Yoshi's Woolly World Has Limited Impact in Japan as Yo-Kai Watch Busters Dominates

And there's Splatoon still plugging away!

Animal Crossing over 4 million. That's an insane rate of purchase considering the size of the market.

Pretty much what i expected for games like Batman AK & Yoshi's Woolly world... They're both great games and deserve to be high on the list!!! But i just can't see the appeal of Yo-kai Watch. But then again, i'm not really their target demographic at all.
I feel bad for X1, though. I wonder why it barely sells, while the PS4 is doing awesome. Most of the PS4 games on this list are multiplats, also available on X1. There's no reason why the sales should be this poor. Is it because Microsoft isn't a Japanese company, or what?

Splatoon just keeps squiding along.

From which date to which date is this list? Because Yoshi's Woolly World launched on Thursday last week.

RIP Devil May Cry

@MightyKrypto yup, it's because Microsoft are American and don't actually listen. On the launch of the original Xbox way back when, in Japan, MS messed up with a terrible launch with no Japanese games at all. Same happened with the 360 launch, lots of western games. And it's the same with the One, Japanese market know to go to Sony or Nintendo for the games they want, and big American company Microsoft don't listen to their Japanese customers at all, ever. They should have dropped out of the Japanese market just before launching the One cause they can't leave now, with the small user base that is there. But I would think the people who have an xbone also have a ps4 and a WiiU, so the xbone games just don't sell there.

Sorry for the wall of text but hope that helps.

Well it's a nice game, but don't expect high sales guys. It is what it is. Maybe if they would've added RPG elements like leveling up your Yoshi and giving special attacks that can be only achieved at certain level. It would've sold so much more. RPG elements in games like this today it's a must! There isn't really much value just going through levels. Sure you will get extra levels if you have achieved all that to get it. But that's it. Give some more extra Nintendo. Learn from it

@MightyKrypto

"There's no reason why the sales should be this poor. Is it because Microsoft isn't a Japanese company, or what?"

Yup, that's exactly why.

@readyletsgo Yeah, i guess you're right. And yes, the launch titles were indeed pretty bad, but the same can be said about the PS4. And yet the PS4 recovered while the X1 didn't. But now both systems have plenty of Japanese-oriented games, and yet the X1 STILL doesn't sell?!
I wonder why they don't just drop the support for the japanese market, because poor sales like these must cost them a massive amount of money on the long run, right?

Dissaponted with Yoshi's Woolly World numbers, I really loved that game. Deserves better.

@readyletsgo then why are iphones so popular tere?

*there

@TruenoGT I disagree I haven't had such a good time, as playing co-op in woolly world, in a long time. its lots if fun unlocking new designs, the transformations are fun diversions and the levels have creativity and fun. What it lacks in difficulty it makes up with heart. I truly recommend it!

I think Yoshi's largest appeal will be the US.

@MightyKrypto well, the thing is, MS are trying, at launch of 360 they did hire Japanese devs to make Japanese games, but didn't have any ready at launch. They just had shooters and the like that sell well in the west but not in Japan. So by the time these Japanese devs had their games ready it was too little too late. The Japanese market said nope, and stuck with Sony and Ninty.

The thing is, if they pulled out now, after launching the xbone there, they would lose customer support in the future with the Microsoft name overall, so everything Windows would sell less I guess. It's such a tiny market for MS but just like Nintendo with the WiiU selling not so great it's best to just ride these situations out for 4 or 5 years.

I would think MS will not launch the XBOX Two or whatever it will be called in Japan in the future if they are wise. It's a terrible market for them.

I wonder how it's selling in China so far, didn't it launch there a few months back? Didn't Sony decide not to launch the ps4 in China? And didn't Nintendo say they are working on an individual Nintendo system to launch in China a while back too? But nothing since. So 'technically' Microsoft could make a killing in China right now? IDK but it's all insanely interesting to me to see how all 3 consoles have their own terrible sales story's for each gen.

@faint Well, to be fair, Apple is a marketing machine They can sell anything by just putting the Apple logo on it. They are probably the best marketing company in the world (aside from Disney, perhaps).

Aw so disappointed, I LOVE Woolly World, first Yoshi game I've really fell in love with since the original Yoshi's Island... aw well

@faint great marketing for the iPhone in Japan and Japanese games on the iPhone since the start. But it's really just great marketing from Apple, they are the queens of that, lol.

@JaxonH I hope so, because the game looks really fun.

Surprised Arkham Knight is that high considering this is Japan. I never thought Batman was that big over there

Woolly world is a lot better than jaded video gamers think

Hopefully Wooly World does better in America.

@readyletsgo yeah, i agree. I wonder if Microsoft are even going to bother releasing their next system in Japan.

@Wolfgabe Who doesn't love the bat, seriously? There even was a long running Batman manga. It wasn't very good, but still interesting though. Did you know there were once plans for making a Godzilla vs. Batman movie?

@MightyKrypto I would love to see a Godzilla VS Batman movie.

@MightyKrypto About Arkham Knight though (not sure if you've played it or not), but having 100% it on both Normal and Knightmare (since they had a thing where you had to 100% the game to get the full ending), it's definitely amazing in some ways, but has a few big flaws, while I found Yoshi's Wooly World to be a great experience consistently (though can't really compare the two, as they're completely different games, plus my inner fanboy preferred Arkham Knight). However, you would think Yoshi would do better in Japan considering Arkham Knight is a very Western game.

@TruenoGT your probably right. It's a fun game but from the outside it looks like just another platformer with a fresh coat of paint.

@Chubblings Well, i liked Arkham Knight, i watched the full ending on youtube (no way i'm doing the Riddler Challenges!!). It was a really fun game, although very predictable (the so called 'reveal of the Arkham Knight's identity' i mean...), and a kinda lazy ending. I'm a (not so secret) DC fanboy, and there were certain plot points and twists i really had a problem with. But, yeah, aside from that, it does deserve all the praise it's getting.

If ppl are getting the same games on X1 as PS4, and they only have limited funds, PS4 is the obvious choice. Microsoft is a software company. They don't necessarily make better hardware than Sony, which is why the X1 doesn't sell as well as the PS4 in Japan.

By better hardware, I mean more than just raw computing power. I mean things like console design. You tell me people won't prefer things like having the power brick built into the system (PS4) than having it as a separate component (X1)...

That's quite the spread between 1st and 2nd place. I wonder if Yo Kai will have that kind of impact outside of Japan.

@MightyKrypto Oh it was definitely a fantastic game, I rarely feel the urge to 100% games. It was fantastic, and I loved every second of it. In terms of flaws, yeah Arkham Knight identity was way too predictable, in terms of things with the plot, I'd rather not detail them here so that nobody in this thread gets unintentionally spoiled. The most non-spoiler problem I can say was that the ending left a bit to be desired (not enough closure), as well as the fact that there was not as much direct interaction with the Rogues Gallery as I would have hoped (they're relegated to separate side-missions, which are your typical combat and predator stuff). The Batmobile was cool as a drive-able, but I thought the Bat-Tank (combat) aspect of it was the main real flaw, and with the car just being drivable, the whole game would be even better. Because of it, we never got any real physical boss-fights (imagine a physical boss fight against Arkham Knight, fighting a dangerous team of Two-Face and Penguin working together, Harley Quinn, and in the case of Scarecrow, an Asylum-like sequence, etc.). I know I may sound a little critical, but don't get me wrong, this is still one of my favourite games of the year (9/10, topped Witcher 3 for me, but only because I'm a DC fanboy). Ultimately, I think no matter how great it is, it just had a monster mega hype to live up to, and I think it lived up to that for the most part.

Didn't think Japan would care for batman

Pretty bad numbers for Yoshi's Woolly World. Looks like traditional 2D platformers don't really sell that much anymore.

This only makes me want Yo-Kai Watch even more! And Yoshi's Woolly World looks great to me, even if it isn't a game topping the charts. I wonder if sales will do the same when it's released to the rest of the world.

Yo-Kai Watch is still very mysterious for me. I love Pokemon, but I have absolutely no idea if I'll find Yo-Kai Watch to be amazing or mediocre. Still, it's worth the gamble to find out.

Shocked at Yoshi not nearly scaling the heights i imagined here. maybe its gone as far as it can now.

NERF YO-KAI WATCH, its too OP

Sales of Wii U still over 5 figures. Splatoon has really done well in Japan and is more or less responsible for an extra 40,000 consoles being sold? Assuming 7K was a rough average per week. Does the Wii U have enough releases to keep Japan sales in 5 figures until the holiday bump?

Different culture, different interests.

I need Yokai Watch right away.

Kind of not surprised Yoshi's isn't stellar, I think the amount of platformers on Wii U is practically criminal. Nice to see Splatoon approach the half 500,000 mark too, it definitely deserves it imo, definitely an IP Nintendo should build and improve upon in the near future (get it as a launch title for NX to show off online guys).

I don't think Yoshi is that big, so it looks like it does reasonably well. It should have some legs and would easily move past 100k, hopefully. Splatoon legs (or tentacles) is really good, it'll probably stay in the charts for a long time. Wii U is still in 5 figures, hopefully it'll stay like that, though it's probably return to 4 figures next week or the week after that, until Super Mario Maker.

Splatoon is doing really well in Japan, that's slightly surprising to me.

Yoshi's Woolly World sold about on par with Tropical Freeze, which perhaps shows the Japanese market getting a bit tired of sidescrollers. It's too bad, too, because they're still one of my favorite genres, but on the bright side perhaps this will push Nintendo to try 3D platformers in a big way once again?

Yoshi is decent, but nothing special really. Pretty much over 2D platformers right now

I'm proud of Splat👀n...I enjoy playing at night when the turf wars are populated with what I assume are Japanese folks...kind of a neat feeling to play with our fellow humans on the other side of the world. Thanks Nintendo for this wonderful game!

So how long until Pokemon x Yokai Watch becomes a thing?

@MightyKrypto It has nothing to do with Microsoft being an "american" company, it's ignorant to think that way. Japanese are very open to other nation's products, BUT the Japanese tend to prefer Japanese made products over anything else. Apple, Disney, McDonalds, Windows (which is Microsoft) and Fashion (there are so many popular non-Japanese brands here) are great examples of american (and others) companies making it big in Japan. I'd even argue that Disney is bigger in Japan then it is in the US. 1) Japanese people tend to like Japanese products first (microsoft being the only one of the three to not be), 2) they like small sleek products. When the original xbox launched in Japan, it was a giant block that had to sit horizontally! Japanese homes are small, and aren't very spacious, therefore the original xbox was too big and cumbersome to fit under the TV with the VCR/DVD player and any other TV related stuff they had. The other big thing is that Japanese players prefer Japanese tailored games, they know Nintendo and Sony both have those games, Xbox had some in the long run, but it didn't help since most people had dismissed it due to the lack of japanese games at launch. Microsoft thought they could win Japan with western games only, which they obviously didn't. Playing catch up (by making Japanese games) doesn't always work, and since then the xbox brand has been struggling in Japan. Xbox is now seen by the Japanese audience as a western games only system, and Microsoft may or may not ever remove that stigma. Tsutaya (one of the largest game/rental stores in japan) has a decent size area dedicated to xbox games, bigger than I think it should have in my opinion. I personally don't know a single Japanese person who owns one (I live in Hiroshima). Everyone has a Sony or Nintendo product.

@FargusPelagius I disagree, Splatoon shouldn't become one of those yearly sequel games like CoD and Assassin's Creed. If Splatoon gets a sequel it should be around 2018.

Awwww, after rushing to the store to pick up my copy (and a Yoshii Amiibo) on day 1, I was hoping (unrealistically) to see Yoshi at the top of that list. I've seen plenty of commercials for it, too, and typically games that get TV time sell well over here. Oh well, maybe I'll go buy another 70,000 or so copies so that it can at least hit 6 digits. Also, I still haven't gotten around to playing it so maybe I'll do that in the near future, too.

@Grumblevolcano Sorry fella, in no way shape or form did I say Splatoon become yearly, usually when Nintendo release their big games, they release 1 for the generation e.g Mario kart, Smash. Releasing Splatoon at NX launch will show 3rd parties Nintendo is serious about online day one, then they'll have the whole machines life cycle to update and add loads of content and NOT to release another as you suggest. You release one game and keep adding to it, which is how DLC should always have been used.

@FargusPelagius You said NX launch which already suggests yearly because the first game releasing 2015 and the second being 2016.

They haven't announced when NX will launch officially yet. You could Infer your assumption I guess, which is why I said that is NOT what I meant, otherwise I'd have said, oh Nintendo should Spam Splatoon every year like Ass Creed an CoD. An I've already stated why I think it should be at NX launch, it could be the exact same game as the Wii U version for that matter, as it'll be continually added too regardless. Anyway, it doesn't need re iterating, Splatoon is doing well.