Japanese Charts: Monster Hunter Still Reigns Supreme As Daemon X Machina Grabs Fourth

Strange how this is the case since whenever I join an online session in Monster Hunter there's only two other hunters. What gives?

This game (Daemon)...straight up sucks. I love the art and music, tried sooooo hard with it since Friday....but it is just an embarrassment. I cannot BELIEVE it didn't get delayed and reworked. It feels like it a remaster (not remake) of an imaginary Ps1 game that was like "C" Grade at the time.

@Dang69 Different tastes. I've put in 60 hours so far and I love it.

As regards the article, DxM sold through its opening shipment in Japan. It was near impossible to find in stores. Was never going to challenge for #1 - Nintendo didn't print enough copies.

@EvrgrnCmln Well I envy you...I wanted to like this so much. I adore the music and art direction in it.

@Dang69 If it makes you feel any better, I had the same reaction to Astral Chain. The concept seemed so cool and I loved the art but the whole thing bored me.

DxM is the only (non-Macross) Mech game I've enjoyed enough to surpass 20 hours. I really like the customization, and doing missions online has been fun. There's been enough mission variety to keep it interesting for me, and I've not hit a hard difficulty wall yet; only failed a few missions that prompted a rebuild followed by success.
This is also the game that I've finally gotten used to gyro controls with

Seems like DxM sold through most of its initial shipments. Cant expect too much from a mech game in 2019.

eFootball continued PES's decline into irrelevance, while Borderlands 3 did ok.

Wait for the Switch Lite to drop, everything will get a boost then. Personally I'm not interested, but I know a money maker when I see one, especially with Christmas looming.

Sakurai mentioning Xbox in the Smash video doubled their sales.

Daemon X Machina is holding up this week at least. It'll probably have weak legs though. Shame because it's so fun.

The New 3DS and New 3DS XL sold 260,000+ units at launch.

I don't expect the Switch Lite to launch that big since it is a hardware downgrade rather than an upgrade, but the numbers should still be decently large i.e. 150,000+.

@EvrgrnCmln me too bought the collectors edition and pin. For £69 sold it this week for £128 almost doubled my money back!
Bought dragon quest 11s, zelda, sniper elite 3 all instead.

@EvrgrnCmln Ok. So. With Astral Chain 75 percent of the time I'm going "why does everyone like this, what is wrong with me, this is soooooo boring. Like I don't get why people are raving." Then, after all of that boredom, the game pops into bliss mode, so the other 25 percent of the time it's a rush. So it's like chasing a drug high or something. AT LEAST Daemon X Machina knows how to break up it's game into better digestible chunks. I never played such a polished game with such horrible flow to it.

Not great numbers - but still Glad to see a game from the west up there!

Monster Hunter World + Borderlands 3 are co-op heaven right now.

So Astral Chains didn't sell even 9k this week. So much for "no stock" excuse. Honestly, the entire game should have been more like File 10/11. I got sick of the gates (started skipping them at the rooftop mission) they always looked the same.

I just got $34 trade-in credit for it on Amazon, so still a great buy and worth playing.

I think a lot of people were really disappointed in Daemon X Machina, I know I sure was. I was going to buy it but something always kept me from pulling the trigger. I was checking out some streams on youtube and the streamers didn't seem to like the game, many calling it a boring grind to play, and they were complaining about how they kept getting hit with odd copyright strikes whenever they try to share their videos. This all added up to me passing on the game, now I am no longer interested, there's too many great games right now.

@EvrgrnCmln I heard some fans try to claim that DxM has had shortages in the US and that it didn't sell well because of that... well it doesn't really check out because all the big online stores haven't ever had any shortages. I have had the game saved in my Amazon save list for a long time and it has always been "ready to ship."

I feel like all too often when something like this flops you get fans scrambling for excuses.

I really enjoyed Daemon x Machina. My only complaint is I want more now that I've beaten the game and with the way its selling, I doubt there'll be story DLC or a sequel. Oh well, can always replay it and skip the dialogue for even faster mecha action!

@hoopderscotch I literally started with "not great numbers" when referring to BL3. Also all sales in japan are by single platforms. So multiplat is not really a factor.

And the "incentive to go digital in Japan that most certainly affected physical sales" applies to every game on that list. So that is a wash.

Again with the "shortage"... If BL3/PES would have only shipped 30K to Japan retail it would have "Sold Out" also. That is not an indicator of demand.

Seems legit, what's going on with PS4 sales, higher than usual?

@gamer89 Yeah and it's also kind of an outdated mentality. A lot of people buy digitally these days and it is impossible to sell out of digital copies, basically anyone who wants this game badly enough can buy it no matter what the physical copy situation is like. I mean sure there are some people out there who are very adamant about wanting their physical copies but that generally isn't enough to throw off the general sales figures. Plus, we live in an era when everybody prefers to just order everything online, and like I said I haven't seen any shortages for this game online.

@westman98,

You never know though, if the masses see it as a cool bit of kit the missing features will make little difference, and there will be a lot of 3DS/Ps Vita owners in Japan, I just think this new device will print money.

While it might have not done so hot in the U.K., at least DxM did well in Japan. It was never gonna be some huge seller anyway.

@johnvboy
I expect strong legs for the Lite, especially since it launches a few months before the holidays, but I do not expect launch numbers to be as strong as that of the New 3DS/New 3DS XL or the DIs.

@Agramonte
Astral Chain costs ¥8600. The NSO Voucher costs ¥9900.

Supply issues or not, unless you like wasting money or are hopelessly obsessed with buying stuff at retail, you probably downloaded the game.

Im glad Daemon X Machina is doing better then I thought it whould.
Stil need to start playing it though.

Darn you fire emblem 45 hours in 4 days help me 😥🙈

@westman98 Vouchers, again?!

First it is because such a demand that it "sells out" at retail... Now it is because NSO is so popular in Japan that they all using Vouchers.

I guess the Fire Emblem base also "like wasting money or are hopelessly obsessed with buying stuff at retail" 🤔

@Agramonte
> Buying Fire Emblem and Astral Chain at retail costs ¥16100.
> Buying Fire Emblem and Astral Chain using a NSO voucher costs ¥9900.

¥6100 in savings is a lot - that's almost enough to buy a 3rd full-priced game!

So yes, if you live in Japan and bought both of those games at retail, you either like wasting money or are obsessed with physical products, because you just shafted your wallet.

Those who finished d X m how long did it take to complete? Seems those articles of it being 50 hours plus as wrong.

PES sales lower than last year.

@gamer89
Cheers so much for what the devs said then.will see if I can send it back to Amazon and wait for a price drop. To much in back log a d other better games coming soon

Daemon X Machina looks to be the lowest-selling 1st-party published Switch games of 2019. It sold less than Astral Chain at launch in Japan despite not being part of the NSO Voucher program, and it's UK debut was <1/4th of that of Astral Chain.

Monster Hunter World will probably continue to be strong in the charts until a new Switch MH gets announced.

@westman98 It is part of the voucher program.

@westman98 It's very niche genre to begin with. The publisher's antics may add to the factor but the game is always not for everyone to begin with.
If From Soft ever make new Armored Core game, I bet it will still sold less than their Souls game. Being mecha fan is suffering.

@westman98 It's third party. Marvelous Published the game in Japan. Nintendo is just publishing internationally.

@Grumblevolcano
Not in Japan

@TheMisterManGuy
Yeah that's definitely a caveat.
Funny enough, it seems like DxM will sell considerably more in Japan than in America or Europe, and it's Japan sales aren't that great to begin with. I don't think Nintendo's publishing in the west has benefited the game' sales at all.

@westman98 I still think its sales are okay for a mech game, they were never super popular to begin with.

@westman98 Oh I get it, not published by Nintendo in Japan so not eligible. I know it's eligible outside Japan.

@westman98

I think a lot will depend on how conservative Nintendo have been with the production of the lite, and of course a worldwide release will be tough, but I do expect very impressive launch figures in Japan, it's just a perfect console for the region.

Has anyone shat on the sales of....ahhhhh too late.

@westman98 obviously tons of people either do not care about that match or NSO in the first place. Astral Chains sales at retail is not because of vouchers.

@Agramonte
If vouchers didnt exist, Astral Chain and Fire Emblem would have much higher retail sales and much lower digital sales.

@JayJ I was talking about Japan and not the US. The game is a mecha action game. This means it was never going to sell well outside of Japan regardless of quality. Framing the game's sales as a factor of its perceived quality is disingenuous. Compare for example the sales of Armoured Core titles.

Physical shortages in bricks and mortar stores are significant because many console owners do not keep up with upcoming titles. Online purchases in release week are made by people anticipating a release. Store sales have the advantage of walk ins. Shortages indicate that demand is at or above what a developer expects. This does not mean a game has sold well - it means it has sold as well or better than it was expected to sell.