Kotaku
We know that Nintendo dominated 2007, with a constant, reliable stream of good news and strong sales. But how did the rest of the competition stack up? We've decided to look back at a full year of sales data from Japanese analyst outlet Media Create, whose sales data we regularly feature in the Simple 2000 Japanese Sales Chart series.
With a license to seemingly print money, Nintendo took 2007 by storm, establishing console and handheld dominance with its two casual friendly game devices. Nintendo DS and Wii dominated software and hardware charts, seeing a steady flow of week to week sales for both platforms, appearing to only weaken when supply was constrained.
Sony's offerings, the PSP, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2, had a solid (if not spectacular) year. The PS3 didn't make any waves, but the PSP did. The PS2, now seven years long in the tooth, still had a bit of life in it.
The Xbox 360? Well, we don't have nice things to say about its Japanese performance, so we'll just let the charts do the talking.
When units of each platform are presented side by side, the stranglehold the Nintendo DS has on the Japanese market becomes apparent. Its weekly sales outpaced every other console's and handheld's performance for nearly the entirety of the year. The only platform to outperform the DS at any point was Sony's PlayStation Portable, aided by a pair of marquee releases (plus a hardware redesign) in the first and third quarters of 2007.
The Nintendo DS saw its largest weekly period sales alongside a few high-profile software releases and in time with holidays, but was less dependent on individual software releases to pull in big numbers. Media Create software sales charts were regularly heavy on DS software, and it wasn't uncommon to see weekly charts feature nothing but DS and Wii software in the top ten—see Dragon Quest Swords and Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings launch weeks and this past week for examples.
In general, however, Nintendo DS sales trends tended not to spike as severely as other platforms did, with sales of older titles such as New Super Mario Bros. and Animal Crossing Wild World still doing solid business for Nintendo, many months after their respective release dates.
When we look at year-to-date sales in handy bar graph form, we get a much better perspective on the share of the Japanese market that Nintendo carved out for itself in 2007. This was the year that Nintendo DS hardware sales surpassed those of the PlayStation 2, with each at about 21 million consoles sold in the nation, lifetime to date. It's an impressive feat for the handheld, as it surpassed that figure in almost exactly 3 years, compared to a 7 year shelf life for Sony's console.
The DS pushed some 7 million-plus units into the hands of Japanese consumers, a third of its total sales. Not a bad year for the platform widely considered a gimmick before its launch.
On Sony's side, 2007 saw the PlayStation 3 outsell the PlayStation 2 in its first full year on the market, with the PSP achieving just shy of one-half of the DS's sales, a similarly impressive feat for a non-Nintendo portable device.
The Xbox 360, despite seeing a handful of video game releases that sold admirably over the year, continued to be a non-factor in the console war overseas. Its annual sales were about a quarter-million, something the Nintendo DS accomplished on a weekly basis multiple times in 2007. Sure, it's a bit apples to oranges, considering the price differences in hardware and software, but its illustrative of consumer tastes in Japan. Microsoft's efforts to appeal to Eastern gaming tastes with a pair of Mistwalker games, hardware bundles and a few exclusives from Namco Bandai were met with flat sales in the nation.
Who had the biggest slice of the pie in 2007? Nintendo, of course, with over two-thirds of the entire console market dedicated to Nintendo DS and Wii sales. That's not including sales of legacy platforms like the GameCube, Game Boy Advance SP and Game Boy Advance micro, whose total sales were in the 60,000 range and not factored into the above charts.
While DS and Wii sales were slightly down at the end of the year, coming off of a strong Wii launch and solid sales of Dragon Quest Monsters Joker and multiple "Training" games at the end of 2006, strong sales of Wii Fit, Mario Party DS, Dragon Quest IV, Final Fantasy IV and others indicate that 2008 will still be a good year for the company.
Nintendo DS sales against the PSP show that there is still a broad gap between weekly sales of the two platforms. However, the PSP's ability to unseat the DS for a handful of weeks shouldn't be overlooked and close sales numbers for both around holiday periods show that the PSP deserves credit for chipping away at Nintendo's near monopoly on the portable gaming space. Sony has Capcom and Square-Enix largely to thank for that, as Monster Hunter and Final Fantasy titles were responsible for the biggest sales spikes.
In the home console war, nothing can touch the Wii. The PlayStation 3 flirted with console dominance along with the help of a few big name, Japanese friendly titles like the Musou series and a hardware revision, but Wii sales saw fewer sales spikes as households picked up the console with older titles like Wii Sports and Wii Play.
The Xbox 360 peaked on sales of Ace Combat 6, Eternal Sonata (nee Trusty Bell) and Lost Odyssey, but it was regularly outsold by its more expensive rival the PS3.
The Nintendo DS was less prone to peaks and valleys, save for the release of Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings, largely responsible for a biweekly crush of a half-million units shifted. Big name releases like The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass still got gamers into stores, but non-gaming software, remakes and older titles like New Super Mario Bros. and Animal Crossing helped to push the Nintendo DS into record territory.
Like the Nintendo DS, Wii sales were less bumpy, as heavily marketed and franchise releases seemed to have less of an impact than the desire to play Wii Sports. One interesting trend that seemed to affect Wii sales were strong post-release weeks, with Mario games (Super Paper Mario, Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Party 8) doing more good in their second week of release. The same may be true for Wii Fit, but with end-of-year sales up across the board, it's difficult to determine its impact.
There's little doubt that the PSP outperformed in its third year on the market on the release of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII which coincided with the release of the PSP-2000 (aka Slim & Light). No other platform saw such a remarkable increase, as sales jumped from 15,000 to 278,000 over the course of two weeks after Crisis Core's come to market. The year's other key release, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd continues to show up in weekly software sales charts.
The PlayStation 3 also benefited from a handful of big releases, most notably Gundam Musou and Shin Sangoku Musou 5, which we'll call Dynasty Warriors 6 when the West get it. Sony's push to release the cheaper 40GB version of the PS3 alongside another Musou game, just weeks prior to Gran Turismo 5 Prologue made for a respectable end-of-year for the lagging console.
PlayStation 2 sales were generally unremarkable during its seventh year. That may be arguable, of course, as a seven year shelf life with over 800,000 sold in 2007 may still impress some. But it would appear that many are ready to move on to the next generation (finally), as it underperformed in relation to its big brother the PlayStation 3. PS2 sales saw less intense highs and lows, as hardcore targeted games like Super Robot Wars, World Soccer Winning Eleven 2008 and Musou Orochi introduced Japanese gamers to invest (or re-invest) in last-gen hardware.
Like the PlayStation 3, momentous releases move Xbox 360 hardware. Eternal Sonata, Ace Combat 6 and Halo 3, along with their respective hardware bundles, were the biggest reasons for Japanese gamers to "Jump In" to the Western platform. Outside of a few surprises—Halo 3's performance, for example—there weren't many unexpected strong performers on Microsoft's box.
Final Thoughts & Predictions
With a slew of attention grabbing releases for the Wii and Nintendo DS due throughout 2008, we expect that Nintendo will continue to reign supreme in hardware sales. Dragon Quest IX, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Monster Hunter Wii should serve the company well in keeping Japanese consumers interested in buying Nintendo hardware.
Now that Capcom has decided to bring its Monster Hunter series to Wii, that could be a big blow to the PSP. With Crisis Core finally arriving and Square-Enix focusing on more stable franchise remakes for the DS, 2007 may have been the PSP's peak year. Dissidia: Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep should still keep units moving, but we suspect that Sony may look to a future hardware revision or proper follow up to the PSP to generate more interest.
2008 may be much better for the PlayStation 3, as games like Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4, Level 5's White Knight Chronicles, Sega's Yakuza 3 and Sony's own Gran Turismo 5 see release and should push hardware. If Capcom can get Resident Evil 5 and Square-Enix at least one of the Final Fantasy XIII titles out this year, the PS3 may be able to carve out a much larger slice of the console market pie in Japan.
It's obviously still extremely early to see how the 2008 sales landscape will look and there will be plenty of time to see how the chips fall in the new year, but it looks like things can only go up for Nintendo's dual platforms and Sony's PS3.
Comments
The yearly 3dbar chart is just obsene...
Thanks for the data, its real nice being able to see a larger picture with all of these graphcs. Interesting stuff!
All sales charts must have pies from now on! ;)
I like pie.
Neat. And I don't care what anyone says, I'm excited for the US version of Dragon Quest Swords. But I'd be even more excited for a sequel to Skies of Arcadia...
Nice to see the PS3 back on track :P It looked very, very bad for a moment.
The 360 is, well not worth mentioning, and the ps2, will this be the last year? Hmm. I wonder, how big was the differemce in numbers for the PS2 in 2006 compared to 2007 in Japan? I'm curious if anyone has that data.
Also, where is the spike for the PSP slim, like I can see FF and monster hunter and red psp, when was the psp slim released in Japan then?
Why do Americans love the 360 while the Japanese seem to hate it? Too many FPS and not enough dating sims perhaps.
It's kind of sad that this may have been PSP's big year. I'd like to see it grow more. However, this article puts out a very solid argument.
Here's to hoping there's something unexpected on that front. Secret projects, new features with impact, etc.
I'm really interested to see a software sales chart not how it influenced consoles between the Wii and the PS3. Cuase i'm thinking with the exception of Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Wii Fit the PS3 releases sold better.
ps2 is doing better than xbox360. FOR SHAME!
Look at that little PSP go, shine on little diamond, shine ON!
I'm glad that Nintendo's status as an enduring icon in the world of entertainment, especially in Japan, is alive and well. They are one of the most important Japanese companies in the last 50 or so years, to be fair.
An interesting thing to note for the next Year is how many titles from japanese producers coming out on PS3 (exclusive or not) this will a huge year for PS3 in Japan.
Cause you have to remember even though big titles aren't exclusive they might as well be in Japan with as little saturation as the 360 has there.
It will be cool to see where the PS3 is this time next year on the global pie charts.
Way to go PSP...some serious turnaround for the handheld.
S
I'm still surprised by the life left in the PS2, and high-profile games are still coming! I mean, Atlus announced Persona 4 for the PS2. High-profile over there, any way.
lol, Line Rider.
@Spoony:
Nope
[vgchartz.com]
Highest selling PS3 game placed 35th on the chart Minna no Golf 5 at 418,685, so PS3 had a dismal software year, in fact its software attach rate is terrible, almost PSP level bad
@Timsobuff74: People just don't like unreliable hardware, and it's getting through to the masses by now...everyone in my course even makes fun of it. Interestingly enough, all the people I know who currently own a 360 (and a Wii in some cases) are seriously moving away from it and saving up for a PS3. And not the "yea I'll buy it once" kind of saving. One's getting it by June, the other one when GTAIV launches, and so on and forth.
@Timsobuff74: I could propose theories until the cows come home, but I think it comes down to asthetic differences in the film industry. America built their film industry on live film and sound stages, whereas Japan built theirs on cel animation. Japan's appetite for creative design, colourful landscapes, and surrealism is about as strong as America's appetite for photorealism. Each major design choice has a market in each country, but the XBox is a system (and a game library) designed certainly with the American asthetic, based in traditional film, in mind. Japanese audiences are fully capable of enjoying it and reveling in it, but I also remember a time when you couldn't watch anything animated in Japan without going to the one store in a city of a million people that sold it. Now the Japanese asthetic is all over the place. I think that the XBox has a future in Japan, but it's working tremendously hard to achieve it. Maybe next hardware cycle.
Microsoft either doesn't care about Japan anymore, or they have truly incompetent people working for them here. I don't know how many times Japanese friends have asked why I own a 360 and as soon as I explain Live and all the online co-op, voice chat, ect. they become far more interested in it, yet all I've seen advertised in Japanese gaming media for Live has been the Arcade. If people were more aware of all the other features I think it could do a lot better.
@Avinash_Tyagi: Doesn't really mean much to be honest. Most people are waiting for that break out game that really appeals to them ala Final Fantasy or Metal Gear Solid.
I personally bought a DS Lite soon after release and haven't touched it since completing the New Super Mario Bros. Well, other than a brief week or two playing the new Pokemon.
The Xbox 360 has gotten to the point where people ask whether to buy that or a PS3 and I tell them a 360 but have to give a disclaimer about what to expect with regard to failures and replacement. But since the PS3 has two good games then there is no point in buying it as a game system at this time.
I wish i had as much time as people in Japan to enjoy handhelds.
@theespacepope: Oh my, do you live in early 2006? I can't actually believe people still state the PS3 only has zero to five good games.
@theespacepope: In a lot of cases, they spend a good deal more time on public transit, really. Japan's transit system kicks ass.
The pie is a lie!
.... c'mon, someone has to say something like that
When put into bar graph form, it becomes hard to not call the 360 irrelevant in Japan. But, at the same time, it seems hard to consider anything but the DS, Wii, or PSP relevant. The "top-tier" consoles just don't appear to be performing there.
@Timsobuff74: You do realize the sales are going in an upwards pattern for the 360 right? Or are you just so culturally inept to understand that perhaps the game library on the 360 just does not match up to the competition / tastes of the people, nor does it pull at the heartstrings of the casual market where most of the numbers lie.
Hardcore gamers here are a dying breed. Everyone seems to be switching to the more casual scene. Its not like the old days where riots would go about over games.
So most of the numbers attached to the 360 is those who are more interested in the "foreign" titles and what not. Whats helping the sales is the fact that MS managed to secure J developers to try to bring more of the standard crowd into the fold with market specific games / titles people would feel more comfortable / familiar with.
I highly thank you for the data. This will be useful for me down the road. :)
@RPGr: The joke is a cliché.
@theespacepope: it has more than 2 good games man, give some a try you'll have a blast
@RPGr: funny, before i came in here i expected to see that comment as one of the first 3. Im suprised it took that long haha.
Nintendo murdered last year! Perhaps Microsoft lost this gen (and last..) in Japan, but i wouldnt knock it out for the next. I mean seriously, seeing how Nintendo did, anythings possible.
I can see a BIg spike in PS3 sales once Metal Gear Solid comes out. And a big spike for the Wii when Smash Brothers comes out.
@Avinash_Tyagi: Do you or anyone have the attachment charts broken down by timeline and console?
I'm really curious if they are what people say they are anecdotally. What are people using their psps and ps3s for? I play games first and use the media features second, but I do use them.
I've never had he problem of either of these devices doing more take away from games, but perhaps it does with others, which would make me sad as i don't want to lose either function and would happily see both areas expand. Although very vocal I suspect that I like many people that modded the xbox into a media server, are probably in the minority,
@Timsobuff74: Agreed,more Visual Novels and the like,and it could be better
The Fact is,that the Japanese love their Brands,Microsoft have never been famoust like here with then
proud to be a Nintendo fanboy. :)
@Witzbold: Err, yes and no... basically the graph says the 360 is staying almost flat in Japan with a slight increase in sales in the year's end. However is like the PS2, it's not dying but it isn't growing quickly either.
The casuals have always existed, some became hardcore some stayed casual, but the games catalog of the past 30 years has always catered towards casual gaming.
Couldn't the Crisis Core spike also be attributed to the simultaneous release of the PSP Slim? I know that I bought my second PSP shortly after the Slim redesign.
The PSP has a lot of great games, second only to the DS in all current gen systems, but I do also use the other features. I like keeping a few video files on my PSP because it has such a beautiful screen.
Ugh, seeing the little anthill for Mario Galaxy next to Wii Fit's mountain... What the hell, Japan? And Ace Combat 6 as a system seller over Halo 3? Criminal.
I fully support anyone who wants to press charges against the nation of Japan. They can plead insanity if they want, so long as they're locked away I don't care which.
@kingofallcosmos: It should, and was meant to appear in the PSP line chart. I've made a note of it in the explanatory paragraph. Thanks for the reminder!!
@zoesch: And that climb is where MS started to get their shit together. Fucking took them long enough. Since up until then they pretty much deserved that flat rating on the chart with how they were doing things.
Its a rather steep increase I must say though and thats a pretty good sign at least.
@Horsefly: Eh. I'd rather play Ace Combat 6 than Halo 3.
Thanks for the analysis. X360 is doing much better than what the original Xbox did in Japan. Some rumors on the web say that Sony got some 20+ first party un-announced exclusives and 3 of them are coming from Japanese studios. If these exclusives make it on time for 2008 along all the good old money makers (MGS, FF, GT), PS3 will totally get the X360 out of the picture in Japan.