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.

Wait

[nbehary]

Can't get to the article from work, but....Game was released last month. The Wii was released 12 days ago in Japan. Are they just comparing those 12 days, or the whole time the former has been out?

The trend is shaping up

[Shados]

Its looking more and more like no console will dominate this generation. All of the consoles made mistakes, all of the consoles have good points and bad points, and none totally overwhelm the others, with good games of all categories hitting all 3.

It seems like the ages where a single console could be sufficient if you picked well(unless you just HAD to have that ONE game...) are over.

Re:Stoked!

[Chainsaw Karate]

Akira Toriyama, Nobuo Uematsu, and Hironobu Sakaguchi are all involved in Blue Dragon's development. The last time they all collaborated AFAIK was Chrono Trigger. I'm not sure how similar the actual games are, though.

Re:I call FUD

[p0tat03]

If MS can hit the mark with games which sell well in both Japan and the West, the money won't be wasted.

Except 80K units in the first week is pretty low for a game with both Toriyama and Uematsu's names attached ot it (art and music, respectively). This is like a Spielberg movie grossing $10M on the opening weekend - sure, not bad for your average *movie*, but it's still completely below par given the talent associated.

I really do hope MS can make the 360 work in Japan, at least as a 2nd-place contender, but it's really not looking good. God knows how much Toriyama cost to bring over, and 80K units, or perhaps 200K lifetime units, will simply not cut it.