Japan Physical Charts: Week 4, 2023 (Jan 23 - Jan 29)

[matt1996]

Software Sales
1. [NSW] Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life – 40,759 / NEW
2. [NSW] Pokemon Scarlet / Violet – 37,265 / 4,776,300
3. [PS5] Forspoken – 29,055 / NEW
4. [NSW] Fire Emblem Engage – 28,422 / 173,000
5. [NSW] Splatoon 3 – 14,844 / 3,848,543
6. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 13,138 / 5,128,314
7. [NSW] Disgaea 7 – 10,359 / NEW
8. [NSW] Minecraft – 8,399 / 3,025,019
9. [NSW] Nintendo Switch Sports – 8,231 / 986,742
10. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa, Heisei, Reiwa mo Teiban! – 6,041 / 2,836,256


Hardware Sales
PS5 – 53,256
PS5 Digital Edition – 9,652
Switch OLED – 28,787
Switch – 12,564
Switch Lite – 9,757
PS4 – 1,061
Xbox Series S – 830
Xbox Series X – 435
New 2DS LL – 64

Famitsu sales (1/23/23 - 1/29/23)

The latest Japanese hardware sales from Famitsu are as follows: PS5 – 53,256 Switch OLED – 28,787 Switch – 12,564 Switch Lite – 9,757 PS5 Digital Edition – 9,652 PS4 – 1,061 Xbox Series S – 830 Xbox Series X – 435 New 2DS LL – 64 For comparison’s sake, here are the hardware numbers from last...

nintendoeverything.com

 

[ILikeFeet]

Forspoken Bomba

Disgaea hella Bomba

Switch doomed. Nintendo, release Drake or kiss your business goodbye!

 

[TheRealTalker]

Xbox passed PS4 this week

 

[Expy]

Man, when PS5 is actually in stock... Crazy.

 

[Kouriozan]

Oh no Disgaea, what the fuck happened.
7 is clearly better than 6, this is heartbreaking.
I do hope it's marketing issue and not lack of interest, I've read that Sony bought the marketing right for this game in Japan.

 

[Izanagi89]

Look, I know those Forspoken numbers are bad but I wasn't even expecting it to chart at all lol

Also, really great PS5 numbers and I'm starting to lose hope for Xbox in Japan.

 

[Ascenion]

Holy shit PS5 outsold the Switch!

 

[fourfourfun]

Scarlet/Violet doing some serious numbers? That's almost up with MK8DX already, and that is an all timer best seller.

 

[Dust]

Forspoken is one and done for sure, RIP any thought to follow up.
Disgaea played itself, should have focused on better story rather than trillion billion endless grinding systems.

Also...will we see double digits Xbox after the price increase 🤔?

 

[Ridley327]

Oh no Disgaea, what the fuck happened.
7 is clearly better than 6, this is heartbreaking terrible.

Click to shrink...

Disgaea has been hella weak in Japan for a while now, so coming off a divisive entry wasn't going to help it out much.

PS5 hardware sales are as great as PS5 software sales are terrible.

 

[Dr. Mario]

Oh shit 👀

 

[Jake2byFour]

Disgaea 6 being kinda bad hampered people expectations of 7, plus poor marketing.

 

[Deleted member 93062]

Sony going wild with these units worldwide.

 

[NotLiquid]

While I don't follow the series as close as I once did, seeing that Disgaea 7 number made me wince.

Forspoken already looking like a quaint memory in Japan.

 

[mrmickfran]

I don't know what's the bigger OOF, Forspoken or Disgaea

 

[Ascenion]

Forspoken is one and done for sure, RIP any thought to follow up.
Disgaea played itself, should have focused on better story rather than trillion billion endless grinding systems.

Also...will we see double digits Xbox after the price increase 🤔?

Click to shrink...

Luminous Studio is one and done. I just hope Square places the devs at other studios but throw luminous engine away. Still PS5 software charting is impressive on its own imo.

 

[Mung]

Ps5 oldsold switch?!
And xbox oldsold ps4?!

In any case, ps5 stock has been consistently strong for several weeks now.

 

[That1GoodHunter]

Yeah Forspoken aint ever seeing the light of day again

 

[ILikeFeet]

Diagaea 8 should go in a different visual direction, methinks. The games are looking too samey despite being the second 3d game

Scarlet/Violet doing some serious numbers? That's almost up with MK8DX already, and that is an all timer best seller.

Click to shrink...

Talent won

 

[Jencks]

PS5 finally ramping up as Switch has reached saturation point

 

[jroc74]

Xbox passed PS4 this week

Click to shrink...

I still cannot wrap my head around the PS4 resurgence, lol.

There is alot going on with the results tho. I had to re read them a few times.

 

[Cali32]

PS5 outselling the Switch!? Holy shit!

 

[Ridley327]

I don't know what's the bigger OOF, Forspoken or Disgaea

Click to shrink...

Japan was never ultimately important for either game, but one game is ultimately a fairly low budget and iterative title in a series that's gradually been more prominent in the west, while the other is a big AAA new IP debut that has shown signs of struggling in every market.

 

[Yuntu]

Luminous Studio is one and done. I just hope Square places the devs at other studios but throw luminous engine away. Still PS5 software charting is impressive on its own imo.

Click to shrink...

The engine isnt the issue though. Dunno why they would throw a working engine away with a AAA amount of devs trained on it inhouse.

 

[mrmickfran]

Japan was never ultimately important for either game, but one game is ultimately a fairly low budget and iterative title in a series that's gradually been more prominent in the west, while the other is a big AAA new IP debut that has shown signs of struggling in every market.

Click to shrink...

That's what I was thinking. Disgaea numbers are abysmal but I doubt NiS will be hurt that much.

Square is definitely gonna feel that loss on Forspoken

 

[ILikeFeet]

The engine isnt the issue though. Dunno why they would throw a working engine away with a AAA amount of devs trained on it inhouse.

Click to shrink...

Because unless they put their other teams on it, it'll be an expensive upkeep for a mediocre selling studio. And I doubt the other teams want to come off tools that are working well for them

 

[Strings]

Oh no Disgaea, what the fuck happened.
7 is clearly better than 6, this is heartbreaking.
I do hope it's marketing issue and not lack of interest, I've read that Sony bought the marketing right for this game in Japan.

Click to shrink...

6 launched pretty broken in Japan (as well as just sucking). Fairly predictable result.

 

[DinkyBox]

The engine isnt the issue though. Dunno why they would throw a working engine away with a AAA amount of devs trained on it inhouse.

Click to shrink...

Maybe not. But the engine is also not showing that great of results from a technical standpoint and is probably harder to use if you want to recruit new talent than Unreal or Unity. Now they have to have a dedicated team to improving the engine over time, while the results are not really impressive.

 

[HitMissYeah]

Looking at these Forpsoken numbers, I hope the game does not end in a cliffhanger.

 

[cw_sasuke]

Switch ERA is over.
Forspoken flopped as expected.
Great PS5 hardware.

 

[Jencks]

How tf did Disgaea 7 bomb so hard

 

[Yuntu]

Because unless they put their other teams on it, it'll be an expensive upkeep for a mediocre selling studio. And I doubt the other teams want to come off tools that are working well for them

Click to shrink...

Oh I get that, but I mean like I dont think they should dissolve Luminous Engine and Productions after 1 dud.

I also think they will, but I think they shouldnt.

 

[NotLiquid]

At this point it doesn't look like "PS5 is selling gangbusters* (software is still eating dirt)" will be a caveat that's going away anytime soon in Japan.

 

[Ridley327]

At this point it doesn't look like "PS5 is selling gangbusters* (software is still eating dirt)" will be a caveat that's going away anytime soon in Japan.

Click to shrink...

China, Taiwan and HK need consoles, too!

 

[Izanagi89]

Looking at these Forpsoken numbers, I hope the game does not end in a cliffhanger.

Click to shrink...

It doesn't. They left room for the story to expand but it can essentially be a one and done story

 

[BassForever]

Flopspoken

Unless the game did giga chad numbers in the US, it's basically a flop on all major markets.

 

[MeltedDreams]

1k PS4s? I haven't seen new PS4 in over 2 years. Thought these are discontinued.

 

[lapsu]

I wonder how many people in Japan bought a PS5 just for Genshin Impact. That game is gigantic in the country.

 

[JMS]

PS5 going turbo damn god damn

 

[RPGamer2]

Forspoken is a bad game and that generally results in bad sales. Just a misstep from Square Enix (for the game) and Sony (and for the deal). Sony seems to have moved past it, looking forward to bigger titles in 2023.

Square Enix will have a tougher time as the remaining games to be released this FY, Theatrythm Final Bar Line and Octopath Traveler II don't seem to be gaining large traction either.

Disgaea 7 is just bad. The one year turnaround after a bad 6 didn't help, the game had a demo on all platforms which seem not to help either.

 

[Dust]

Disgaea needs a hard reboot. They need to replay Disgaea 1 thousand times and recapture that, I also mean the accessibility.

Average newcomer JRPG fan seeing Disgaea's systems upon systems is just going to walk past, it's offputting.

 

[Grips]

PS4 era over?

 

[Ekid]

NIS won't be around for much longer with how things are going. They will be out of title to re-release on modern platforms fairly soon as well.

 

[808s & Villainy]

Switch DOOMED?

 

[BassForever]

NIS won't be around for much longer with how things are going. They will be out of title to re-release on modern platforms fairly soon as well.

Click to shrink...

I wonder if they're being propped up by NISA's localizations/ports of other companies games for western audiences.

 

[Ridley327]

I wonder if they're being propped up by NISA's localizations/ports of other companies games for western audiences.

Click to shrink...

I think it's been long suggested that NISA has been the bigger part of the overall company for some years now.

 

[Kuro]

I do think if Forspoken doesn't pick up sales in the US either then Luminous is going to end up a support studio for Square and the engine is going to get dropped.

That Disgaea number is really disappointing, feels like the series is dying after 6.

 

[808s & Villainy]

Disgaea needs a hard reboot. They need to replay Disgaea 1 thousand times and recapture that, I also mean the accessibility.

Average newcomer JRPG fan seeing Disgaea's systems upon systems is just going to walk past, it's offputting.

Click to shrink...

I'm surprised it hasn't been rebooted at this point. You see a franchise slowly selling fewer copies with iterations and instead of reassessing they just keep making it increasingly more complicated and targeted at existing players. Makes no sense

 

[PRrambo_]

Look, I know those Forspoken numbers are bad but I wasn't even expecting it to chart at all lol

Also, really great PS5 numbers and I'm starting to lose hope for Xbox in Japan.

Click to shrink...

I swear I am not console warring here, but was there ever any reason for hope for Xbox in Japan?

 

[BassForever]

I swear I am not console warring here, but was there ever any reason for hope for Xbox in Japan?

Click to shrink...

Not really, some people thought the fact it and PS5 were "neck and neck" for awhile was due to disinterest in PS5 and interest in Xbox Series due to gamepass, and not due to PS5 being a combo of supply constrained and scalper constrained.