14 DAY TRIAL // Last week's software and hardware sales in Japan show how important solid games are when it comes to pushing the hardware they're running on, once again demonstrating that it's games that sell consoles.
The figures come from Media Create, revealing the evolution of video games and consoles for the week running from September 8 through September 14, corroborating the information issued by Tsutaya, a major Japanese retailer.
The raw sales data shows that once again the Nintendo 3DS is king of hardware in Japan, and as expected, Super Smash Bros. is number one in software sales. An interesting point is the fact that Destiny is both in second and third place, showing the unexpected popularity of Bungie's creation in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Software Sales
As mentioned, Super Smash Bros. on the 3DS sits comfortably at number one, with 944k units sold in just two days, followed by Destiny on PS4 with 91k copies sold, and Destiny on PS3 with 50k units pushed.
It's interesting to see that Destiny managed to eclipse even Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution, which debuted the same week and scored 40k sales on the PlayStation 3 home console, as well as Yo-Kai Watch 2: Ganso / Honke on the 3DS, with 47k units sold.
The software list continues with Dragon Quest X Online on the 3DS, Toukiden: The Age of Demons Extreme on the PlayStation Vita, and Wii U hit Mario Kart 8, with just 6.8k units sold last week.
The top ten is closed by Yoshi's New Island and Yo-kai Watch, both on the Nintendo 3DS, and the only other new entry is Chain Chronicle V from Sega, on the PlayStation Vita, with 4k units sold.
Hardware sales
As usual, the Nintendo 3DS is leading the charge by far, with 40k units sold over the course of last week, a more than 33 percent increase since last week, largely due to the release of Super Smash Bros. in Japan.
The PlayStation 4 saw a healthy surge in sales, most probably attributed to the release of Destiny, which is exclusive to Sony's platforms in the country, and which contributed to the newest home console seeing a 223 percent increase in sales over last week.
The Wii U and the PlayStation 3 are holding steady at around 6-7k units sold each, on par with their performance last week, and the PSP and Xbox 360 sales are showing a downward tendency, but their sales numbers are negligible anyway.
The most surprising of all hardware platforms, however, is Microsoft's current-gen console, the Xbox One, that saw around 25k units sold last week, when it was officially launched in Japan. Well, this week's sales performance reflects a sad reality for the tech giant, as the Xbox One only managed to push 3k units over the course of last week, showing that the lukewarm reception was an indication of its post-launch week performance.
Microsoft has a pretty bad reputation in Japan, gaining a lot of negative attention after several mishaps with both the Xbox and Xbox 360, and it's going to be difficult for the company to fight from that unfavorable position.