Japanese Sales Charts: New Vita Titles Fail to Drive Hardware

In the past, it’s been pretty easy to attribute the PlayStation Vita’s commercial woes in Japan to the platform's worrying lack of software. After all, whenever a new title has arrived, the system’s sales have almost always spiked. Worryingly, that wasn’t the case this week.

Despite netting two major new releases in dungeon crawler Demon Gaze and masturbation simulator Monster Monpiece, the platform failed to awaken from its slumber, shifting just 9,748 units in total – an increase of just 712 units over the previous week.

Still, it was bad week all around for the Japanese market. Every console except the Vita declined, with the PS3 and PSP moving just 18,322 units and 12,897 units respectively. DmC: Devil May Cry held strong on the former machine, finishing second in the software charts. Elsewhere, Hitman: Absolution managed a decent debut in fifth.

We’ve embedded the full breakdown of movers and shakers below. Let us know what you make of the Japanese gaming landscape in the comments section.

Hardware

3DS – 75,124 (81,855)
PlayStation 3 – 18,322 (19,697)
Wii U – 13,746 (16,654)
PSP – 12,897 (15,343)
PlayStation Vita – 9,748 (9,036)
Wii – 2,093 (2,199)
Xbox 360 – 611 (706)

Software

1. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf (Nintendo, 11/08/12) – 82,370 (2,366,126)
2. [PS3] DmC Devil May Cry (Capcom, 01/17/13) – 31,627 (142,056)
3. [PSP] Gintama no Sugoroku (Namco Bandai, 01/24/13) – 27,011 (New)
4. [PSV] Demon Gaze (Kadokawa Games, 01/24/13) – 25,316 (New)
5. [3DS] Fantasy Life (Level-5, 12/27/12) – 25,042 (187,772)
6. [PSV] Genkai Totsuki Monster Monpiece (Compile Heart, 01/24/13) – 24,978 (New) (plus 5,000 download sales)
7. [PS3] The God and the Fate Revolution Paradox (Nippon Ichi Software, 01/24/13) – 23,417 (New)
8. [PS3] Hitman: Absolution (Square Enix, 01/24/13) – 22,233 (New)
9. [PSP] Digimon Adventure (Namco Bandai, 01/17/13) – 13,991 (61,798)
10. [3DS] New Super Mario Bros. 2 (Nintendo, 07/28/12) – 12,834 (1,866,476)
11. [3DS] Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Best Price!) (Capcom, 11/15/12) – 12,105 (196,243)
12. [3DS] Inazuma Eleven Go Chrono Stone Neppu / Raimei (Level-5, 12/13/12) – 8,492 (400,331)
13. [3DS] Paper Mario: Sticker Star (Nintendo, 12/06/12) – 8,185 (504,107)
14. [3DS] Taiko Drum Master: Chibi Dragon and the Mysterious Orb (Namco Bandai, 07/12/12) – 7,640 (401,125)
15. [Wii U] New Super Mario Bros. U (Nintendo, 12/08/12) – 6,883 (448,591)
16. [Wii] Taiko Drum Master Wii Super Wonderful Edition (Namco Bandai, 11/29/12) – 6,852 (367,165)
17. [3DS] Run For Money: Flee From the Strongest Hunters in History (Namco Bandai, 07/05/12) – 6,761 (406,143)
18. [PS3] Call of Duty: Black Ops II Dubbed Edition (Square Enix, 12/20/12) – 6,111 (112,964)
19. [PS3] Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2 (Tecmo Koei, 12/20/12) – 5,983 (222,794)
20. [Wii U] Nintendo Land (Nintendo, 12/08/12) – 5,914 (276,831)