As a huge soccer fan, I can honestly say that the J-League is actually a pretty decent league. Alot of Brasilians play in that League. In fact one of the Japanese Mens National Soccer Team player is a Forward from Brasil.

Elemence

Pathetic sales on top ten.....Serious man better luck next time finding GOOD sarcastic comments....

1)Winning Eleven(established IP) 79k
8)Sigma Harmonix(new IP) 23k

Difference 56k.....If i was Square/Enix i would say a pretty good start for the game. Lets see where it will be in about week 4 and then lets talk again about pathetic sales.

AkiraGr

@Ad-hominem: You don't honestly expect the 360 owners in Japan to buy the same game twice, do you? If there is really is no shipment of consoles until next month (2 days), how can there be very many new owners since last week?

CHunterX

I used to care what Japanese reviewers/gamers thought, but that was a LONG time ago. They've gone off the deep end as far as taste in games goes.

bee01

@akilshohen: Yeah. I know that. But when the 360 sold out in Japan, there were people crawling over themselves to say that Tales of Vesperia was going to turn the 360 around in Japan, and sales would stay strong for it. When I pointed out the other Tales games only sold about 1,000,000 each on the Ps2(Which everybody in Japan already at the time they came out) in Japan over their lifetime, people chose to tell me I was wrong, and that Tales was going to keep selling well, along with the 360.
So, I was just pointing out that "I called it".

Ad-hominem

Oh wow, I just saw Wario Land: Shake it. That will only further show Nintendo that the usual video game nerd consumer isn't as lucrative as shovel ware.

Or it could come to North America and sell like hot cakes, and we could finally get a Super Mario World 2 for the DS.

Yeah, I'm delusional. I know.

Thorax

I was going to say I think they need more 360's to sell more copies, since every 360 owner already bought a copy. Don't forget that a few people in Japan own like 10 360's for some odd reason.

Talryyn

@ZinkO: USA WE DA BEST: You'd be surprised how short it is when you write it out in kanji. And the English name is even longer as rekenner pointed out.

Turambar

@Ad-hominem: it's hanging in there well for a 360 title though. isnt the userbase only 500,000?

akilshohen

@jonathan.: Fire Emblem: New Dark Dragon and the Blade of Light. It's shorter in Japanese.

rekenner

@TOWER_JUNKIE: Disgaea covers had more people I think, unless you are referring to REAL people.
@gokieks: Monster Hunter isn't a "press O to win" game. Sigma Harmonics probably isn't, but thats what the majority of jRPGs were back in the day, they are probably just getting sick of trying new jRPG IPs, sticking to the known "greats," just like us Americans are sick of trying new shooters. At least Monster Hunter shakes it up a bit.

CHunterX

It's spelt "F-O-O-T-B-A-L-L"

devilhunterx

Football...Japanese Gamers Love FOOTBALL.

Mr. Tambourine Man

And now, time for another edition of "I called it".
21. Tales of Vesperia.
Forgotten almost immediately.
And I have a feeling 360 shortages aren't to blame.

Ad-hominem

maybe now they will realise that dumping all the development resources into the ds is a waste of time. Specially when you are competing against nintento and pokemon

gogee

So now games that make the top ten are now considered hated? Damn.

@gokieks: Grinding.

Agnates

I love that Square Enix is losing ground in Japan. Japanese gamers hate traitors like SE. go go go!

animexplorer

Sigma Harmonics better come out in US. And yes, the (lack of) success for both it and The World Ends With You in Japan is disappointing.

Seriously, what does Monster Hunter Portable offer exactly that's so amazing that it would cause Japan to forsake good new RPGs from a company as famous as Square?

gokieks

Wow an NES game in the top 10.

Firemane

@ZinkO: USA WE DA BEST: lmao.

Funniest part, to me, is that it probably means like "Fire Emblem: Fire's hot" in english. Something really short.

jonathan.

21/30 on nintendo systems =/

shinko

Bro games! Still alive in Japan... take that JRPGs.

(this comment was a joke)

BallPtPenTheif

Why should they indeed.

I mean, The World Ends With You is one of my favorite jrpg's this generation, and Japan pretty much said "no thanks."

Thorax

Concerning the Winning Eleven box, I have never seen so many people on a video game cover.

TOWER_JUNKIE

Mario Kart Wii is a game for the "Nintendo"? Okay, Kotaku, you're getting worse than my mom.

jonaswan2

"Fire Emblem: Shin Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Ken"
Isn't there a limit on the length of these things?

ZinkO: USA WE DA BEST

@rekenner: Oh. Well that's interesting.

jonathan.

@AkiraGr: With first-week sales like that, it'll probably be approximately nowhere in week 4. ~25k might be ok sales for the game above it (is that anime-based?) but for a Square Enix RPG?

But since they've already made it and I don't particularly mind whether SE make a profit or not, who cares - is the game any good?

@TOWER_JUNKIE: Yeah, it looks like the 'winning eleven' is made up of about 30 players - that's a recipe for victory in any match I should think.

quen

@ZinkO: USA WE DA BEST:
That's nothing in length to the D3 Publisher game
"THE 自動車教習所DS 〜原動機付自転車・普通自動二輪・大型自動二輪・普通自動車・普通自動車二種・中型自動車・大型自動車・大型自動車二種・大型特殊自動車・けん引〜"

English:
"THE Jidousha Kyoushuujyo DS - Gendoukitsuki Jidousha, Futsuu Jidou Nirin, Oogata Jidou Nirin, Futsuu Jidousha, Futsuu Jidousha Nishu, Chuugata Jidousha, Oogata Jidousha, Oogata Jidousha Nishu, Oogata Tokushu Jidousha, Kenin -"

Messed up, yes?

EatCheeseForLife

What? Level 5 made a game wasn't totally awesome? I recently beat both Dragon Quest 8 and Rogue Galaxy, and while the latter had kinda awkward storytelling and really repetitive rooms, both were great, satisfying RPGs. Dragon Quest 8 is one of my favorites now. And I still need to play Jeanne d'Arc.

FreakyFavabean

I think Inazuma Eleven did tham well, nearly 50,000 on first week. Arrive at position number three and is a new IP...a new IP that is a 'soccer RPG'. Don't see the doom and gloom that this articule put on it O_o I am sure level 5 is happy that it open that well and problaly continues to sell and reach there goal of sales.

Sigma Harmonics open lower...but still a good opening for a new IP. It might have the same effect that 'The world ends with you' had...it didn't sold massive in japan, but it became a hit here with shortage cause of Square not anticipating such a good demand for it here.

daknight

I don't think Inazuma Eleven did so bad. I might make it to 100,000, which is pretty good for a new IP. Hopefully the new IPs will have legs.

Chikebo

I guess game developers are a reflection of their markets - I used to hate on "american developed" games when I was younger, possibly because the designs and aesthetics of most such games used to be hideous and had little to no story , but I hate to admit that this generation I'm gravitating more to western games - Japanese games (especially rpgs) are mostly more of the same, tired concepts, and while I still think their sense of beuty is leagues beyond westerners (dare you to find a hot babe on Oblivion, for example), at least the market here gives chances to more kinds of games, hence giving developers more reason to make something different, which has caused them to be surpassing their japanese counterparts....and this is coming from someone biased to japan.

cesca07

Looking at that entire list, I'm interested in Soul Calibur IV (which I own and play on a daily basis) and perhaps Sigma Harmonics and to be honest I hadn't heard of Sigma Harmonics before now, but the pedigree makes it sound very interesting to me. I did love Chrono Trigger after all.

Aeralindor

@ZinkO: USA WE DA BEST:
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II -- The Rise of the Witch-king...

No limit

Cloud92

@Mr. Tambourine Man and @devilhunterx: Ugh, can we not get into this? Right after I be an asshole and point out that the Japanese call it soccer too?

urutapu

@Agnates: My thoughts exactly.

urutapu

@Thorax: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island for the SNES and GBA.

marmidukestank

@quen: Hum, so you think that games that are in the top 10 end up having disapointing sales overall? What about games that never make it to top 10, do you think all those end up with the developers taking a loss?

Seriously guys, if you needed to reach top 5 to have a succesful game that is worth continuing as an IP, this industry would be far smaller than it currently is...

Agnates

@devilhunterx: Not in America its not.

nitromic

@urutapu: Really? They use English for that?

Agnates

@cesca07: The fact you didn't play western games in the past doesn't mean they are trying more new things nowadays than the Eastern developers.

As for Oblivion, eh, it's a game with mixed reactions but either way I don't think such RPGs are meant to have hotties for you to gloat at, there's a fair share of big chested hoes in other types of games.

Agnates

the word football was invented by us english for the sport we created, the one that involves kicking a ball around with your foot, the most popular sport in the world might i add. yanks need to come up with their own word for their rugby rip off but theyre too lazy so they steal ours.

fakeplasticlung

@Agnates: What can I say? Japan loves English. Half of colloquial Japanese is English and the other half is actual Japanese.

urutapu

Gah! I want MORE SOCCER RPGs! In every platform imaginable! Will they release Inazuma Eleven outside Japan?

m0re

@jonaswan2: god your right!! Mario Kart Wii FOR THE WII!!
Rhythm Tengoku Gold woo!

excel_excel

@marmidukestank: To me that game was a different beast. That's not a bad thing mind you.

I want an actual sequel.

Thorax

@Mr. Tambourine Man: Clever.

@devilhunterx: Clever.

@AkiraGr: I don't think we'll see it in the top 50 in four weeks, but I'll probably be too busy writing down satisfactory sarcastic comments to notice.

Michael McWhertor

@Witzbold:
I beg to differ, Sigma Harmonics is far better and more different than most of the FF crap Square are pumping out.

Chalice

@ZinkO: USA WE DA BEST:
It simply means, Fire Emblem: New Dragon of Darkness and Sword of Light.

Chalice

Well Sigma Harmonics doesnt really look all that great of a game.

The trailers dont exactly show too much about it too.

So its kinda no wonder why it didnt sell.

Witzbold

I love Sigma Harmonics !!

Puchi

Dammit, we're never going to get a TWEWY sequel at this rate, are we?

MOAR KINGDOM HEARTS AND FINAL FANTASY FOR AAAALLLLL.

Excuse me while I go barf D:

Akisazame

Sigma Harmonics has some of the most awkward character designs I have ever seen, it doesn't have a real style that people can understand. It's just a strange posh-medieval english look, with girls that have ear hats and pointy sword-skirts.

I see why it wouldn't attract people, character design is one of the deciding factors for jrpg purchases.

Superstar90

@Superstar90: Agreed. Sigma's outfit is...God no idea how to describe it; Neon's outfit is almost forgivable until you realize from official art that it's apparently the damn school uniform. The only things it has going for it to me are (1) it's Square (I trust them...sue me), (2) big-name voice acting (well, this doesn't really apply for us English-speakers, I guess), and (3) a soundtrack by Hamauzu.

urutapu

When this coming stateside for my gamecube?

Ice-9

This chart cannot possibly be correct. I remember how everyone said that Tales of Vesperia was going to be a million seller and was going o turn things around for the 360. I mean, even though there are "shortages" of the hardware out there, we've got less maybe 1/6 of all current 360 owners in Japan buying the game. And remember that JP gamers love all RPGs and especially the Tales series.

This information cannot possibly ever be correct in any way imaginable.

That is, unless the people who made those claims were wrong... AGAIN.

endekks

I think what I find most fascinating is that PES on the PS2 is STILL the superior game (unless editing has been properly ungimped this year) to it's current generation counterparts. Indeed the only real generational leap this game has made is the rather sublime Wii version.

TearsandScreams

@Agnates: Hell no. I just think - and this is an assumption - that a new Square Enix RPG, even for DS, probably has a higher budget than your average 'expected to pop into the chart at #19 and disappear next week' obscure title.

Like I say it's an assumption - maybe they made this game cheaply as an experiment and didn't promote it too heavily, so these sales could be in line with what they expected. I don't really know.

quen