Monster Hunter Portable

Japan is so different…2010 sales figures

I don't get it!

Not only is Japan very far away from the United States, their tastes are also quite different.  In Japan, portable systems sell like hotcakes (which apparently sell very very quickly).  Quite possibly the biggest gaming trend to hit Japan in recent years is Capcom’s Monster Hunter series.  Monster Hunter has been released here in the U.S. in a variety of incarnations, but always failed to really click with western audiences.  Oddly enough, the number one selling system in Japan this year was the Sony PSP.  Does anyone in the United States still play their PSP?  I did manage to fire mine up this year to play a bit of Valkyria II, but hastily turned it off and placed it back on the shelf to collect more delicious dust.

ASCII reports that the top selling games in Japan both involved monsters of various sizes: Pokemon Black and White and Monster Hunter Portable 3rd.  Japan loves their monsters, damn it! Pokemon sold a whopping 4,734,064 units while Monster Hunter sold an impressive 3,163,750 units.

Here is a look at Japanese Hardware sales VIA ASCII (Because I sure didn’t compile this info!)

  1. PSP — 2,729,718
  2. DS — 2,719,544
  3. Wii — 1,592,563
  4. PS3 — 1,542,258
  5. Xbox 360 — 231,258
  6. PS2 — 83,030

Japanese software sales, 2010:

  1. Pokemon Black/Pokemon White — DS — 4,734,064
  2. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd — PSP — 3,163,750
  3. New Super Mario Bros. Wii — Wii — 1,692,401
  4. Wii Party — Wii — 1,385,541
  5. Dragon Quest VI — DS — 1,354,841
  6. Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 — DS — 1,305,750
  7. Tomodachi Collection — DS — 1,112,298
  8. Super Mario Galaxy 2 — Wii — 931,534
  9. Inazuma Eleven 3 Spark/Bomber — DS — 930,580
  10. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep — PSP — 844,980

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As you can see Nintendo still rules over Japan, like an obese Shogun.

Questions I’d love to see our readers answer.

  1. Why do you feel Japan loves monsters, oh so much?
  2. Do you think Japanese players are less concerned with Graphics than western players?
  3. Why do Japanese players prefer portable systems?
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This Post Has 7 Comments

  1. matt

    1) tentacle porn
    2) I don’t think so, I just think that gameplay is still king over there, regardless of graphics.
    3) Lots of time in transit, and lots of people, and tiny houses.

  2. Scott

    i’d also add that there seems to be an interest in tedium, in the form of dungeon wandering, and the collection of things, even if the reward for collecting all of the things is your own satisfaction.

  3. Beast_Mode

    I read that the 3DS is messing up kid’s eyes now.
    Maybe all the Japanese kids will be blind.

    1. Ash

      I don’t really get the appeal, but we talked about it during the podcast and it’s all about geography and overpopulation I suppose.

  4. Cereb

    1- because when you were nuked twice you have to deal with all sorts of monsters around you anyways, might as well learn to find it entertaining
    2-to an extent, in that they tend to enjoy the social aspect of games, as well as being extremly suseptable to the skinner box effect
    3-i agree with the lots of transit reason, but also add in the large number of social games taht have been added to portable systems, japan is a country of community

  5. Pilx

    1. They actually hate monsters…so they like to hunt them down and control them.
    2. They love graphics…they just hate realism. They want to see crazy patterns coming out of a pikachu butt not Commander Sheppards battle wounds fade away.
    3. Because they dont have enough room for a 50 inch tv in their bedbathkitchenliving room that they live in.

    1. Ash

      So do you think the new 3D Nintendo handheld is going to be the biggest selling system ever for Nintendo in Japan?

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