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Blue Dragon Outsells Zelda in Japan At Launch
Computer and Videogames is carrying the news that the 360's new JRPG Blue Dragon has outsold Zelda (and all other Wii software) since the game launched last month. This can mean only good things for Microsoft, as by all account the Wii's software lineup didn't do too shabby a job of selling either. From the article: "The latest Media Create Japanese chart puts the Mistwalker RPG at number four in the top selling titles in Japan for December 4 through 10, which has managed to shift a respectable 80,000 copies in the country giving it the number two all-time 360 sales record behind Dead or Alive 4. Blue Dragon has received a considerable level of hype in Japan, largely thanks to the fanbase surrounding Dragon Ball Z artist Akira Toriyama who designed the characters in the game, and a special edition Japanese Blue Dragon 360 bundle which some Japanese retailers reported to have sold out of within minutes of opening pre-order." Update: 12/15 01:10 GMT by Z : As Chris Kohler points out, the game outsold Zelda the week of its launch.
Its looking more and more like no console will dominate this generation. All of the consoles made mistakes, all of the consoles have good points and bad points, and none totally overwhelm the others, with good games of all categories hitting all 3.
It seems like the ages where a single console could be sufficient if you picked well(unless you just HAD to have that ONE game...) are over.
Why would the Japanese buy a 360 out of frustration? They aren't exactly known to love microsoft's consoles, so I highly doubt that people would've bought one for those reasons. It's been said constantly that the guy who worked on the game has a huge following in Japan, so those sales increases might just happen to be because there's a game, on Microsoft's Xbox360, that the Japanese want.
Would you kindly mod me +1 insightful?
It's for a single 1 week period. Not overall
According to http://the-magicbox.com/gaming.htm Blue Dragon outsold Nintendo Wii software for the week with a weekly total of 80 thousand units, in total Wii sports has sold 248,549 units since the Wii has launched, and Hajimete no Wii has sold 237,160 units; The legend of Zelda sold 146,250 units on its opening week and is likely near the 200,000 mark by now.
Next week Blue Dragon will probably drop out of the top ten whereas much of Nintendo's software will remain near the top for quite a while.
As the article notes, this game was developed by Mistwalker Studios, not "Squaresoft". Further, I can only assume you meant Squaresoft as in the same square that makes Final Fantasy. In which case, Square merged with Enix about five or six years ago, and is now called "Square Enix".
FanFictionRecs.net
I thought I should clarify the statement:
r +Alive+4r +Alive+Xtreme+2i sing+ Nine+Nights
"Next week Blue Dragon will probably drop out of the top ten"
the Top Selling XBox 360 games in Japan
http://www.vgcharts.org/japgamewk.php?name=Dead+O
http://www.vgcharts.org/japgamewk.php?name=Dead+o
http://www.vgcharts.org/japgamewk.php?name=Dead+R
http://www.vgcharts.org/japgamewk.php?name=Ninety
"Game was released last month."
Blue Dragon was released in Japan December 7th: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/749/749490p1.html
Yes, it's innovative, but since when has innovation paid off in the games industry of late?
The Nintendo DS? Guitar Hero? Katamari Damacy? Geometry Wars?
Say what you will about the definition of innovation (and I know that this will probably lead to arguing about just that), but the DS and the games listed were all significant departures from most of what's being churned out today...and they all sold remarkably well because of it.
Goo goo g'joob.
1. More people have xBox360 systems in Japan today, thus the market for new Japan-friendly games (which have been in short supply until recently) is much much bigger than the only just-released Wii console users (only 400,000 sold on release week in Japan, all they could ship, not a one left).
2. There aren't any RPG games to speak of for the Wii yet - all the cool Japan-friendly game releases for these won't be around until late this year or in first quarter of 2007 - thus, while one could "call" Zelda an RPG, it isn't. You only get to play Link, just to start.
3. As the market share of Wii consoles continues growing rapidly, the number of copies of Zelda - and the eventual Japan-friendly RPGs - will skyrocket. Hard to play a game when you don't have the console yet. As Japan market share goes past 1 million Wiis by January, they will sell more games.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
That's an unfair stereotype of Asian men.
Indeed, Blue Dragon did outsell Zelda during Blue Dragon's launch week. According to the numbers at GAF, Blue Dragon placed 4th overall in Japan with 80,348 units sold during the week of 12/04 - 12/10. Zelda did not even make the top 10. However, Zelda launched the week before (11/27 - 12/03). In that week, Zelda placed 4th overall with 139,011 units sold. Furthermore, Zelda launched on 12/02 so that means it sold 139K+ units in just two days, whereas Blue Dragon launched on 12/07, giving it four days to amass its 80K+ sales.
Hardware availability had little to do with Blue Dragon outselling Zelda last week. XBox360 has been out for a year in Japan but had barely sold over 100K units before Blue Dragon came out. The Wii sold 350K units in its first two days. (Last week's hardware numbers have not been reported yet.)
Sales (in Millions)
Typing "population of japan" into Google gives: 127,417,244
Typing "population of united states" into Google gives: 295,734,134
That's a ratio of 2.32
Ratio of game sales, based on your numbers:
* The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time(N64); Sales= 4.08(US) 1.46(Japan) = 2.79
* The Legend Of Zelda (NES); Sales= 3.80(US) 1.02(Japan) = 3.73
* The Legend Of Zelda: Link To The Past (SNES);Sales= 2.46(US) 1.16 Japan) = 2.12
* The Legend Of Zelda: Adventure Of Link (NES);Sales= 2.22(US) 1.61(Japan) = 1.38
* The Legend Of Zelda: Wind Waker (GC); Sales= 2.41(US) 0.86(Japan) = 2.8
* The Legend Of Zelda: Oracle Of Ages / Seasons(GB); Sales= 1.81(US) 1.03(Japan) = 1.76
* The Legend Of Zelda: Links Awakening (GB); Sales= 2.24(US) 0.54(Japan) = 4.15
* The Legend Of Zelda: Majoras Mask; Sales= 1.89(US) 0.74(Japan) = 2.55
* The Legend Of Zelda: Link To The Past (GBA); Sales= 1.61(US) 0.34(Japan) = 4.74
Total US Sales = 22.52 million
Total Japan Sales = 8.76 million
Ratio = 2.57
Totals ignoring the remake:
US = 20.91
Japan = 8.42
Ratio = 2.48
When you factor in the population differences, there isn't much of a difference in sales. Yes, as a whole, the US likes Zelda slightly more than Japan does. But that varies wildly from title to title, with the biggest difference being Japan really didn't care for the GBA remake of the SNES game.