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Famitsu Reveals Top 50 Xbox 360 Games Sold In Japan... And The Sales Numbers Ain't Pretty

December 28, 2007 in News comments 8

The popular Japanese gaming magazine, Famitsu, recently revealed the top 50 XBox 360 games sold in Japan ... and the sales numbers ain't pretty!
It's a shame really, Microsoft's next-gen console just doesn't seem to appeal to the Japanese audience, and if Kotaku is anything to go by, the abysmal 360 sales seem to come down to poor marketing on Microsoft-Japan's behalf.
Even the ever popular Final Fantasy creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi, had pretty dismal sales for his RPG Blue Dragon (despite it ending up at the top of the list).

(go to source for full list)

New numbers have come from Famitsu, who has broken down Japanese sales figures on the top 50 Xbox 360 games since launch. None of the results are good. While Blue Dragon, an RPG by famous Final Fantasy developer Hironobu Sakaguchi was indeed Japan's most successful 360 title, it only sold 202,740 copies. (So it would seem Microsoft had the idea right, just not the scale). Dead or Alive 4 comes in at number 2 with 108,618 and Halo 3 is all the way back at spot 4 with 82,987.

So what's the grand total of all the top 50 Xbox 360 games sold in Japan? 1,818,924. Ouch. Hit the jump for the full list that's accurate up to Dec 9th, 2007.

Xbox 360 top 50 game sales totals in Japan:

1. Blue Dragon - 203,740
02. Dead or Alive 4 - 108,618
03. Ace Combat 6 - 83,045
04. Halo 3 - 82,987
05. Ridge Racer 6 - 73,501
06. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - 72,274
07. Trusty Bell - 70,244
08. Gears of War - 68,270
09. Dead Rising - 68,078
10. Lost Planet - 61,555
Miss Razz via kotaku.com.au »
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  • -3
    Final Blade Dec 28, 07
    I can definitely see how marketing can make these sort of sales. I mean SOny's old Marketing agency didn't do the job and thats why they got kicked. Although it wasn't just in one area.

    MS you need to find a way to market to Japan better, show us the awesomeness of the 360

  • 0
    Cruxis Mana Dec 28, 07
    I'm glad Eternal Sonata managed to make it into the list - Even if it did sell very poorly ^^

    Also, I can't read Japanese but, what ever happened to the O-so hyped Lost Odyssey ?? People were hyping that to hell after the disappointment of Blue Dragon, but it looks as though it feel through just as badly ...

    ... Shame 'cos Lost Odyssey looked half good as well That is if you could get past the load times every 10 seconds ...
    • 0
      ali3n Dec 28, 07
      Wasn't that released sometime during early December? If it was I doubt it would be on the list since the list is only accurate upto 9th December.
      • 0
        Akira_EX Dec 28, 07
        If you've been paying attention to the Media Create articles, they pretty much show the same as these numbers. Sure, different trackers, but the numbers are similar enough. After a decent ~55k first week, Lost Odyssey fell like a rock, going from #7 to #50 to off the chart.
  • 0
    Incidnia Dec 28, 07
    The 360 would be doing so much better if it appealed to Japan more. I don't know what it is that makes it such a failure. =/
    • 0
      Miss Razz Dec 28, 07
      I think it's mostly - as mentioned - poor marketing. Apparently Microsoft-Japan just aren't connecting with the Japanese market. Their 360 commercials and ads aren't "exciting", and overall it's being marketed as a Western product for Westerners. Which, let's face it, if the Wii and PS3 were being marketed as a Japanese product for the Japanese (with all those crazy commercials and zany games that make no sense to us) we wouldn't show much interest in the product either.

      Mind you, this is just what I got from one of Kotaku's previous articles. I'm not 100% sure if that's the full reason for the 360's failure in Japan.
  • 0
    Storm Dec 28, 07
    I hear that one major reason it's not doing well in Japan is it's focus on the genre, shooters. The majority of the Japanese simply are not interested in shooters. They are more drawn to RPG's and Action/Adventure, maybe even some fighting here and there.

    Looking at it that way, it's no wonder why Blue Dragon and DoA are so high up. Heck I think that those rare titles are the biggest reasons they even bought the console for.

    We don't have problems with Nintendo, even though the majority of their games have been marketed for the Japanese, at least to me it seems that way. The Wii commercials are a tad...cheesy. It's just weird watching different people jump around and such and the same two guys just randomly showing up at doorsteps saying 'Wii would like to play.'
  • 1
    Shadow of Death Dec 28, 07
    It is a combination (I think) of: Marketing it wrong (not many RPGs, though MS is doing better this time around), the fact that they originally screwed up on the first X-box (leading to distrust of the brand), the fact that Sony and Nintendo are old fave providers (brand loyalty), among other little things...

    Surprised Trusty Bell wasn't higher on the list, actually >_>

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