Japanese Sales Charts: No Competition for Dragon Quest Heroes II at the Top

I know we are always joking around on this website abut he PS3 being dead, but shouldn't' somebody tell the Japanese that the Vita died 2 years ago and Sony already said they weren't making any more handhelds. Vita outselling the 3DS under such circumstances is just too weird, like they didn't gt the memo.

Are the 3 versions of DQ mostly the same? I'm sure PS3 and PS4 are close enough, wondering if Vita got a spin-off type game. If Vita can play PS4 games, then surely Ntinedo could make a 3DS successor that could play any first party Nintnedo title. Give a handheld TV out and Ntineod doens't really need a home console, nobody will buy it anyway. Vita tech is over 4 years old, surely a modern handheld could be powerful enough for anything Nintnedo needs. I don't blame Sony for getting out though.

XB1... Just give up. Wow the Vita is still hanging in there. Finally it seems like Japan is actually buying PS4 games not the downgraded PS3 versions. Good for them.

@rjejr Nope, same game on Vita. Quite a few Japanese titles seem to be doing this now; recently One Piece: Burning Blood released on PS4 and Vita and they're the same barring obvious visual differences. It's quite impressive, I suppose.

@ShogunRok Well I'm impressed. I'm sure its visually different, but 3DS always gets lame sort-of games compared to Wii U, though they managed w/ Hyrule Warriors Legends and XC on New 3DS. But Wii U isn't a PS4 either. $250 worth of today's tech would be pretty powerful in a Vita 2. Add TV out and your done. Yet nobody does it.

Oh, and thanks for getting back to me, things seem pretty hectic over there the past few days, and this is the calm before the storm.

xbox one 59 lol what a flop

@rjejr 3DS sales have been dropping sharply after the New 3DS models' launch. Japan would probably be buying more 3DS if the revision had been something other than the New 3DS.

This also shows that Nintendo can make bad mistakes on the handheld side too. They basically cut off 10 million from their DS sales with the 3DS just in Japan.

@Mahe I know why 3DS sales are faltering, but that really isn't my question, it's more about why the Japanese are still buying a Sony handheld after Sony told them they weren't making any more AAA games for it:

http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2015/06/16/sony-no-longer-making-aaa-ps-vita-games/#/slide/1

and they weren't making a new handheld:

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/215103-sony-to-skip-playstation-vita-2-blames-mobile-gaming-for-handhelds-decline

Sane people would tell Sony to bugger off after all that negative news from Vita's creator. It's like Sony is daring them to buy a dead console, and the people are taking them up on the dare.

@rjejr

Well, the Vita is hanging on in Japan despite Sony. There's an audience for handhelds, and it's the only other handheld in existence aside from the 3DS (not counting quirky mobile devices or Nvidea Shield which Japan probably doesn't even know exists).

The 3DS has just reached saturation. Sales have slowed down because everyone who's in the market for a handheld has purchased one already.

@Mahe

^^^
See above. The New 3DS is about the best revision of handheld since the backlit GBA. First ever Nintendo handheld to add a second analog (even if it isn't a full one) which does come in handy for games like Monster Hunter without breaking out the CPP. I mean, they added NFC, stable 3D (which has honestly got to be the most awesome addition of the lot- it works and works very well), faster processor (which it desperately needed), it even got a few games the old 3DS can't run (Xenoblade, SNES VC). If that's not a worthy upgrade I don't know what is. Sure beats the XL, which all it did was have a larger screen.

It's just reaching saturation. Which is why Vita is booming now- it's got a good margin to grow yet in Japan too.

@JaxonH "The 3DS has just reached saturation. Sales have slowed down because everyone who's in the market for a handheld has purchased one already."

OK, I can live with that. And you knew what I was getting at with the bold type "despite".

@rjejr it true that sony are not supporting development for ps vita. But there plenty off japanese third party developers that are. Alot off games are being released for multi sony platforms i.e ps4, ps3 and ps vita

@JaxonH Bla bla bla. New 3DS is a completely useless upgrade, and its sales have fallen in Japan and in the West sharply after launch because of it. That atrocious "second analog"? The new 3D which most people still turn off? Yeah, just why could the New 3DS be selling poorly all over the world?

Oh, "saturation"! Just why then is the 3DS so far behind DS, in Japan and especially in the West? Why is Nintendo redoubling their marketing efforts for the 2DS in 2016? It's because the New 3DS was yet another blunder by Nintendo. It created confusion and apathy for the "3DS hardware family" market. Many people who are in the market for a handheld are not in the market for a New 3DS.

@Mahe
I hate to tell you this but the DS was a fluke and will never happen again. You can COMBINE 3DS and vita and never reach half those numbers.

And I love how you say people aren't in the market for a new 3DS as if it was a poor design choice yet, it's outselling the old model #funkygamerlogic

@Mahe

If you think the new iteration is poor that's fine- that's your opinion, but you're falsely coorelating cause and effect. The DS was a fluke, as was total consoles sold last gen. That ship has sailed. Total consoles sold this generation, when everything is said and done, it's going to be less than last generation. But handhelds are especially being affected this gen because mobile devices hit the scene hard.

Either way, to pretend New 3DS is somehow a poor choice of release boggles my mind. Unless your logic is that consumers hate better products- meaningflully improved in pretty much every respect... that's just not logical.

What did the new Vita do? Worse screen and uh, built in gig of memory? Right. And all those iterations of DS? Nothing. In fact DSi may have added a crap camera and the DSi Ware but also removed the GBA slot. What did 3DS XL do? Bigger screen, that's it.

You mean to tell me all that is fine, but a handheld that's more powerful, perfect 3D, exclusive games and features for existing games, more buttons, added features, and even ability to change faceplates was a blunder and the reason sales have slowed? Please.

If that were true the old model would be outselling it and wouldn't have skipped a beat. New3DS was the response to slowing sales, not the cause of it.

@JaxonH You're truly clueless. The New 3DS isn't a better product. It's continuing the mistakes Nintendo made with the original 3DS and Wii U.

@Mahe
Whatever you say man