Big in Japan May 11-17: Bleach PSP heats up sales charts

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted May 22, 2009 6:07 pm GMT

Anime-based fighter manages to sell 41,000 despite widespread game sales slowdown; Growlanser PSP, Winning Eleven Wii also make debuts.

After seeing recent games like Monster Hunter G on the Wii and Pokemon Fushigi no Dungeon easily sell in the six-figure range for their debut weeks, the Japanese game market hit a mid-May rough patch. For the week of May 11-17, the best-selling game on Media Create's Japanese sales charts was the PSP anime fighter Bleach: Heat the Soul 6, which garnered a respectable 41,600 copies.

However, after Bleach, the drop-off in sales was fairly precipitous. Another new PSP release, a 10th anniversary remake of the PlayStation role-playing game Growlanser, came in second with sales of 23,000. Other new releases did not fare so well, with Konami's Winning Eleven Playmaker 2009 for the Wii (Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 in some markets) netting sales of 14,200, and Tecmo's video gambling title Rakushou Pachisuro Sengen 6 Rio 2 Cruising Vanadise (PS2) rounding out the top 10 with 9,100 sold.

In terms of older games, Nintendo's evergreen strategy is apparently paying off in Japan as well as the US. Wii Fit (released in late 2007 in Japan) managed to sell 10,700 copies, while February's Mario & Luigi RPG 3 racked up sales of 10,000. The DS maker also found continued success with the aforementioned Pokemon Fushigi no Dungeon (15,600 sold) and WarioWare Myself (15,200).

Nintendo's success wasn't limited to software. The DSi topped a soft week for hardware sales with 34,200 sold, while the Wii was the best-selling console of the week with consumers picking up 15,100 systems. Sony was a close second in both races, with the PSP moving 28,700 units for the week, and the PlayStation 3 selling through 11,600. It was a particularly rough week for Microsoft, as the Xbox 360's sales of just 3,200 systems fell behind both the DS Lite (4,900) and the PlayStation 2 (4,020).

Week of May 11-17, 2009
Software:
1) Bleach: Heat the Soul 6 (PSP) - 41,600
2) Growlanser (PSP) - 23,000
3) Dragon Ball Kai: Saiyajin Raishuu (DS) - 20,300
4) Pokemon Fushigi no Dungeon (DS) - 15,600
5) WarioWare Myself (DS) - 15,200
6) Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP) - 15,200
7) Winning Eleven Playmaker 2009 (Wii) - 14,200
8) Wii Fit (Wii) - 10,700
9) Mario & Luigi RPG 3 (DS) - 10,000
10) Rakushou Pachisuro Sengen 6 Rio 2 Cruising Vanadise (PS2) - 9,100

Hardware:
DSi 34,200
PSP 28,700
Wii 15,100
PS3 11,600
DS Lite 4,900
PS2 4,020
Xbox 360 3,200

85 Comments

  • marceleleco

    Posted Aug 8, 2009 6:34 pm GMT

    bleach is good but six heat the soul is too much,it will be much better if they make just one game for year than 2 or 3,and they could try another plataform like ps2 or ps3.

  • brendanhunt1

    Posted May 26, 2009 1:04 pm GMT

    why cant europe sales chart appear on gamespot. its more interesting

  • Chaosctf2k

    Posted May 26, 2009 10:04 am GMT

    Man its good to hear anime isn't so run and gun... At least there is proof now. I was almost embarassed to admit Id watch anime growing up for a while.

  • Gen007

    Posted May 26, 2009 9:03 am GMT

    well thats no surprise bleach is one of teh better nime series and of course they eat that stuff up in japan i just feel that its blatent milking though a new heat the soul game comes out like every few months. Its been around for like 2 or 3 years and they already have 6 games.

  • brendanhunt1

    Posted May 26, 2009 7:57 am GMT

    CrimsonFlagg
    no need to laugh its the same conpany making the money

  • IceDefenseGod

    Posted May 26, 2009 4:39 am GMT

    Heat of the Soul 6 is amazing. I played it recently.

  • cloudtigerbb

    Posted May 26, 2009 2:26 am GMT

    I noticed a lot of people are failing to realize that these are sales in JAPAN, despite the big gigantic headline. It's Japan - one country out of MANY. It seems like not such a big deal to me.

    Besides, Japanese titles and Japanese systems are obviously going to do better in their home town. Stuff like Bleach, Pokemon, Dragonball and the sorts are logically going to have a better market over there. This report doesn't really have a say though on how the systems are doing overall though. All this report tells me is that Bleach is doing good on PSP in Japan. Big deal, right? I don't know - maybe it is and I'm missing the point.

    Has anyone been to Best Buy lately? Have you seen the PSP rack? It's really sad... sort of like watching a really pretty feather wither away. I really don't want the PSP to die... is there anything we can do to save it?! Ohh well... it had a good run. Nintendo always seems to come out on top with hand held platforms. I digress. In Japan, Nintendo and Sony are the leaders in video gaming. Microsoft can try all they want to, but they're just not going to appeal to a Japanese audience with titles like Gears of War. The only thing that I wonder about is that the 360 does have a few anime-style video games, so it SHOULD be at least decent over there, right? What I'd like to see is a report on how the systems are going GLOBALLY. Now that'd be a really interesting read. Then again, all it will do is just as this article is doing: releasing fanboy drama.

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: you're not a TURE fan of video games until you've got 'em all. If you have a budget and can only choose one system, then better choose wisely. Because all of the systems out right now have their advantages and disadvantages. I just hate getting on here and seeing, "WAHHH PS3 SUCKS!" and "NOOO XBOX360 SUXORZ I'M 6 YEARS OLD!!!1"

    I want for one day to see people making more intellectual, thought-provoking argument instead of fanboyism. I also am aware that the majority of video gamers are a younger crowd, but there's got to be some point to where people need to grow up a little bit and start thinking more logically and intellectually.

    End rant here: ____. Sorry bout that. Go Japan and Bleach.

  • gameking5000

    Posted May 25, 2009 11:26 pm GMT

    Yes! Wii beat the PS3 in hardware sales

  • Mactiddeus

    Posted May 25, 2009 3:46 pm GMT

    Mwahahahaha Bleach FTW

  • Mini-15

    Posted May 25, 2009 12:07 pm GMT

    i bought my last ps2 9 years ago, still working.

  • AngelCage-2

    Posted May 25, 2009 6:58 am GMT

    Why Microsoft keeps trying so hard to sell 360 on Japan... is a BIG waste of resources and money. They should fortget about japan and just use that resources to make an avalanche of AAA games and CRUSH Sony once and for all everywhere... of course, that ain't happen cause MS is full of idiots and sony is growing strong...

  • backatcha

    Posted May 25, 2009 5:30 am GMT

    PS2 ftw lol

  • CrimsonFlagg

    Posted May 24, 2009 7:10 pm GMT

    The PS2 outsold the PS3 in the US. Did you lol at that?

  • Rikufan

    Posted May 24, 2009 3:31 pm GMT

    Go nintendo but lol the ps2 out sold the XBOX 360

  • Bhinder94

    Posted May 24, 2009 3:07 pm GMT

    Ichigo would be killed by Aizen, so the cover of the new Bleach game is a win/win! Anyway, for all you idiotic retards saying Japanese people, don't like foreign products. Is redundant, considering for one, why would any gamer in Japan continue to buy 360's, when there's hardly any good games coming out for it. You have to pay to go online. And the last, obvious fact. Without a moderate Japanese speaking fanbase, who'd expect 360 to sell more then PS3! Anyway, PS2 FTW! I'd have brought another one, if I didn't get another 60GB PS3, after my other one broke. Need to complete Okami!

  • adman66

    Posted May 24, 2009 2:45 pm GMT

    people who are amazed/saying ps2 outsold the 360 please stop responding to japanese sales with the same comments every week, its get anoying and we already know that the japanese dont like foriegn made products.

    anyway now to respond to the article...

    i'm still sureprised how the japanese market loves thier handhelds. besides mario ff, dq, wii fit games, basically no console games are in the top 10

  • brendanhunt1

    Posted May 24, 2009 2:16 pm GMT

    ps2 outsold xbox360 lol

  • josiah4972

    Posted May 24, 2009 11:44 am GMT

    it doesn't make a difference, Nintendo are already so far ahead they've pretty much won anyway

  • Flipyap28

    Posted May 24, 2009 7:11 am GMT

    people forget that this is japan....

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