How Did Too Human & Afrika Fare In Japan?
Well, Afrika certainly outperformed the Silicon Knights-developed import; the PlayStation 3 safari game nabbed the number two spot, behind another solid week by Rhythm Tengoku Gold. Too Human debuted at #17, higher than the week's other new Xbox 360 entry, Clannad.
In other news, the latest Fire Emblem for the DS rebounded after an off-week, with Square-Enix's Sigma Harmonics showing no signs of recovery. Oh, and some people bought Battlefield: Bad Company.
01. Rhythm Tengoku Gold (DS) - 76,000 / 612,000
02. Afrika (PS3) - 38,000 / NEW
03. J-League Winning Eleven 2008 Club Championship (PS2) - 38,000 / 117,000
04. Fate/Tiger Colosseum Upper (PSP) - 34,000 / NEW
05. Wii Fit (Wii) - 31,000 / 2,578,000
06. Inazuma Eleven (DS) - 29,000 / 71,000
07. Battlefield: Bad Company (PS3) - 26,000 / NEW
08. Dragon Quest V (DS) - 23,000 / 1,148,000
09. Phantasy Star Portable (PSP) - 23,000 / 618,000
10. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 23,000 / 1,734,000
Take-Two Interactive announced alongside its quarterly results that Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto IV has sold over 10 million units as of August 16. The release noted that the publisher's fiscal third quarter was "led by the blockbuster" and continues to exceed the company's expectations.
No relief in sight for the 5000 or so Japanese gamers who might be on the weekly hunt for an Xbox 360. With a limited supply, those looking for a Microsoft brand console on which to play a copy of Tales of Vesperia or a second game will be left wanting until such time as supplies are replenished. That means that only 3500 Japanese gamers could get their hands on a 360 this past week. Just heartbreaking to see demand kind of (maybe) outstripping supply like this.
The Japanese love Winning Eleven brand soccer. Specifically, they love J-League Winning Eleven 2008 this week, as the PlayStation 2 game nabs the top spot on the Media Create software sales charts.
Canada may have a lot of real estate, but most of the people are gathered down in the Southern section of the country for fear of the vicious ice spiders that rampage through the Northern tundra. It's most likely because of this that such a large country is only now surpassing the one million Wii sold milestone, with just under 1,060,000 units sold as of the end of July, according to the NPD. Thus continues Nintendo's domination of the Great White North (and the world as a whole), with the PlayStation 3 selling 520,000 and Xbox 360 sales totaling 870,000 units despite a year head start on the competition. 
The Xbox 360's Japanese 
The gaming industry just keeps. On. Growing. And shows no sign of slacking off! And while many pundits will point to the runaway success of the Wii as a key catalyst for this growth, some sales analysis by UBS' Ben Schachter shows that the driving force behind the industry's success is in fact music games. Particularly, Guitar Hero & Rock Band. According to Schachter's research, music games accounted for 19% of all gaming sales last month, and accounted for a crazy 44% of gaming's dollar growth over July 2007. Yeah, it's only one month, and yeah, they'll account for growth because they're expensive, but still. Don't rain on their parade! That's big money whichever way you look at it.
Meet the new boss. It's the same as the old boss, as the Nintendo DS reclaims its top spot on the Japanese hardware charts, dethroning the long-standing king of handheld sales, Sony's PSP. That's not the biggest news from this week's 
According to NPD figures, the video game industry racked up $US 1.19 billion in hardware, software and accessory sales in July. You could do worse, I suppose. Last year's take from the same month failed to crack the billion mark, but $US 446.9 million worth of hardware purchased by U.S. consumers and $US 591.1 in software, you make it close to a billion pretty easily. That $US 149.1 million in accessories just pushes you right over the edge.