Top Japanese Sellers of 2005

Gamasutra reports on a partial list of the top-sellers in the Japanese market for last year. From the article: "With the Nintendo DS dominating hardware sales during the year, it was no surprise to find Oide yo Doubutsu no Mori (aka Animal Crossing: Wild World) at number one with approximately 1.17 million copies sold. The second ranked title, and one of the few games to feature prominently in the top tens from all three countries, was Sony's Gran Turismo 4 for the PlayStation 2, with 1.07 million units sold."

Comments

Re:I don't understand Animal Crossing at all.

[justchris]

No, I think you understand it just fine.

Animal Crossing is one of a "new" type of game called sandbox games.

The definition, 'It's like playing in a sandbox. There's no goal, there's no pressure, you can pretty much do whatever you want.'

This type of game appeals to a very different mindset than the "standard" video game. Some people, enjoy it, some do not. Much like Nintendogs (which also has no real goal) and the Sims (again, no real goal) it appeals very strongly to female gamers and older gamers, a market Nintendo targets because they also have money to spend.