Dragon Quest IX blasts Japanese market

The release of the latest Dragon Quest title in Japan has finally stirred up consumers, with the title crushing the competition in last week's sales numbers and providing a huge boost for the sales of the Nintendo DSi.

In total, Dragon Quest IX: Defenders of the Starry Sky sold over 2.3 million in its first week on sale, according to the latest Media Create data for the week ending July 12.

That was followed by last week's number one, Wii Sports Resort, which sold a creditable 103,000 units to take it well past 600,000 units in total.

Friend Collection stayed third with 57,000 units, while Sony's My Summer Vacation 4 was also a non-mover at number four on 24,000.

Dragon Quest's popularity - in part predicted by very strong pre-order figures - propelled the DSi platform to sales of almost 120,000 in the same week, while the rest of the hardware market continued to limp on.

The PlayStation Portable sold just over 26,000, while the Wii sold 22,000, followed by the DS Lite, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2.

The full Media Create software top ten is as follows:

1. Dragon Quest IX: Defenders of the Starry Sky (Square Enix): 2,318,932
2. Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo): 102,715
3. Friend Collection (Nintendo): 57,072
4. My Summer Vacation 4: Youth Detective Group in Seto - Me and the Secret Map (SCEI): 23,767
5. Hatsune Miku: Project Diva (SEGA): 14,268
6. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (The Best) (Capcom): 12,818
7. Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (Square Enix): 9195
8. Wii Fit (Nintendo): 8920
9. Pokemon Platinum (Pokemon Co): 8035
10. Sloane and MacHale's Mysterious Story (Level 5): 7413
The hardware sales numbers for the same period were:

1. Nintendo DSi: 118,202
2. PlayStation Portable: 26,527
3. Nintendo Wii: 22,141
4. Nintendo DS Lite: 10,161
5. PlayStation 3: 9864
6. Xbox 360: 3561
7. PlayStation 2: 3508

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...apanese-market