Japanese Charts: Pokémon: Let's Go Still Number One For Third Week, Switch Sales Rise Again

That's good to hear! Can't wait for smash tho.

Let's Go is pretty fantastic. Except I can't make the motion controls work well at all. The game is simultaneously way better than I expected and worse than I had feared. 8/10, would play again.

Edit: Which is to say, I think it deserves its success. I hope several of the features it has make it into the main game. But not non-optional motion controls. And not Pokemon Go's catching mechanics.

Is it friday yet!

Well, blimey!

Smash is hovering over the gamescape like a space ship from Independence Day. The countdown has begun.

And no one is shocked.

Red Dead has dropped, and only 3 non nintendo games in the top 10? Wow doing well, but next week......with smash.....
And didnt read the subtitle properly, I thought you meant 3DS was second in consoles

Yeesh, 13 of those are on a Nintendo platform. Pretty crazy, same goes for those hardware sales.

...and SSBU is in 2 days...The Switchening is still going strong!

Good to see Persona Q 2 do so well, but I wish they ported it to the Switch

Lol Xbox does not do good in Japan xD

Software sales for next week are gonna be bonkers. Not many weeks left till Christmas, too. Then there’s the deluge of purchases with gift cards.

...the tides are changing.
See you all Friday!

Is smash big in Japan?

Oh, the questions I would ask those 25 Japanese Xbox One purchasers....

Great that Nintendo is doing so well in Japan. This week though, things ae going to get SMASHED!

"On the hardware front, the Switch has seen another small boost this week..."

That small boost alone - 12,171 - is more than the entire weekly sales of the PS4 Pro, and more than half of combined PS4 sales. Nice going! (I don't begrudge Sony any sales, by the way. I'm just pleased to see the Switch doing so well.)

Smash is going to absolutely... ahem... sleigh this Christmas.

@Captain_EO 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Oh man, I just realized we'll be getting two Etrian Odyssey games next year in the States! Nexus early in the year, and then Persona Q2 later on.

The 3DS just keeps paddling along.

@Nickster076,

I wish they would stop letting you out of the Asylum fella.

I’m still excited for Persona Q 2. Hopefully it gets localized soon.

Can not wait for PersonaQ 2! Glad it already started well in Japan!

Also, See how actual big name games matter for Switch?. Same thing happens in the West.

@ballistic90 They're probably all Americans in the military on base honestly

@IceClimbers That's what I was thinking too.

@NoxAeturnus I'm not sure what problems you're having exactly but here is what I did: I made sure I held a while pointing at the tv, then pulled my arm back and threw it forward. For those pokemon that move to the side, I just flicked my wrist to the right or left instead of a throwing motion. Hope that helps!

@SimplyCinnamon53 Thanks for the advice, but I'm frustrated enough at this point to stand up, walk across the room, and put it in handheld mode every time I have to catch something. I don't hate motion controls on principle, but this game's are too finicky and inconsistent for my liking.

It's doubly discouraging because of how smooth handheld mode's gyro aim with button shoot works. I don't know why they couldn't be bothered to at least make that an option in docked mode. Or, you know, just allow us to turn on/off motion controls if we want them or not. There's nothing in this mechanic that couldn't be handled by a button press, which means it's 100% gimmick forced upon the player. But to be honest, I'm also not sure why full controller mapping isn't standard for every single game on the market at this point. Oh well.

@Agramonte
Ehhh... Selling less than half as much as the first Persona Q isn't exactly impressive at all.

But I guess that's par for the course when releasing a 3DS game in 2018.

@NoxAeturnus Yeah, it's frustratingly not consistent. You're supposed to flick your arm to the right or left to throw it that way and not do a 'throwing' motion but yet the game sometimes thinks it best to throw it forward for some inexplicable reason. Same with throwing forward, sometimes it just throws it off to the left and right.

Never been a fan of gyro or motion controls. Conceptually it's a solid idea but I've had issues every time i've played the game. Granted it's only maybe 1 out of every 5 Pokeballs thrown but it's enough to irritate.

@westman98 Oh wow... I did not know that was half PQ1.

Just glad to have it. Hopefully we get a New Persona on Switch

@TheMadPolarBear Never had an issue with gyro controls. This motion is bad and they should feel bad, but the gyro in handheld works like a charm. Gyro aiming is my preferred playstyle for most games that require aiming. I like motion controls when it adds to a game, but all too often it's a finicky gimmick like in Let's Go. I feel your pain though - it says it wants a throwing motion, but it's a lie.

So Super Smash Bros Ultimate launches this week.

Launch sales of the Super Smash Bros games in Japan:

> Super Smash Bros [N64]: 220,000
> Super Smash Bros Melee: 358,000
> Super Smash Bros Brawl: 820,000
> Super Smash Bros for 3DS: 944,000 (1 million with digital sales)
> Super Smash Bros for Wii U: 227,000
> Super Smash Bros Ultimate: ???

All indications seem to suggest that Smash Bros Ultimate will sell well above 1 million retail copies at launch. The question is whether it will sell closer to 1.5 million copies or not...

Digital sales will be much, much higher with Smash Bros Ultimate, especially since digital copies were already sold with the Smash Bros Ultimate bundles back in November.

Switch sold 120,546k, almost 100k more than PS4+PS4 pro combined. If only Switch sell that good outside Japan!

And Ultimate gonna break every record next week. I predict insane holiday numbers.

Persona.... On a Nintendo! Is the a first? And could it be a hint of persona 5 on the switch. I wonder if Atlus have remembered that they like money and could see a good few million added to their bank account with little effort.

@NoxAeturnus I don’t mind the catching mechanics but it’d be cool to battle the wild ones too

Looking forward to the Smash numbers.

I have been enjoying Let's Go more than I thought I would have. But it still mostly is just a place holder until we get a real Pokemon game on Switch.

Well I don't see any trolls here talking about the momentum of the switch anymore lol

Lol this train won’t stop!

@Edu23XWiiU I would say more along the lines of 20 expats and 5 Japanese.

@BarFooToo the first persona q was on 3ds as well. Also nah it seems persona main titles are a PlayStation only deal. Meanwhile ninty gets SMT series.

Since a persona q is a spin off game that's as close to persona were gonna get.

Pokemon: Well, that was fun while it lasted. Smash is sooo gotta kick me off the top spot next week....

@Nickster076 Weird. I see all Pokemon games as aimed at children. Am I missing something?

@Draxa Best of both worlds, I like how you think. I'm a HUGE fan of the spawn in and spawn out wild pokemon. I never want random battles again, but I miss wild battles just as much as I (apparently) disliked the randomness of them. And I'm not opposed to motion/gyro being available for those who like that sort of thing, or having the catching mini-game be a little more robust, my complaint is that those controls are mandatory. The lack of wild battles is hugely dissatisfying to me, and I, personally, just want a button press to throw a ball.

@Nickster076 I think you're overreacting. Let's Go is not a glorified Pokemon Go. The main series battle system is fully intact, except for the removal of wild battles and their replacement with Pokemon Go's catching. That's certainly disappointing, but to say Let's Go has more in common with Pokemon Go as a result is just misleading.

@NoxAeturnus I hear ya and completely agree I got the edition with the pokeball in it and I do enjoy it but it’s not precise enough sometimes especially since I spend most of my time shiny hunting. I do enjoy the handheld motion controls more, they are on point. I’m currently doing the reset grind for Shiny Mewtwo been doing it for prob 12-14 hours spread out over a couple days and man it’s getting boring I just want to stop but I can’t 😂 I’ve been watching the Lotr and hobbit trilogy while doing it, def helps

@Draxa That's awesome. I used to watch Lotr when I was breeding for shiny Eevees with the right IVs in X/Y. 600 Eevees later I finally got my Blu-mbreon. My luck could be better. Then again, it could also be worse. I'm not particularly hunting shinies in Let's Go but I caught a shiny Geodude in Mt. Moon, and I saw a shiny Paras, but it despawned before I could get to it.

@NoxAeturnus nice, I’ve got a few. Growlithe too forever for me I was on a 573 chain until it popped lol. Mewtwo on the other hand I’m not feeling too lucky.

For having the number 2 game, the 3DS's hardware sales were pretty flat week-over-week, and if you compare weekly sales year-over-year (don't unless you want a major disappointment), it's not looking good for the system in Japan.

Warning! Here are the weekly year-over-year sales (read at your own risk):

2017:
New 2DS LL – 27,074 (20,712)
New 3DS LL – 15,059 (12,431)
2DS – 3,192 (2,747)
New 3DS – 248 (348)

Total: 45,573 (36,238)

2018:
New 2DS LL – 7,401 (6,512)
New 3DS LL – 2,692 (2,419)
2DS – 342 (952)

Total: 10,435 (9,883)

That's kind of a massive drop- a 78% drop to be specific (yeah, it's only selling 22% of what it sold last year at this time).