Sales Chart JPN: Mario claimed first place.

Weeking ending 15 April 2007

It's not an unexpected news, Super Paper Mario has claimed the top honour this week for the Wii in Japan, shipping 144,192 units. Given the success of the Wii and the Mario name, it's only natural that we see a Mario game on the top spot. New Super Mario on the DS is still selling strong (this week at number 14), so it is very likely that the Super Paper Mario will follow the same trend.

Last week's ichiban, Gyakuten Saiban 4, has fallen to 6th, but it's still the best non-new release game of the week. In fact, the top 5 has all been taken by new release games. Second on the chart is the new Fate / Stay Night [Realta / Nua] game on the PS2 (134,887 units sold). I've never played nor watched Fate / Stay Night, but I can guess that it's popular in Japan.

Third place belongs to Persona 3 (90,369 sold), another PS2 game. No wonder the PS2 is still selling strong in Japan. For the second week running, the PS2 has outsold the PS3 (more later).

Fourth is DS's new game, Nodame Cantabile (50,785 units sold). What it is about? I have no idea.

The fifth and last of the top 5 new entries is PSP's, wait for it..... Final Fantasy. Yep, the original Final Fantasy has appeared on the PSP. I am actually kind of surprised that it isn't any higher. And it only managed 48,559 units.

Best selling games for each platform (that is on the chart) this week

Wii - Super Paper Mario
PS2 - Fate / Stay Night [Realta / Nua]
DS - Nodame Cantabile
PSP - Final Fantasy

Number of titles in the top 50 for each platform this week:

DS - 34
PS2 - 8
PSP - 4
Wii - 4

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Nintendo is now firmly destroying Sony and Microsoft. Actually, the XBox was never really a force to be reckon with in Japan anyway, so we'll ignore that. For every1 PSP sold, almost 6 DS Lite did the same, and for every 1 PS3 sold, more than 7 Wii found a new home. And for good measures, Wii is outselling XBox 360 33.8 to 1.

For the second week running, the PS3 is being outsold by the PS2. It's probably due to the 2 new games on the top 5 chart, but still, if PS2 continues to have top selling games, it's good and bad news for Sony. Good because it sells more PS2, bad because the PS3 suffers from must have games.

DSL - 172,359
Wii - 77,913
PSP - 29,459
PS2 - 11,398
PS3 - 11,000
Xbox360 - 2,307

Source: Media Create

Nintendo is making money... a shitload of it.

Nintendo has reported a jump of 77% in its net profit for the Japanese fiscal year ending 31 March 2007 due to well, you guess it, the unexpected success of Wii and the continuious demand for the DS.

Unlike Microsoft and Sony, the Wii is actually a cash cow for Nintendo. They actually make money, as opposed to Microsoft's and Sony's approach of "loss money on console, but make money on software". The current mode for Nintendo is "make money on console, and make more money on software".

We can hardly blame them. The DS has sold 24 million units worldwide last year. Hell, even my household has 2 DSes. Since launch, Nintendo has sold close to 6 million Wii. The weaker Japanese Yen also helped to boost their foreign currency earnings.

The company forecasts to sell 22 million DS and 14 million Wii this fiscal year. If they can keep up the current trend, they might even sell more.

Net profit for 2006-7 fiscal year is 174.29 billion yen, revenue rose to 966.53 billon yen. That's like... a shitload of money. And if you're got shares in Nintendo JP, you will get a dividend of 690 yen per share. Nintendo JP closed at 37,800 yen on Friday.

Source: Forbes

Microsoft only sold 500,000 XBox 360 during Q1.

Microsoft has reported that they have sold 500K XBox 360 for the quarter ending 31 March. That's a huge drop from 1.7 million that they sold the quarter before. But of course, PS3 and the Wii weren't around last year. It's obvious that the newcomers are getting into Microsoft's share of the gaming industry.

Microsoft reported a loss $315 million, down from $402 million a year earlier. That loss also includes the cost associated with the launch of the Zune player (the so-call iPod killer, yeah right, iPod killer my ass).

The Wii seems to make the biggest dent, with over 5 million unit already sold since the November launch, while the XBox 360 sold over 10 million and the PS3 lacking behind with just over a million.

The real test will be the holiday season, probably around Christmas. By then, the hype should be over, so to speak, and people will come to their senses and release that the PS3 is an expensive piece of junk, XBox 360 is an even more expensive piece of junk if you add all the features comparable to the PS3 (notable buying a HDD and a HD-DVD player add-on), and the Wii is too popular for its own good, because you'll never be able to find one over Christmas.

It seems like Microsoft will have to cut prices of their gaming console to compete with Wii and PS3 (mainly the Wii, since PS3 is the most expensive of them all). That said, it will only increase the loss as Microsoft is still selling the XBox 360 at a loss.

Source: Gamasutra

Creator of Xenogear now in Nintendo's family.

Monolith Soft, the creator of the Xeno series (including Xenogears and the three Xenosaga games) is now part of the Nintendo family.

Bandai Namco (maker of endless Gundam games, including Gundam Musou), which owned 96% stake in the company, sold 80% to Nintendo. Bandai Namco will retain the remaining 16% stake and will continue to use the studio for planning and development.

So are we going to see more Xenosaga on the Wii or the DS? I bloody hope so. The Xenosaga series was great fun, though some people might disagree. Xenosaga I & II is already out on the DS (though there is no English version thus far).

Disaster: Day of Crisis, which is developed by Monolith Soft, is coming out on the Wii.

Source: Gamasutra

Sony's Ken Kutaragi "graduated" from SCE

Ken Kutaragi, the father of PlayStation, is retiring from Sony Computer Entertainment and becoming the 'honourary chairman', whatever that means. But whatever it is, he will have more time to think over just what the hell went wrong with the PS3.

"I am happy to graduate from Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. after introducing four platforms to the PlayStation family," said Kutaragi. "It has been an exciting experience to change the world of computer entertainment by marrying cutting edge technologies with creative minds from all over the world. I'm looking forward to building on this vision in my next endeavors."

Just curious, but what IS your next endeavor? Going over to Nintendo, perhaps?

So the four platforms are PSX, PS2, PSP and PS3. Out of the four, only two are truly the king of the world. Ironically, PSP and PS3 both failing to capture people's heart (and money), falling behind Nintendo's less powerful DS and Wii (and the XBox 360 as well). It just goes to show, best graphics and beastly processing power is nothing when you don't have the software to support it (that and a good marketing campaign).

Kazuo Hirai, currently SCE President and Group COO, will be taking up Kutaragi's place.

Source: 1UP

Play-Asia Weekly Special: Blue Dragon US$19.90

This week's special at Play-Asia is XBox 360's Blue Dragon. It's a Japanese RPG game. Featuring the character design of Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball Z and music by Nobuo Uematsu of Final Fantasy, Blue Dragon is an epic role-playing game that centers on a young boy named Shu and several of his friends.

If you like Dragon Ball and Final Fantasy, it is your best chance to get a game featuring the best of both worlds.

Sales Chart JPN: The Lawyers did it!

Weeking ending 15 April 2007

Last week, when Capcom announced the Phoenix Wright 3 remake on the DS, they probably are fully aware that the lawyers are doing a great run at the cash register. Well, we all know lawyers charge an arm and a leg for their service, but that still doesn't stop 250K+ gamers to become lawyers.

Over 250K gamers became lawyers last week as Gyakuten Saiban 4 (I would call it Phoenix Wright 4, but that's not strictly correct) shot straight to the top of the law school sales chart. That's a quarter of a million copies in one week. If only Housuke Odoroki speaks English. I would have got one too. Now I'll have to wait for his English teacher to teach him English first. Looks like the courtroom drama will continue for some time to come.

I'm not sure if Housuke has called up Phoenix again or not, but Phoenix Wright 1 and Phoenix Wright 2 is making a come back into the Top 50 again, at 41st and 39th respectively.

Even the forever popular plumber cannot topple the lawyer. Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 comes second, with a respectable 92K sold, still very far behind the Gyakuten Saiban 4. Wii Sports is back up there again, along with Yoshi . I was a little surprised with Professor Layton, still making the run in 6th place.

So everything is back to normal again, with Nintendo dominating the top 7 spots. The top 2 games that are not on the Wii or DS are the PS2 'old' games, Musou Orochi and Pro Baseball Spirit 4.

PS3 still hanging on with Pro Baseball Spirits 4, while the PSP is much the same with Monster Hunter Freedom 2nd.

Best selling games for each platform (that is on the chart) this week

DS - Gyakuten Saiban 4
PSP - Monster Hunter Freedom 2nd
Wii - Wii Sports
PS2 - Musou Orochi
PS3 - Pro Baseball Spirits 4

Number of titles in the top 50 for each platform this week:

DS - 36
PS2 - 7
Wii - 3
PSP - 3
PS3 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Maybe it's because of the power of justics, the DS sold 20K more last week.Wii is back up there again. While the PS3, well, it's not so well again this week. It fell behind the PS2 for I-don't-know-how-many-times this year. PSP has dropped over the week as well. For each PSP sold last week, more than 5 DS were sold during the same period. Overall, Nintendo is up everywhere while everything else around them crumbles.

DSL - 133,325
Wii - 75,759
PSP - 24,850
PS2 - 12,872
PS3 - 11,948
Xbox360 - 2,900

Source: Media Create

Sales Chart USA: DS on top in NA... again.

Month ending March

Console War VII: The Battle for America

Report from GameDaily today has indicated that the Nintendo DS is yet the king of the world.... well, at least in America in March anyway. Over half a million DS were sold in March. Half a million! That's like.... 500K. Sony's PS2 still has some life in there, 280K were sold. As a matter of fact, it's the best TV console for the month. Next is the Wii at 259K, a massive drop from last month, but it could be due to lack of inventory. It seems like the Wii spend very little time on the shelves at the shops.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 sold just under 200K and Sony's new toy had another bad month, with just 130K sold. It even did worse than in February, when it sold 136K. Even the GBA sold more than the PS3. Sony's other new toy trailed behind the DS by, oh, about 320K. For each PSP that walked out the door, almost 3 DS did the same.

Unlike the Japanese, the America still embrace PS2 games, as God of War II topped the charts with 880K units sold. Tom Clancy is still selling his name well at number 2, while the guitarist in us helped Guitar Hero II to secure 3rd place for the Xbox 360. Wii comes at 4th with Wii Play and the DS comes at 6th with Diddy Kong Racing.

Console Sold

DS - 508,000
PS2 - 280,000
Wii - 259,000
XBox 360 - 199,000
PSP - 180,000
GBA - 148,000
PS3 - 130,000

Source: GameDaily

Play-Asia Weekly Special

This week's special at Play-Asia is DS's Heroes of Mana. US$19.90 for a relatively new DS game (according to Wiki, it was released in last month). Not bad at all. So if you're a Mana fan, you've probably already have this. And if you're not, you probably won't get it.

So if you think about getting a Mana game, maybe this is a cheap way to get one.

More Special Edition DS Lite coming your way.

As if the DS hasn't sold out everywhere in Japan yet, here comes more special edition DS. The Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings edition is coming out on the 26th April. But there is also another new DS coming out on the same day. It's Momotarou Dentetsu DS: Tokyo & Japan. A train game. No, not training, train, as in Thomas the Tank Engine.

This version includes Momotetsu Japan and Momotetsu Tokyo as well as five mini-games. Now my Japanese is not good, but it looks like three of the mini-games are multiple choice questions about Japanese geography; one game where it askes you where a prefecture is, and you have to touch it on a map of Japan on the bottom screen, and one game where you've got to touch someone's butt. Don't believe me? check it out for yourself. He certainly looks very happy about someone touching his ass. Am I taking this out of context? You bet.


Source: Kotaku
Official Website (Japanese)

Sad day in the States, but hey, let blame the games.

Sad day in the Virginia today, with some 32 people killed by one (or two) gunman. So while we morn the death of these people, some stupid lawyer by the name of Jack Thompson decided to use this opportunity to, you guessed it, blame the shooting on the video games. And he did it live on TV too!

Well done, Jack. All the shooting that has ever happened on the face of the Earth is because all these murderers played GTA, Doom, Resident Evil, Counter Strikes and whatnots. Don't blame Charlton Heston for keeping the guns on the streets. Don't blame the government for not tightening gun control. Because you know, they are real people, and real people don't do bad things. Only virtual little guy inside the TV screen teaches people how to kill.

Shame on you too, FOX NEWS, for even thought about getting Jack on TV in the first place. Not that I watch your channel, but thank God I don't.

Source: Kotaku

New Phoenix Wright coming in September

Not long after Phoenix Wright 4 (it's actually not Phoenix Wright anymore, but I just keep it for the name sake. The correct title is Gyakuten Saiban 4) was released into the Japanese wild, Capcom has announced Pheonix Wright: Trails and Tribulations for the DS.

Released date is in September, it will feature the spiky hair Phoenix, his assisstant Maya and his mentor (and Maya's sister) Mia.

Not sure if the DS-exclusive things like the fingerprint dust in the first Phoenix Wright will make a appearance. But the psyche-lock system from Phoenix Wright: Justices for All will make a come back. IMHO, the psyche-lock system doesn't really add much to the gameplay, but at least it's there.

Looking at the screenshots, it looks like to be the Phoenix Wright 3 remake on the DS.

I enjoyed the first 2 Phoenix Wright immersely, so I'm looking forward to September.

Source: GameSpot

Sales Chart JPN: The Empire Strikes Back in an old machine

Weeking ending 8 April 2007

For the first time this year, Sony has more games in the top 10 than Nintendo. 6 games compared to Nintendo's 4 (and 4 old games at that). Ironically, none of the 6 games is a PS3 game.

First up it's Naruto Shippuuden: Narutimate Accel, based on the popular anime series of the same name, taking 75,453 units. Number 2 is also based on a popular anime. It's Gundam Seed vs Z.A.F.T., with 58,751 sold. Yoshi's Island is still very healthy at third place with 47,566.

Two baseball games featured in the top 10, with Konami's Pro Baseball Spirit 4 at number 4 for the PS2 and PSP's Powerful Pro Baseball Portable 2 at number 8. In the top 50, there are 4 baseball games. What? Is it baseball season in Japan or something?

As expected, Call of Duty 3 for the XBox 360 has dropped off the radar completely after 1 week at 26th.

Best selling games for each platform (that is on the chart) this week

DS -Yoshi's Island
PSP -Gundam Seed vs Z.A.F.T.
Wii - Wii Sports
PS2 - Naruto Shippuuden: Narutimate Accel
PS3 - Pro Baseball Spirits 4

Number of titles in the top 50 for each platform this week:

DS - 35
PS2 - 7
Wii - 4
PSP - 3
PS3 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

After a shitty week for Nintendo, it's back to the usual again, with over 110,000 DS sold. But the Wii is still not yet back to the previous glory, with just over 50,000 units sold. Despite the number of games on the top 10, Sony's hardware was slightly down from last week. XBox 360 dropped about a quarter over the last week.

DSL - 110,845
Wii - 52,583
PSP - 31,503
PS3 - 14,520
PS2 - 14,234
XB360 - 2,963

Source: Media Create

Meanwhile, the Wii enjoys its 3rd biggest sales week.

On the other side of town. Nintendo is celebrating it's third biggest Wii sales week since launch in the UK. The Wii has shipped 25,000 units, compared to PS3's 17,000 and XBox 360's 11,000.

The Easter holiday season helped with the push of the numbers. Also there was more stock. Looks like the Wii is still in shortage everywhere you go. Plus Nintendo actually makes money for every console sold. So it seems like Miyamoto is laughing all the way to the bank on this one.

Source: gameindustry.biz

It's official, 20 GB PlayStation 3 is DEAD.

Late last week. GamePro reported that Sony has removed the 20GB PlayStation 3 from their own SonyStyle stores, which only prompted speculation that Sony will no longer sell the 20GB model.

Well, ponder no more, because today, 1up reported that Sony has officially announced the death of the 20GB model. Apparently, the 60GB won over the 20GB model 9-to-1, or so Sony said. It's probably more on the line of "no-one gives a damn about the 20GB". With no Wi-Fi, no card reader and a smaller HDD, customers are still not tempted by the 'lower' price tag, which is still more expensive than a Wii.

So less than 6 months on the market, the 20GB PS3 is dead. RIP 20GB PS3.

Source: 1UP

DS goes bling

The Nintendo DS has had a Swarovski crystal covered DS Lites for a while now, but this. For the price of a PlayStation 3, you can get a sparkling new Swarovski-encrusted DS lite. Bling factor? 100%. The only problem is, it's upside-down. For those who own a laptop, you'd know that some of the logos on the lids are the 'right-side up', so when you open the lid, people staring at you will see the logo of your laptop the right side up.

Not so on this DS. Open it, and people will look at your DS upside down. Maybe you play upside down, it wouldn't matter that much. But still, its sparkling awesomeness wins. Click here to see more pics.

Source: Kotaku

Sales Chart JPN: My Kingdom for a Heart

Weeking ending 1 April 2007

So years after the release of the original Kingdom Hearts II game, you would have thought that the Japanese would have enough of it. Apparently not. This week's ichiban is none other than Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+, with 173,212 units sold.

Coming at number two is last week's top seller, Musou Orochi, still going strong at 73,387. Looks like the Japanese are still getting more Musou action. Not surprising at nubmer three is the DS game, More English Training. Damn those Japanese. They have it good. I want a More Japanese Training game for my DS. Is anyone ever going to develop one? Don't think so.

Somewhere down the list, more Digimon game, Tamagochi game, the Wii Sports has been pushed down to9th this week, but still in the top 10. Not a bad week for new games, with 5 new games entering the top 10.

Amour Core 4 on the XBox 360 has dropped off the radar completely, only to be replaced by Call of Duty 3 at 26th. That will probably drop off by next week though.

Best selling games for each platform (that is on the chart) this week

DS - More English Training
PSP - Monster Hunter Portable 2nd
Wii - Wii Sports
PS2 - Kingdom Heart II Final Mix+
PS3 - Pro Baseball Spirits 4
XBox360 - Call of Duty 3

Number of titles in the top 50 for each platform this week:

DS - 35
PS2 - 6
Wii - 4
PS3 - 3
PSP - 1
XBox360 - 1

Console War VII: Battle for Nippon

Nintendo's sales figure this week has dropped dramatically. Although still outselling the Sony's equvalent, it was nothing like last week. DS sold just under 80,000 and the Wii just over 50,000. Certainly a great constrat to last week.

PSP has dropped slightly as well, and the PS3, well, it was outsold by PS2! That's not too hard to understand why, given the strong sales of PS2 games, both Kingdom Heart II and Musou Orochi taking 1-2 finish.

XBox 360, on the other hand, raised a little over last week.

DSL - 79,897
Wii - 51,365
PSP - 39,077
PS2 - 17,787
PS3 - 16,889
XB360 - 3,889

Source: Media Create

PS3 sold 27,083 units in Australia in.... 10 days.

After a lukewarm reception of the PS3 down under. The sales figure has come for the PS3. And it's not a particularly good picture for Sony. In its first 10 days on the shelf, only 27,083 units went out the door.

Let's compare that figure with the other consoles' launch:

Wii - 4 days - 32,901 ($13,128,499 AUD @ $399)
XBox 360 - 4 days - 30,421 ($19,743,229 @ $649)
PlayStation 3 - 10 days - 27,083 ($27,055,917 @ $999)

It doesn't take a genuis to see that PS3 is not selling as many consoles as Nintendo and Microsoft. Granted, it makes more revenue than the other two. But just remember, Sony actually loses money on each console sold. Nintendo is the only one that is making money on console sale.

To make matter worse, the UK sales has dropped 82% over the last week. If that's not bad news, I don't know what is.

Source: Kotaku

Wii Blaster, Wii want.

According to Joystiq, you don't need to hold out long before a Wii Blaster finally hits the road, so to speak. It's on sell at Gamestop for $20US, expect to be shipping in May.

Now all you have to wait is Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles to come out on the Wii. Just imagine if you can use two WiiGun at the same time John Woo style. Now that would be something to look forward to.

Source: Joystiq, Gamestop