Japan Charts: Winning Eleven 8 passes the million mark
Konami's World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 exceeded a million sales in Japan this week, three weeks faster than the previous game in the series, despite overall slow sales which saw the market sink by a further 25 per cent.
Konami's World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 exceeded a million sales in Japan this week, three weeks faster than the previous game in the series, despite overall slow sales which saw the market sink by a further 25 per cent.
The game topped the leisure software chart in Japan once again, although it only sold through 27,000 copies during the week; in fact, only the top two titles sold over 20,000 units in a week when a further post-holiday decline saw sales slip to 45 per cent of the annual weekly average.
Suikoden IV, another Konami title, was the other title which managed over 20,000 units, and was at number two this week, down from last week's number one; followed by up Sony's latest Dokodemo Issho title, Toro to Ippai, which sold 19,000 units to put it in at number three.
Dokodemo Issho isn't a series of games that's ever likely to make it outside Japan, since they're based on Sony's Japanese mascot, a cartoon cat called Toro who first appeared in a PocketStation game, of all things. However, each game in the long-running series has been a relative commercial success, and Toro is firmly established as a cultural icon in the Far East.
The only other new title in the chart this week is Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which is being published on PS2 only by Sony in Japan, which sold 14,000 units and entered the chart at number seven.
The remainder of the top ten is dominated by older titles; Nintendo has no fewer than three first-party GBA games in the ranking, with Famicom Mini: Super Mario Bros 2 (No.4), Super Mario Ball (No.5) and Legendary Stafy 3 (No.10) all making it into the chart, while summer hits such as Sammy's Pachinko Slot! Fist of the North Star (No.6) and Konami's Jikkyo Power Pro Baseball 11 (No.9) hold up the front for the PS2.
In hardware terms, the Game Boy Advance retains its place at the top of the market share raking, with a share of around 47 per cent this week compared to the PS2's 44 per cent share, while the GameCube makes up the difference with a little over eight per cent of the market.