Xenoblade Chronicles 3D launched in Japan last week, giving a welcome new release on Nintendo hardware in the company's homeland. It performed reasonably well, if not brilliantly, and helped the New Nintendo 3DS LL to climb back up to second in the hardware charts.
The software top 20 has the Monster Games port in third place with nearly 57,000 sales, which unsurprisingly falls short of Japanese launch sales of its predecessor - the Wii original shifted around 83,000 copies at launch, but with a far more sizeable install base. 3rd Super Robot Wars Z: Tengoku Hen took the top two spots for Vita and PS3, with a smattering of 3DS titles (and Mario Party 10 on Wii U) further down the top 20. Results are below with lifetime sales in brackets.
- [PSV] 3rd Super Robot Wars Z: Tengoku Hen (Bandai Namco, 04/02/15) – 121,219 (New)
- [PS3] 3rd Super Robot Wars Z: Tengoku Hen (Bandai Namco, 04/02/15) – 109,200 (New)
- [3DS] Xenoblade Chronicles 3D (Nintendo, 04/02/15) – 56,932 (New)
- [PSV] Sword Art Online: Lost Song (Bandai Namco, 03/26/15) – 23,279 (162,577)
- [PS4] Bloodborne (SCE, 03/26/15) – 22,610 (175,177)
- [PS3] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 (Bandai Namco, 03/26/15) – 22,146 (119,508)
- [PS4] Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair (D3 Publisher, 04/02/15) – 21,582 (New)
- [3DS] Theatrhythm Dragon Quest (Square Enix, 03/26/15) – 15,995 (92,854)
- [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition (SCE, 03/19/15) – 15,880 (73,100)
- [PSV] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 (Bandai Namco, 03/26/15) – 14,945 (69,252)
- [PS3] Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2015 (Konami, 03/26/15) – 14,940 (77,137)
- [Wii U] Mario Party 10 (Nintendo, 03/12/15) – 14,410 (103,488)
- [PSV] Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2015 (Konami, 03/26/15) – 11,211 (57,537)
- [PS4] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 (Bandai Namco, 03/26/15) – 10,546 (57,238)
- [3DS] Yokai Watch 2: Shinuchi (Level-5, 12/14/14) – 10,439 (2,573,917)
- [PS3] Sword Art Online: Lost Song (Bandai Namco, 03/26/15) – 10,264 (65,354)
- [PS3] Resident Evil Revelations 2 (Capcom, 03/19/15) – 10,035 (103,100)
- [3DS] Pokemon Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire (Pokemon, 11/21/14) – 8,709 (2,587,345)
- [3DS] Kuroko's Basketball: Ties to the Future (Bandai Namco, 03/26/15) – 8,311 (43,726)
- [PSV] Senran Kagura: Estival Versus (Marvelous, 03/26/15) – 8,297 (52,845)
On the hardware front New Nintendo 3DS sales brought an increase, with the LL (XL) in second spot and the entire 3DS family (combined) back to taking an overall lead. The Wii U also had a minor boost, albeit in low numbers; the list below has last week's results in brackets.
- PlayStation 4 – 26,738 (45,446
- New 3DS LL – 22,183 (18,823)
- PlayStation Vita – 21,584 (26,324)
- New 3DS – 8,242 (7,290)
- Wii U – 7,486 (6,698)
- PlayStation 3 – 5,743 (6,652)
- 3DS LL – 2,256 (2,233)
- 3DS – 1,893 (2,883)
- Xbox One – 902 (250)
- PlayStation Vita TV – 672 (708)
There's still a sizeable line-up of games on Sony systems showing a lot of strength in the software charts, though this week's results are a little healthier from Nintendo's perspective. Whether those launch sales for Xenoblade Chronicles 3D are roughly in line with Nintendo's expectations will be interesting to see.
[source gematsu.com]
Comments 42
Not the boost I expected, but it seems XBC3D did move some New 3DS systems. And the Wii U only moved approx. 1000 units more than it did last week.
Overall, a great week for the systems.
Its been weird playing the game again on a handheld, a good king of weird though!
I'm not expecting XC 3D to outsell the original. It has the disadvantage of being on a platform owned by far fewer people.
However, it has a lot more hype and attention around it now than it did on the Wii, so I suppose it could go either way.
I think I just made my post a moot point.
Huh, didn't know Minecraft had an audience in Japan.
Expected as much. Still not too bad, but New 3DS needs a brand new, TRULY EXCLUSIVE game to help it sell. Make it the 3DS family's swansong, and make it awesome. There's still until the end of 2017 for such a game to release.
Holy moses @ 87% drop on Bloodborne. What happened?!
@RupeeClock
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2015/02/26/minecraft-sells-a-whopping-500k-in-japan
@Saizo Neat.
When they try to hype a JRPG here they just show cut scenes with teens with spiky hair. I can't get excited about a game unless I'm seeing how it's played. Now I have to go out of my way to find a site that actually is showing the game off but it would be easier if they got me hyped up front about it. Anyway, I still don't know if this would be something I'd want to own.
not surprising at all, hopefully that doesn't spell a lackluster launch for X. Mario Party 10 has legs...
Nintendo is doomed!
I hope this deters future "New 3ds only" releases.
I am not sure if the Wii version had a normal distribution in Japan, but it makes sense not making a huge impact now. It is still the same game with amiibo support and portability, as has been said sold to a smaller userbase. And with the sequel hitting the same month.
Rock on Super Robot Wars. Best mash up and best strategy RPG game series ever.
Surprised to see Xenoblade did well but glad for it.
I'll buy Xenoblade 3D the coming weekend! I'm very excited about it, only wish I had also (way more) time to play it :-S
@Ryno - Vita having the #1 game means the whole world is doomed! Its the Vitapocalypse!
Good to see Wii U put some distance between it and PS3 since thats a race it shouldnt even be in.
If XC3D is a portense of things to come for XCX then the Wii U really is doomed. That week needs to see Wii U hardware on top. After that they can announce a Splatoon, amiibo and Wii U bundle.
Okay, I don't get the mentality of those who do not want exclusive N3DS titles. Sure, it means those who don't have the N3DS can't play it, but then purchase one! I don't have one myself... yet, but if a new console has more processing power, why are we encouraging developers not to use it? It's as if we're asking developers to hold back their creativity because there's a large group of people who don't/can't buy the new handheld. If you really love new games, get new systems.
Well, it's nice to see the 3DS at the top of the hardware charts again, even if for some unscrutable reason Media Create insists on dividing its total sales in four.
I'm sad that no one noticed the Xbone sales went up by roughly 4 folds! Come on guys that's something.!
@Ryno
http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq165/junah42/Snark/bender-doomed.jpg
The Wii U still looking to sell worse than the Nintendo Colour TV-Game. Also, it is no surprise that Xenoblade Chronicles sold sell because it is an old game and looks worse than the original anyway.
@SanderEvers
They were comped by Microsoft to boost sales.
@rjejr I doubt XCX will increase Wii U sales. I think we're past that with any game. As for the game itself though, I hope to see it do well.
@ikki5 space is at a premium in Japan. It fits on a handheld console. It's a great game and still worth buying. And to an extent basing a game on its graphics is very much a Western trait.
I think they should have found a way to get the game to run on the older 3DS models as well, even if they had to cut the game into two cartridges... or download only on the old 3DS... no 3D... something. Also, I think the NX is most likely a successor to the 3DS.
@ottospooky yeah but it still doesn't change the fact that the Wii versions looks a lot nicer and a lot of people who wanted it, already would have played it because the game is old.
@rjejr Give up. The Wii U is not going to get a boost from XCX. That ship has long since sailed. It may give a good bump, but not much else.
@rjejr
Xenoblade Chronicles X is now placing near the top of Famitsu's Readers Most Wanted list as counted by votes. They've got an LE releasing in Japan and a system bundle too iirc.
I think it's gonna be a WHOLE other story for the sequel on Wii U. Especially being a brand new game too... I don't expect it to reach FFXV levels but certainly it should do very well, VERY well.
@Haiassai
Excellent comment, very excellent comment!
Why is everyone making third place sales seem like a bad thing? xD
Bull!
It isn't in 3rd place, it is in Second.
The same game releasing on multiple consoles is still the same game and should only be counted as such!
I totally bought Xenoblade Chronicles 3D on release day! Only one copy, though, not all 56,932 copies. Also, I still don't have a 3DS. Which I imagine is why the game didn't sell more... I know two other people besides myself who really want to buy the game but aren't ready to spend a million billion Yen on a 3DS when their current 3DSses S are still working just fine.
@JaxonH I wouldn't be surprised if Wii U hardware sales in Japan rise significantly due to XCX. It's the first Wii U JRPG exclusive (MH3U is of course also 3DS hence the Wii U version doesn't matter) so it'll be a very big reason to buy a Wii U.
@eaglebob345 Why? Because you want to play it but don't own a N3DS? The fact that they got the game's immense world and fluid gameplay onto the new portable astonished even the original developers. There's no way the 3DS, a handheld whose processing power is poor (relatively). The drawbacks of running it on the 3DS isn't multiple cartridges ( which has nothing to do with CPU but rather capacity), but rather something rather jittery, cramped, and undesirable.
@JaxonH Thank you. I'm glad someone understands.
@Haiassai Actually no. I think they should have found a way to get it on there to get the game into as many peoples' hands as possible. I have already played the game on the Wii, and enjoyed every minute of it. However, no one that doesn't already know a significant amount of information about the game is going to buy a New 3DS just to play it. This is the second time that Nintendo has gimped the launch of Xenoblade Chronicles. I don't even know if I want a N3DS, since I have suspicions that the NX is mostly likely the 3DS's successor. I avoided the DSi XL like the plague because I knew it was the DS's swansong after falling for the SP and the micro for the Gameboy. I'm not going to spend $200 on the last iteration of the 3DS when I can wait for it's most likely backwards compatible successor.
I just realized that the artwork at the top of this article contains character designs that did not make it to the final game.
@Grumblevolcano
Japan supported the original Xenoblade game the least. If the sales do go up, it'll be extremely brief.
@Hy8ogen
I noticed. Good for them.
@eaglebob345
Going by the timeline, NX should be a replacement for the 3DS, but Nintendo has been making weird hints that it might be a home console (or the long-fabled unified platform) with comments about how a major new Mario game will be skipping the Wii U and going to "the next console."
@IceClimbers - Might have been hard to tell from my awkward sentence, but I was refering to XCX release in Japan in a few weeks selling Wii U. JRPGs seem to do well over there, and Nintendo has added a lot of stuff to the collectors bundle (though I'm not sure about the price being a good deal or not.) I don' tthik XC Xwill sell Wii U in the West. The game may not even sell well.
XCX Japan bundle:
@JaxonH @argh4430 - Se post #42 above.
And is there really a difference between "a boost" and "a good bump"?
"The Wii U is not going to get a boost from XCX. That ship has long since sailed. It may give a good bump,"
You say bump, I say boost, same thing, no?
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