via
Kotaku
We know that Nintendo dominated 2007, with a constant, reliable stream
of good news and strong sales. But how did the rest of the competition
stack up? We've decided to look back at a full year of sales data from
Japanese analyst outlet Media Create, whose sales data we regularly
feature in the Simple 2000 Japanese Sales Chart series.
With a license to seemingly print money, Nintendo took 2007 by storm,
establishing console and handheld dominance with its two casual
friendly game devices. Nintendo DS and Wii dominated software and
hardware charts, seeing a steady flow of week to week sales for both
platforms, appearing to only weaken when supply was constrained.
Sony's offerings, the PSP, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2, had a solid
(if not spectacular) year. The PS3 didn't make any waves, but the PSP
did. The PS2, now seven years long in the tooth, still had a bit of
life in it.
The Xbox 360? Well, we don't have nice things to say about its Japanese
performance, so we'll just let the charts do the talking.
When units of each platform are presented side by side, the
stranglehold the Nintendo DS has on the Japanese market becomes
apparent. Its weekly sales outpaced every other console's and
handheld's performance for nearly the entirety of the year. The only
platform to outperform the DS at any point was Sony's PlayStation
Portable, aided by a pair of marquee releases (plus a hardware
redesign) in the first and third quarters of 2007.
The Nintendo DS saw its largest weekly period sales alongside a few
high-profile software releases and in time with holidays, but was less
dependent on individual software releases to pull in big numbers. Media
Create software sales charts were regularly heavy on DS software, and
it wasn't uncommon to see weekly charts feature nothing but DS and Wii
software in the top ten—see Dragon Quest Swords and Final Fantasy XII
Revenant Wings launch weeks and this past week for examples.
In general, however, Nintendo DS sales trends tended not to spike as
severely as other platforms did, with sales of older titles such as New
Super Mario Bros. and Animal Crossing Wild World still doing solid
business for Nintendo, many months after their respective release dates.
When we look at year-to-date sales in handy bar graph form, we get a
much better perspective on the share of the Japanese market that
Nintendo carved out for itself in 2007. This was the year that Nintendo
DS hardware sales surpassed those of the PlayStation 2, with each at
about 21 million consoles sold in the nation, lifetime to date. It's an
impressive feat for the handheld, as it surpassed that figure in almost
exactly 3 years, compared to a 7 year shelf life for Sony's console.
The DS pushed some 7 million-plus units into the hands of Japanese
consumers, a third of its total sales. Not a bad year for the platform
widely considered a gimmick before its launch.
On Sony's side, 2007 saw the PlayStation 3 outsell the PlayStation 2 in
its first full year on the market, with the PSP achieving just shy of
one-half of the DS's sales, a similarly impressive feat for a
non-Nintendo portable device.
The Xbox 360, despite seeing a handful of video game releases that sold
admirably over the year, continued to be a non-factor in the console
war overseas. Its annual sales were about a quarter-million, something
the Nintendo DS accomplished on a weekly basis multiple times in 2007.
Sure, it's a bit apples to oranges, considering the price differences
in hardware and software, but its illustrative of consumer tastes in
Japan. Microsoft's efforts to appeal to Eastern gaming tastes with a
pair of Mistwalker games, hardware bundles and a few exclusives from
Namco Bandai were met with flat sales in the nation.
More charts, trends and figures here
(Source Kotaku & PSP News)