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Famitsu: Japan's 21st Century Top 100 Selling Games
- Thread starter Road
- Start date
That's...so very depressing.
Aquamarine
Member
Top 100 Games (2001 - September 2013)
Publisher Marketshare by No. of Titles (original publisher)
Nintendo - 44%
Square Enix - 14%
Capcom - 10%
Pokémon Co. - 9%
Koei - 4%
Konami - 5%
Level 5 - 4%
Sony - 4%
Enix - 2%
Bandai - 1%
Sammy - 1%
Sega - 1%
Square - 1%
Publisher Marketshare by No. of Titles (adjusted for publisher consolidation)
Nintendo - 53%
Square Enix - 17%
Capcom - 10%
Konami - 5%
Level 5 - 4%
Sony - 4%
Tecmo Koei - 4%
Sega Sammy - 2%
Bandai Namco - 1%
Sony needs to have another dominant gen or SEnix is in trouble. Their success seems to linger heavily on Sony's consoles fortune. PS3 had a rough start and so SEnix had a rough gen in Japan.
KoopaTheCasual
Junior Member
Yea, and they're on the very low end of the chart as well. Like I said, I like Nintendo, and I hope them the best, but I seriously hope they step up the hardware and marketing with their next home console. They really need to, if they want to keep releasing them (especially since the Wii U is currently selling at a loss)
=/
Except there's not. There's 9 million of them, not 10, and you employed some VERY generous rounding. Take the actual PS3 number and multiply it by a magnitude of 3.5 and you get the DS number. Even then, that's ignoring the PSP, another successful portable. Handhelds dominated Japan this gen.
Properly using it as a cheap DVD player.
HolyBaikal
Banned
As a commentary on Nintendo. I believe this is a large part of why console gaming and handheld gaming have been dominant for so long in Japan. Rather than PC gaming.
Statistics and numbers like that are a part of many reasons why I see the Nintendo as establishing the console industry. Nintendo revived the console industry in the West. While in Japan it seems like it helped simply establish itself as a market-force and tradition.
PC gaming seemed to do fairly well in Japan until the release of the Famicom. Though shifting from NEC to DOS based computers, and other factors probably didn't help the PC gaming market in comparison to the West.
I also think that Nintendo's family focus allowed it to appeal to Japanese families more than other companies. I think that Nintendo as a Kyoto based company, had some somewhat Kyoto based business philosophies. From what little I understand about Japanese culture, it seems like this translated to how they created and advertised products. It seems like that Nintendo went after censorship in America as a reflection of their "family values" in Japan. When I look back and watch old Nintendo advertisements, a lot of them were placed in traditional Japanese homes with tatami mats, and making themselves look like a simple company providing simple entertainment for families.
There were certainly other commercials, like the Zelda rap commercial and so forth. But if I'm not mistaken Nintendo had all of the right advertising. And went after and was a host of games that would appeal to Japanese families. It was, after all, called the "Famicom", which is a shortened way of saying "family computer".
It seems like the Famicom was also the first system in Japan to really appeal to Japanese families. And SEGA failed to achieve the same kind of software support, advertising, and consumer image as Nintendo. Particularly the SEGA Mega Drive or Genesis, which was mostly known for sports games, and American ones at that, and failed to get all of the most important games. Particularly games that Japanese audiences would be interested in.
It seems like Japanese game players have every bit as much nostalgia as Western game players. Retro is a thing here in America, but I'm not such that retro appeal has ever left Japan. Name brands like Dragon Quest and Mario are still very important in Japan. And out of nostalgia and habit people will still buy Dragon Quest games.
Nintendo has an advantage of having become a new tradition, of sorts. It's something that people can recall from the 80s and continue supporting. No one else from the 80s has that kind of staying power and long lasting tradition.
Also, on the matter of family appeal, a lot of the new games that are popular in Japan are also family-friendly games. Games such as Animal Crossing. There's very little violence or games rated for adults on that list. While violent, M rated games are very popular in the West, particularly in this generation where shooters have become common. That sort of game never seems to have been all that popular in Japan. And violent military games I have heard have always been more popular among otaku than normal Japanese game buyers.
I've been told than the popular violent military games that are popular here in the West, don't appeal much to Japanese people. And are only an otaku hobby. That is what I have been told and read, at least. By people who sound as if they have a lot of education on Japanese culture. While we, here, people often use the word "otaku" to describe hobbies like moe and cute video games they don't like. Cuteness seems to be pretty mainstream in Japan, they even use moe and even borderline loli content, like this to advertise make-up, presumably to women(warning, there's an almost topless loli character in this commercial, possibly NSFW). While otaku make up all sorts of hobbies, you can like cute stuff without being an otaku, and you can also be a military game otaku. And it seems like military games are considered a more otaku hobby in Japan.
Nintendo, currently, seems to represent a balance of aesthetics, themes, and games that are more popular in Japan. Games which are fairly non-violent in Japan. Games which appeal to both boys and girls and people of all ages. Nintendo has always had some games for girls like Balloon Kid and Panel de Pon an so forth. And uses a degree of cuteness which is popular in Japan without going to deep into or focusing on the moe niche. Japan makes lots of games starting cute anthropomorphic characters like Kirby and Pikachu and cute moe girls, but there's also a balance giving Nintendo a well-rounded and family friendly atmosphere.
That's my hypothesis, at least.
Statistics and numbers like that are a part of many reasons why I see the Nintendo as establishing the console industry. Nintendo revived the console industry in the West. While in Japan it seems like it helped simply establish itself as a market-force and tradition.
PC gaming seemed to do fairly well in Japan until the release of the Famicom. Though shifting from NEC to DOS based computers, and other factors probably didn't help the PC gaming market in comparison to the West.
I also think that Nintendo's family focus allowed it to appeal to Japanese families more than other companies. I think that Nintendo as a Kyoto based company, had some somewhat Kyoto based business philosophies. From what little I understand about Japanese culture, it seems like this translated to how they created and advertised products. It seems like that Nintendo went after censorship in America as a reflection of their "family values" in Japan. When I look back and watch old Nintendo advertisements, a lot of them were placed in traditional Japanese homes with tatami mats, and making themselves look like a simple company providing simple entertainment for families.
There were certainly other commercials, like the Zelda rap commercial and so forth. But if I'm not mistaken Nintendo had all of the right advertising. And went after and was a host of games that would appeal to Japanese families. It was, after all, called the "Famicom", which is a shortened way of saying "family computer".
It seems like the Famicom was also the first system in Japan to really appeal to Japanese families. And SEGA failed to achieve the same kind of software support, advertising, and consumer image as Nintendo. Particularly the SEGA Mega Drive or Genesis, which was mostly known for sports games, and American ones at that, and failed to get all of the most important games. Particularly games that Japanese audiences would be interested in.
It seems like Japanese game players have every bit as much nostalgia as Western game players. Retro is a thing here in America, but I'm not such that retro appeal has ever left Japan. Name brands like Dragon Quest and Mario are still very important in Japan. And out of nostalgia and habit people will still buy Dragon Quest games.
Nintendo has an advantage of having become a new tradition, of sorts. It's something that people can recall from the 80s and continue supporting. No one else from the 80s has that kind of staying power and long lasting tradition.
Also, on the matter of family appeal, a lot of the new games that are popular in Japan are also family-friendly games. Games such as Animal Crossing. There's very little violence or games rated for adults on that list. While violent, M rated games are very popular in the West, particularly in this generation where shooters have become common. That sort of game never seems to have been all that popular in Japan. And violent military games I have heard have always been more popular among otaku than normal Japanese game buyers.
I've been told than the popular violent military games that are popular here in the West, don't appeal much to Japanese people. And are only an otaku hobby. That is what I have been told and read, at least. By people who sound as if they have a lot of education on Japanese culture. While we, here, people often use the word "otaku" to describe hobbies like moe and cute video games they don't like. Cuteness seems to be pretty mainstream in Japan, they even use moe and even borderline loli content, like this to advertise make-up, presumably to women(warning, there's an almost topless loli character in this commercial, possibly NSFW). While otaku make up all sorts of hobbies, you can like cute stuff without being an otaku, and you can also be a military game otaku. And it seems like military games are considered a more otaku hobby in Japan.
Nintendo, currently, seems to represent a balance of aesthetics, themes, and games that are more popular in Japan. Games which are fairly non-violent in Japan. Games which appeal to both boys and girls and people of all ages. Nintendo has always had some games for girls like Balloon Kid and Panel de Pon an so forth. And uses a degree of cuteness which is popular in Japan without going to deep into or focusing on the moe niche. Japan makes lots of games starting cute anthropomorphic characters like Kirby and Pikachu and cute moe girls, but there's also a balance giving Nintendo a well-rounded and family friendly atmosphere.
That's my hypothesis, at least.
bleachrude
Banned
Not necessarily. As long as there's a console that can play their latest FF, SQ enix is assured of at least 1.5 million. Not too shabby.
It's Sony that has problems really. It explains why they waited to launch with a Dynasty Warriors game...
Actually, my comment was more toward what three games were in the top three for PS3, rather than their performance (I've known for quite a while about HD gaming struggling to catch on in Japan).
You mean MH?
Sgt.Pepper
Banned
I was a bit confused with Monster Hunter Freedom 3. I'm too used to Monster Hunter Portable 3rd.
1st Course
Member
Interesting how much mergers/acquisitions happened in the last 10 years when you think about it:
*Square merged with Enix.
*Koei merged with Tecmo
*Bandai merged with Namco
*Sammy merged with Sega
*Konami bought Hudson
*Sega-Sammy bought Atlus
Nocturno999
Member
Super Mario 4ever...
... and 3d World is looking amazing.
... and 3d World is looking amazing.
Hopefully not. It's arguably the last "pure gaming" hardware company.
Please. People who keep wondering why SE stuck with FF13 for the sequels only needs this bit of information to see why. I have said countless times: despite polarizing opinions, SE can say with certainty that FF13 and FF13-2 were the highest selling games of this generation in Japan, regardless of what other FF games sold on more prosperous systems.
flatearthpandas
Member
Holy fucking shit at New Leaf
Nintendo even winning in the loser's bracket.
Mauricio_Magus
Banned
Nintendomination
LiveFromKyoto
Member
Iwata needs to resign.
Do you mean highest-selling Square Enix games, or do you not know that the PSP, Wii, or DS exist?
HolyBaikal
Banned
They have terrific taste.
Tales of Vesperia and DoDonPachi are the only reasons I own an XBOX 360.
Let me amend my statement: highest selling games of this Playstation (3) generation.
Funny enough, FF13 sold to about 20% of the PS3 LTD. Even FF13-2, though a step down in total sales, sold about 9.4%.
I gave FFXIII a fair chance, even bothering to finish it before FFXII in spite of having owned that for far longer. Still didn't care for it, and couldn't ignore its many flaws. And even with SE actually making money on those games by console standards, the drop off was far greater than FFX to FFX-2. A decline by over a million units between games doesn't reflect favorably upon perception of the XIII games at all.
That said, I find RE6 being there far worse.
Spieler Eins
Member
Those 10 million didn't just appear in the last year, but the last 7 or so, hence you can't know how many of those are still active home console gamers. And considering that only 1 PS3 game makes the list, this isn't exactly the safest bet you're making.
Well, what was the highest PSP title sold by SE? I believe Type 0 was just under FF13-2 sales at around 830k?
Takara and Tomy merged
Spike and Chunsoft merged
Marvelous and AQ Interactive merged
Square Enix bought Taito
GungHo bought Acquire
And even minor stuff I can't remember (or know).
TheFLYINGManga_Ka
Member
Depressing yes, but I'd rather see JRPGs on the number one spot here in the west than FPS and sports!
I was commenting on how your phrasing made it seem like Final Fantasy XIII was the best selling current gen game in Japan with no other conditions. If you want to limit it to Square Enix games that aren't on certain systems, that's quite a bit more specific.
Wasn't an especially serious comment anyhow; sorry if it seemed aggressive.
Vita hasn't received any big games yet. You can tell that from the fact that the system's highest seller is a port of a title/series that wasn't all that big to begin with.
mrmickfran
Member
Too bad it was the worst one.
What the hell caused 4 to sell so well anyways? And it looks like it sold the most in Japan.
No problem, I apologize if my comment was misleading.
Pokemon is already ahead of it.
LiveFromKyoto
Member
You shouldn't. Japan is all about portables, the PSP had a huge audience, and the Vita has turned it around recently, it's not struggling anymore.
Wow, well done. Nintendo has Japan on lock, even the PS2 didn't seem to break Japan's love for Ninty. This goes to show that Japan loves its handhelds, and that Sony and Microsoft are right to treat Japan as a Tier 3/4 country.
Going down that list was like taking a stroll down memory lane. Dynasty Warriors 4? I've still got that gem, good times. Same goes for stuff like DQ VIII.
Going down that list was like taking a stroll down memory lane. Dynasty Warriors 4? I've still got that gem, good times. Same goes for stuff like DQ VIII.
#88 Donkey Kong Country Returns
RurouniZel
Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
GungHo also bought GameArts.
I say bullshit. XIII sold that much on a system with over 11 million less consumer base. XIII's number are actually impressive considering.
