Blue Dragon Outsells Zelda in Japan At Launch

Computer and Videogames is carrying the news that the 360's new JRPG Blue Dragon has outsold Zelda (and all other Wii software) since the game launched last month. This can mean only good things for Microsoft, as by all account the Wii's software lineup didn't do too shabby a job of selling either. From the article: "The latest Media Create Japanese chart puts the Mistwalker RPG at number four in the top selling titles in Japan for December 4 through 10, which has managed to shift a respectable 80,000 copies in the country giving it the number two all-time 360 sales record behind Dead or Alive 4. Blue Dragon has received a considerable level of hype in Japan, largely thanks to the fanbase surrounding Dragon Ball Z artist Akira Toriyama who designed the characters in the game, and a special edition Japanese Blue Dragon 360 bundle which some Japanese retailers reported to have sold out of within minutes of opening pre-order." Update: 12/15 01:10 GMT by Z : As Chris Kohler points out, the game outsold Zelda the week of its launch.

Re:Spot of good news for MS

[Cheapy]

Why would the Japanese buy a 360 out of frustration? They aren't exactly known to love microsoft's consoles, so I highly doubt that people would've bought one for those reasons. It's been said constantly that the guy who worked on the game has a huge following in Japan, so those sales increases might just happen to be because there's a game, on Microsoft's Xbox360, that the Japanese want.

Re:I don't know - I'd like to be optimistic but...

[Gothic_Walrus]

Yes, it's innovative, but since when has innovation paid off in the games industry of late?

The Nintendo DS? Guitar Hero? Katamari Damacy? Geometry Wars?

Say what you will about the definition of innovation (and I know that this will probably lead to arguing about just that), but the DS and the games listed were all significant departures from most of what's being churned out today...and they all sold remarkably well because of it.

Three market reasons why meaningless

[WillAffleckUW]

1. More people have xBox360 systems in Japan today, thus the market for new Japan-friendly games (which have been in short supply until recently) is much much bigger than the only just-released Wii console users (only 400,000 sold on release week in Japan, all they could ship, not a one left).

2. There aren't any RPG games to speak of for the Wii yet - all the cool Japan-friendly game releases for these won't be around until late this year or in first quarter of 2007 - thus, while one could "call" Zelda an RPG, it isn't. You only get to play Link, just to start.

3. As the market share of Wii consoles continues growing rapidly, the number of copies of Zelda - and the eventual Japan-friendly RPGs - will skyrocket. Hard to play a game when you don't have the console yet. As Japan market share goes past 1 million Wiis by January, they will sell more games.

Re:Three market reasons why meaningless

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually that's probably not true. The 360 sold 80k in 2005 and 100k up to November (last time numbers came out). The Wii has already outsold the 360 in Japan, selling over 280k (based on the highest selling game, so probably more than that). Even if each Blue Dragon was a new console then the 360 wouldn't have as many units out in Japan as the Wii.

Still, I'm wondering what's going on with Zelda. Getting outsold by Wii Sports and Wii Play either means the series is out of favour, people are waiting for the Cube version, Nintendo didn't make enough discs (are they stupid?) or perhaps even that more casual gamers represent a much bigger demand and most Zelda fans can't find a Wii to buy. You'd expect the Zelda folk to be the ones camping out though.

Re:The trend is shaping up

[Jerf]

Interesting logic.

The evidence I'd want to see for that are statements from publishers and developers to the effect that they don't want a single console to dominate. And while I can't link them up, I'm pretty sure Square is playing the field for this very reason and that they've said some stuff to that effect, and Ubisoft seems to want diversity enough to put some money behind it.

Good argument.

And the best part is, now no matter what happens, we've got it covered! Ain't prognostication fun?