, I never played Chibi-Robo and this is the first IP I have seen Nintendo actually saying to end.
I bought my copy and amiibo. I've supported his every american release. I even gave the guy my smash ballet vote. I really don't want to have to watch him die. I'm near positive if they made him a great adventure game in a house again and give it some decent advertising, he'd make more sales than the random platformer that came out of nowhere.
XBoxOne is doomed
Well they did say it would possibly be the last attempt at making into the main stream market. It didn't say it would be the last Chibi-Robo ever. Maybe there will be a smaller release on the eshop like photo-finder in the future. Top 10 is not a bad thing honestly.
I personally feel like Chibi-Robo has failed to impress after his debut game.
And even then, it was never Chibo-Robo that was special, he was just a blank analog for you to explore the world.
I feel like the developers of Chibi-Robo games have missed this point completely. What made Chibo-Robo great was exploring the 3D house from the perspective of someone tiny, uncovering the family's problems, solving them despite your size.
Making 2D platform games with Chibi-Robo completely misses the point of what made Chibi-Robo great. Chibi-Robo isn't Megaman.
This retail Chibi-Robo game looks like more of a cheap eShop title than the previous eShop exclusive release. Nintendo are crazy if they honestly believed that yet another run-of-the-mill side scroller was going to save this dying franchise. Personally, this game has not captured my imagination in any way, and had it not been bundled with an amiibo, I would have given this a miss, no question. I realise it's a stupid reason to buy the game, but perhaps my opinion of the game will change once I get a chance to actually play it.
During the 64-bit era, 3D platformers were all the rage, until major publishers realised that there is still a market for AAA side-scrollers on home consoles. But Nintendo have been really slack with 3D platformers of late. In fact, the last major first party 3D platformer that springs to mind is Super Mario 3D World.
It's a shame that a unique franchise with a lot of potential has been reduced to something as pedestrian as Zip Lash.
If Nintendo is willing to try and get such mediocre game to 'save the franchise' I don't think they really wanted it to survive in the first place. Here's hoping he's not really dead - but I wouldn't exactly get those hopes up.
the same people who say "Poor Chibi Robo" are the same printer would probably have no plans to buy the game anyway.
@Kalmaro
Well, Zip Lash is as much what people want a Chibi-Robo game to be as Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was what people wanted from a Banjo-Kazooie game. You can't expect people to support a series they want saved if the developer is just going to slap the titular character into a genre that has nothing to do with why people liked their original game.
Chibi Robo is doomed...DOOMED!
@DarkKirby That's all well and good, my point is that all that they are saying is poor chibiinstead of acknowledging that that didn't want the game in the first place.
Still need to get myself a copy of the game and the amiibo. Keep hearing about this wheel thing, but still unclear as to what it is or what it does.
Doesn't matter how well Chibi Robo does in the west, Nintendo has shown with Metroid, among others, that Japanese sales are all they care about.
I don't like feeling full of doom, but Nintendo is all over the place at the moment. Chibi Robo has come across in Reviews and gameplay videos as very underwhelming. Not surprised it is not selling well. Nintendo's christmas of half baked spin off to somehow entice gamers to their platforms doesn't seem likely to do them too many favors either. (although HHD and Triforce Heroes will sell well weather they are good or otherwise). Not sure Nintendo believe in dropping the price of the WII U either. Feels as if they have given up and moved almost all passion to the NX. It is odd though that in the UK it is now just marginally cheaper than an a Amazon/Shopto priced PS4 (although with a free download or two)
I had high hopes for this. The reviews say it sucks, the sales say it sucks. Better move on.
We all knew this was going to happen. Hopefully Chibi will reprise on the NX in 4 or so years with a new actual Chibirobo game just like on the GCN. It's a shame because it would have been a hit with a new HD Chibirobo on the Wii U but instead we got photo finder and this.
I would've rather them have ditched both of those games and used the combined budget and time to develop a good one for the Wii U. I don't know why this was the idea they came up with. Hopefully they realize that why this game sucked wasn't because of Chibirobo but because of the game he was apart of. The train derailed at photofinder and crashed off the mountain side at ziplash.
@ReshaSong I haven't played it yet, but it's basically the wheel of replayability. The levels are on the wheel and basically to clear the world you have to beat all the levels. Only you can't choose the levels, you have to spin the wheel and that's the level you play. It forces replaying levels you've already completed whether you like it or not in order to beat the game, and you may replay a level 10 times before getting to the last level in a world.
@Kalmaro
They're right to say 'poor Chibi Robo' given that Nintendo appear to be basing the future viability of the franchise on a mediocre 2D platformers best known for an idiotic design decision (the level select wheel). People shouldn't feel like they have to spend money on a poor game, funding Nintendo's mistakes, to keep a misused character from being benched.
In summary though, that's a decent week for Nintendo. They've done well in holding the PS4 off over there though the overtake seems inevitable. Anyone have the Year to Date Hardware sales for Japan please?
Well, looks like it's game over for Chibi Robo...hopefully he'll get in Smash Bros as dlc.
@electrolite77
3DS: 1,419,395
PS4: 903,925
Vita: 720,404
Wii U: 477,432
What Nintendo needs to do is find another development team that can upscale GameCube games for VC and port the Chibi Robo game from GCN over to Wii U in Widescreen HD. And then add antialiasing to it. Do they really need to do everything in house to do this? They do have options. Let that be the main decision on if the series survives or not.
@Peach64
Thanks very much. Ha. I thought Wii U was much closer than that to the PS4.
@electrolite77 It has a fairly large lead still due to the year and a half head start, but the PS4 outsold it last year and almost certainly will this year too.
LTD sales are:
3DS: 19,257,840
Vita: 4,244,331
Wii U: 2,621,012
PS4: 1,874,592
@ReshaSong The wheel thing is something people freaked out about for no reason. To move on to the next stage within a world (that you haven't beaten yet) you spin a wheel. It normally has 3 one spaces, a one 2 space, and one 3 space. What ever number space you land on is how many places you move forward on the map, thus selecting which stage you move to next. How many spins you get depends on which of the 3 UFO's you hit at the end of the stage you played before. The tiles can be replaced with what ever number you want easy by paying like...I think its like 170 coins (ingame coins...I have well over 20k and I've never ran out even with using the chibi-capsule machine and power up stuff). So if you wanna move one space forward and don't wanna risk it, you just buy the tiles and replace them with the number of spaces you wanna move. When you beat a world, the wheel goes away for that world. You can move around when ever you want. People freaked out about it, but even from the very start you can literally rig the wheel to do exactly what you want. I've bought dozens of those back up items (they cost coins) and DOZENS of chibi-capsules and I've never run out of coins. In fact, my coin count is going up. So using the coins to replace tiles...not a big deal.
@Peach64
Thanks. PS4 has outsold Wii U since PS4's launch then I guess.
Come on Nintendo, you've got to give us a 3D platformer/adventure at some point. Chibi Robo would have been perfect for it, especially with his new Zip Lash powers. Even I'm starting to tire of 2D platformers :/
I Loved Chibi-Robo on NGC, but it is not a game I would pay full retail for. I will pick it up someday when used copies are $10
Haven't bought a chibi robot game yet and won't start now
Having now played Chibi Robo, I have to say I VERY much disagree with the reviews.
The game is actually very fun and very well done. And most of the "negatives" are either a non-issue or even a positive. Such a shame most people will just recite what they hear rather than testing the waters for themselves.
Allow me to elaborate. The "destination wheel" isn't this horrid gameplay mechanic at all. For one, it's NOT random. You select when the wheel stops. Whatever tile you pick while it spins is the one you'll get. And it spins slow enough that even a trained monkey could pick the one they want. And on top of that, you earn enough coin in each stage to buy every panel on the wheel to be what you want.
It adds a little excitement of risk/reward.
And the game actually does have purpose. The main mechanic is estimating bank shots with your zip lash, and it's incredibly fun.
I don't care what anyone says. Now that I've played it, I completely back this game. Idk if I'd go so far to give it the notorious and prestigious JAXONS STAMP OF APPROVAL, but it comes close.
@BLD I really hope the new president works on changing that. It seemed to be something Iwata was keen to fix too and he did make steps in the right direction but it seems like the Internal politics are keeping the company back. I can understand wanting to be the top in your home country, but not at the expense of a global market you already established!
@electrolite77 Just looked back through some old media create numbers and the Wii U was on 1.64 million when PS4 launched, so it's done a million and in the same time PS4 has done almost 1.9.
Anyone else notice that the screenshot in the article is from the early beta version of Chibi-Robo? The actual game looked much better than that!
Here is some beta footage:
@Peach64
Thanks again. Interesting numbers when you consider the Wii U is relatively strong in Japan while Sony are worrying about PS4 not doing well over there. It's all relative.
My introduction to Chibi-Robo was Photo Finder. And, with all due respect, I strongly disliked that game. For me, personally, that game was the antithesis of fun. I understand that the GameCube original is a fan favorite, and I would like that new amiibo (I don't dislike the character, just that specific game), but I can't say I'm surprised by these circumstances. I feel for the fans.
9. [3DS] Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash (Nintendo, 10/08/15) – 14,096 (New)
Chibi Robo bombed. Selling 14,000 is pretty damn bad, given the 3DS's install base and market-leadership position in Japan, and the fact that the game comes bundled with an exclusive amiibo at $40. Amiibos aren't terribly popular in Japan, but still... I hope this title sells well outside of Japan, because if not, the Chibi Robo franchise is dead.
Otherwise, good PS4, Yokai Watch, Super Mario Maker, and Splatoon sales.
I like the new Chibi Robo game shame it's performing badly in Japan.
Well I'm not surprised.
I would definitely echo @DarkKirby 's sentiments. By making such a bland and uninspired effort, Nintendo has practically thrown this poor little guy in the trash, being sent to the junk heap of history. It won't even have the mercy of going to a scrap yard, to be remade/reborn into something else. Now he's going to be like one of those poor dolls that people throw away, collecting in a kind of brooding atmosphere of resentment for their purpose being forgotten. (Kind of reminds me of the Junkyard area in Legend of Mana... Now Chibi Robo is one of those dolls )
Okay, seriously Nintendo... Y U NO price drop Wii U? Y U NO push out perennial work-skipping narcotic drugs like Dragon Quest as if you're trying to give birth to triplets? Is the planning department really this dumb, to open yet another door for Sony?
@Naoiko @MrGuinea thanks for explaining it. It doesn't sound that bad, but I can see why people found it annoying. Still gonna get the game though
@Windy: I just grabbed a brand new sealed copy of Chibi Robo 3DS on ebay for $16.99 shipped! Just the game, no amiibo; but I could care less. Screw XBOX anything, period.
I think the game is better than reviewed here- I'd give it a 7.5. I like it, and I'm glad I got it and the Amiibo.
..there's a new Famista game?!
Too bad for Chibi Robo. Hopefully it starts selling more towards the holiday season and gets more sales in the US to keep the series going. Maybe nintendo should also re-release the Gamecube version on the E-Shop, or even make a remake of the original, even release the DS version on the Wii U E Shop...this would get people ready for the game.
Glad to see Splatoon heading towards the million mark. Chibi Robo might sell better over here but after reading the review I'm not too keen on buying it myself I must admit.
@ReshaSong NP! Sorry if it was a long read XD.
@JLPick Oh man I super wish the original would come to the eshop.
@KnightRider666 haha yeah. That thing I write about Xbox is an ongoing gag of mine. Every time they post these numbers Xbox is doing the worst. I'm picking up SmileBasic today or tomorrow.
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