Big in Japan March 28 - April 3: PSP reclaims lead from 3DS

I wish America had the intellectual skills of the Japanese people. They understand what's best while Americans decide what has more party games.

@GAMERALL You miss understood my comment. I was saying software ALONE would not make the difference. Sales jumped when those games released but then dropped again. What I was talking about is ONE of MANY reasons I believe 360 is having problems staying on top. I think any rational person can see that something like this involves many factors not JUST ONE which is what I was trying to point out.

I just think its kinda funny how the ps2 out sold the 360 I mean the ps2 has been out for like what 12 years now or something and its still selling kinda strong. Now that has got to be the most resilient system ever made. IT JUST WONT DIE. gotta love sony

This can be attributed to the poor launch line-up for the 3DS. It's a shame, really. This platform has Wii-type potential in terms of sales, but Nintendo isn't utilizing their usual software advantages to the fullest. Seems like they're getting a little cocky with how the masses take to their products.

@method115 When Ace Combat 6 was released exclusively for the 360 back in 2007, the 360's sales jumped from 3,718 units to 17,673 in one week, outselling the PS3 by nearly 200 units. In 2008, Tales of Vesperia caused the 360 to sell 25,000 units in one week, while the PS3 sold only 9,673 units in the same week. And, by the way, I'm a PS3 fan from top to bottom, but dismissing the japanese gamers as just "supporting their people" isn't gonna make the 360 do any better in japan.

@GAMERALL I'm not sure software alone would be enough for the 360 to succeed in japan. Their culture seems to be centered around supporting "their people" so to speak. It reminds me of an MMA fighter who wanted to fight in the UFC but was convinced to stay in Japan so he would humiliate "his people".

@chimpmeister: "...there was an article on GS about the cost of the 3DS being only $15 more than a DSi, and yet Nintendo sells the 3DS for $100 more than the DSi . . . what a giant ripoff!" There's a lot more to the price of a device than the unit manufacturing cost. There's R&D, marketing, industrial design, tooling, and a dozen other things to pay for, not to mention the fact that the DSi is still essentially six-year-old technology, which is why the market price is low. Anyway, I'm not suprised to see the PSP come back in front for now - the 3DS launch games were underwhelming. Reminds me of the N64 Japanese launch lineup...

@Ovirew It seems you've missed what I mean by "targeted games", which are games made with the anticipation of good sales based on a certain factor (in our case, regional). The story, the storytelling, the setting, the gameplay, the dialog and the voice acting of these games are made with certain audience in mind. The Mortal Kombat games weren't made like "these games are mainly for japanese gamers and hopefully will sell well in other regions". No, they were always more popular in the western regions. Jade Empire, for starters, wasn't even released in japan. There's no version of the game with japanese voice acting or subtitles. More importantly, Jade Empire is based on ancient china, not japan. The Resident Evil games make a good example of targeted games. They're purely japan-made, but they "westernized" through and through to make them appeal to western gamers. Ironically, these games sell poorly in japan compared to NA and Europe. For the 360 to sell well in japan, it needs a healthy library of games "targeted" to japanese gamers.

psps suck

good now translate DQMJ2 with all that money you got.

@Poncho_Hachacha, well it is better than other psp models in terms of size and they added a big feature which is pausing the game, the game continues even after you shut it off ( best for rpg games)

The PSP is still a monster after all these years. Gotta love it.

is not that i am saying that western and the does not make good games they do and by the way the japanese is the best in nitendo not in ps3 the only thing i respect sony is the ps2 where i see it as the best console ever created by man and even better than ps3, for sure and by the way usa has good games look at activison and blizzard and many others so as Microsoft studios they have good rpgs for sure. aside from sony they make good single player games while the wii make the best games for family i like wii more than all three systems but i stand with my decision that the ps2 is the best console ever

Gamers have different taste, that is all there is to it. Why bother? Enjoy your fave games just like other people enjoy their games.

Hack n' Slash japan First Person Shooter united states

@GAMERALL And once again, I still remain in disagreement. Lots of games have been made by Western developers with Asian settings and themes. Jade Empire and Mortal Kombat are the first two to come to mind, but I'm positive there are more than that. For years Americans were inspired by Asian influences, such as karate and Bruce Lee, so a lot of games back in the day were inspired by Japan in some way. Video games were something that Japan really became associated with, so in a way our current games are all inspired by Japan. People can argue that WRPGs and JRPGs are super-different all they want - and in general they are, but they both feature similar gameplay elements and in fact many JPRGs have similar settings and gameplay to games like Fable and The Elder Scrolls. And if the Japanese are unwilling to even try shooting games, then that shows their own stubbornness to deprive themselves of a whole other gaming genre.

How does the gamer win in this?

I love seeing the PS2 is still selling

oh & on another note, if the PS2 is Still selling... & still outselling others in Japan at least... then imagine how long the PS3 is capable of lasting ;)

@Ovirew: I'll have to disagree with you. Most west-released, Japan-made games are targeted to western gamers, because the North American and the European markets are the biggest in the world. Popular-in-the-west franchises like Resident Evil, MGS, etc have always featured western characters and settings. On the other hand, I can't think of a single western-made game targeted to japanese gamers. JRPGs "happened" to appeal to western gamers in the late 80s and early 90s, while japanese gamers aren't fond of any game where you shoot things up. The 360's sales spike in japan whenever a JRPG lands exclusively on the console (Lost Odyssey, The Last Remnant, etc), but these games are few and far between. The PS2 remains alive in japan because there're TONS of japan-only released games for the system over the last 10 years. Which makes it a good option for gamers on a tight budget or gamers hunting for certain games.

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/711576/taking-the-3d-out-of-nintendos-3ds/#readmore Read this, about the 3DS-very strong point... although, i Love Nintendo & Playstation!

@fgjnfgh I get that, but there's a difference in liking something and saying that thing is better than everything else. That's all I'm saying.

@liverpoolno8 You sound like a crazed conspiracy theorist.

yeah you are right ovirew, the japanese are jealous of america you want proof i will give you proof long ago the Japanese of ff7 came to usa about the same day upon the japnese release but later on xbox came the rivlary became deadly ff 13 took almost 5 months well to tell you the truth i think Nintendo is better than sony and more popular too because sony started everything those rivalry came from sony. because when the wii was released at landed in usa than japanese while the sony3 took a couple of month to come in usa i hate sony but i admit they make good games. look at xbox, they gave sony everything the hardrive memory card came from the idea of xbox but sony the copycat of everything while the Nintendo does something new at all times. xbox gave sony mass effect, child of eden, and most of the games while the mgs rising came on xbox then ps3 i saw it and i know it. most of the games xbox gave to ps3 as if xbox now was the first to do online games, where sony as using an emulator for free online play, sony just gave me a break, admit it Nintendo is better than you in everything they were first developer of the game to reach 10 and a 3d dimension game was their idea, Nintendo i respect them, i love them, because they are good at everything so as xbox.

I guess even with a tsunami Japan still wants their video games.

@RyanSaotome Yeah, but the difference is we Westerners buy Japanese games. The Japanese don't buy Western games.

Looks like the gimmick of the 3DS and the poor launch titles are starting to take their toll. Its funny, there was an article on GS about the cost of the 3DS being only $15 more than a DSi, and yet Nintendo sells the 3DS for $100 more than the DSi . . . what a giant ripoff! I played Pilot Wings at a kiosk, and it was terrible . . . hard to see anything and the 3D effect was lame, and tiring on the eyes. I think the days of Nintendo being able to sell tons of stuff with gimmicks (see: DS, Wii, and now 3DS) are finally coming to an end. Amen to that brotha! :-)

oh how i hate Japanese they don't buy x box 360 products while America buy everything, why are they like this the Japanese, well you guys don't say the ps3 is better because i reckon that the online in xbox is better which i have experienced the gaming of the three consoles every day and to the 3ds it is okay the psp beat it this week because it is new hand-held console which they did not have good games yet aside from few well we should wait for a couple of months where it will turn out good in a couple of months, and for the psp they have good games because i own both system the 3ds and psp.

@Poncho_Hachacha, so you're saying the PSP Go has an advantage over the other models which its size, that's what I like about the PSP Go

They don't seem to be baiting console wars at all, really. It's just a statement of fact that PSP outsold the 3DS this particular week. What does it matter? I'm glad to see them both doing well.

They just won't buy American/other countries anything yet need us to buy Japanese products. Its not just the games its textiles,beef and more. So its export away but screw the other guys.

The ps2 is still up there after like 10 yrs! Goes to show the japanese know what they really want. They aren't taken in by fancy advertisements about the 'latest'. Also explains why old games r being re-released in high def. They had a better SP experience!

The PS2 is still hangin in there!

@Ovirew Same thing can be said about the West being too biased against JRPGs, VNs and the like. Different cultures, different tastes. @fgjnfgh Japan, more than anywhere else, is a country that values physical collections for their hobbies. Its why otakus pay 80 bucks for blu ray discs of anime with 2 episodes. They will never accept digital distribution because of this, and that is why PSP Go is a failure.

Wow, its all about the handheld in Japan. One PS3 title and the rest is PSP pretty much. With regards to the 3DS, it just goes to show that software trumps hardware everytime

The title of this article is just system wars-bait. I was wondering why people keep turning it into one but it just seems Gamespot want it that way with the titles it chooses. Also, the caption under the picture for Dragon Quest. What happened with it's sales? Oh, I don't know... maybe an earthquake or two with a side of tsunami. The country is not exactly in the best state to consume luxury goods right now...

Funny to see 360 fans so butthurt. In Japan they honestly don't give a crap about 360. The fact that PS2 is selling more is no surprise to me. They have sooo many PS2 games here that were never released in NA. I bought one of those Nintendo 3DSs as well :D awesome stuff, waiting for more games to be released though.

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Let's see how the ngp fairs...

The whole thing about the PS2 ouselling the 360 is complicated. Japans market is much different. Selling an Xbox 360 in Japan is like selling the DVD box set of South Park in Japan (I have to use TV references that the majority of Gamespot users can relate to). South Park does not cater to Japans cultures whatsoever, considering they diss them every third episode. The PS2 is like a Dragon Ball Z DVD box set. Its old, but its familiar and directly originates from their culture. The Xbox 360 and South Park sell great in North America, but the PS2 and Dragon Ball Z aren't so popular, and the PSP and PS3 are the least popular in North America out of all the systems for the same reason. So theres no "truth" in looking at Japans sales figures. It doesn't tell us anything about the real sales of the consoles, it tell us that Japan likes slaying monsters and samurai in Final Fantasy, Dynasty Warriors and Monster Hunter but isn't so keen on shooting aliens and giant insect-looking space ships in Halo and Gears of War or playing RPGs like Fable and The Elder Scrolls where the girl voice actresses don't sound like Sugar from old YTV and the characters aren't all emotional with wicked hair styles and lots of cheesy, lactated scenes and lines.

When you mix a quiet 3DS launch with not lots of interesting launch titles and a big PSP price drop with the Monster Hunter Portable 3rd release which sold over 2 million in the first 5 days, and a slurry of major Square-Enix releases, you get the PSP outselling the 3DS. The NGP was announced a few months back and the PSP just starts to sell as much as Sony wanted it to. The NGP is definitelly gonna get this kind of success earlier on but by the time its released, the 3DS will have a solid library of games and it will have been well advertised by then - something Nintendo didn't do this time around - which probably means it will outsell the NGP.

this isnt really all that relevant... i mean the 3ds still only has a few games and is selling pretty well. The psp sales or only spiking because of a price drop and the release of 2 high profile square enix games. The psp has a clear advantage of having a larger library and considerable lower price. Not to mention that by now practically every man woman and child owns some form of ds product lol. eventually the market gets saturated...

@mariokart64fan lol i know i'm just having fun and shocked for the numbers :)

@AvatarMan96 lol i know i'm just shocked for the numbers! and i still like the PSP way more than DS family (including 3DS) I bought the 3DS day one but i didn't like it that much! actually i don't like the 3d tech. so much but the device is really adorable i hope Nintendo release a solid title for it this year :) I bought Ridge racer 3d and street fighter 3d they r good but not wow i'm enjoying Parasiet Eve for the PSP. so guess i'm a PSP fun :)

@ cameio ,, ive said this to many times pay attention psp was already ahead of 3ds why because 3ds is a new platform ,, , ask your self this is psp past its competitor yet? the ds which by the way 42 975 9706 9556 629 =62886 all 3ds and ds systems put together psp 57379 629= 58 008 so overall nintendo still ended up selling more handhelds then sony lol

@cameio It's only been a month :roll:

OH MY GOD PSP KILLED 3DS already LOOOL

I think the PSP Go is just an "experiment". It's an attempt to measure how far they can push costumers with a cool-looking, highly priced, digital-only handheld system. I think the reaction to the device affected some key decisions about the NGP. Sony appears not to want to make mistakes nor take chances with it's new handheld.

PSP still going strong in Japan.I have 2 myself

@Franzkill "Oh so now people are realising the PSP has a legion of quality games! But seriously don't let sales dictate the quality of anything you buy because thats just absurd." I agree with you. That's the reason I also have a PSP.