This Week In Sales: The Paradox Of Not Calling Your Game Disgaea

Period: The week of January 21st – January 27th (2013)

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Top-seller: Animal Crossing: New Leaf – 82,370

Nintendo 3DS sales: 26,898 | Total sales: 7,906,606

Nintendo 3DS XL sales: 48,226 | Total sales: 2,402,173

PlayStation Vita sales: 9,748 | Total sales: 1,194,006

Wii U sales: 13,746 | Total sales: 745,485

<< Last week’s software sales chart

 

Last week, Nippon Ichi released The God and Fate Revolution Paradox in Japan, and the game sold 23,417 copies in its first week. That’s less than Nippon Ichi’s last new I.P., Z.H.P Unlosing Ranger, which released in 2010 for the PSP, and sold 31,447 copies in its first week.

 

In general, it appears that Nippon Ichi games that aren’t Disgaea RPGs are unable to break out and reach a larger audience. Here’s a comparison of some of the games NIS have published in Japan in recent years, with first-week sales listed for each:

 

(2007) Soul Nomad & the World Eaters – 43,253

(2008) Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice – 54,596

(2008) Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?  16,240

(2010) Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood! – 9,353

(2010) Last Rebellion – 3,565

(2010) Z.H.P Unlosing Ranger – 31,447

(2010) Disgaea Infinite – 2,656

(2011) Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten – 79,425

 

NIS recently opened a new studio in Osaka this past October, which they stated would get to work on its own independent projects, so it should be interesting to see what they put out. In the meantime, it’s a good thing for the company that there are two new Disgaea games in the pipeline to hold them over.

 

In other news, Level 5’s Fantasy Life is back in the top-20. Following reports of shortages and the game being unavailable at stores, it looks like Level 5 have managed to get more copies to retailers. The game wasn’t even listed in the top-50 for the week prior, so one can only assume it was completely sold out. Between Fantasy Life and Inazuma Eleven Go 2, things are starting to look up for Level 5, following disappointing sales of Girls RPG and The Little Battlers W.

 

The top-20 chart for the week was as follows:

 

Lw Tw Title Weekly Sales Total Sales Sys. Publisher
01. 01. Animal Crossing: New Leaf 82,370 2,366,126 3DS Nintendo
02. 02. DmC Devil May Cry 31,627 142,056 PS3 Capcom
New 03. Gintama’s Sugoroku 27,011 New PSP Namco Bandai
New 04. Demon Gaze 25,316 New PSV Kadokawa
??? 05. Fantasy Life 25,042 187,772 3DS Level 5
New 06. Monster Monpiece 24,978 New PSV Compile Heart
New 07. The God and Fate Revolution Paradox 23,417 New PS3 Nippon Ichi
New 08. Hitman Absolution 22,233 New PS3 Square Enix
03. 09. Digimon Adventure 13,991 61,798 PSP Namco Bandai
04. 10. New Super Mario Bros. 2 12,834 1,886,476 3DS Nintendo
05. 11. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Best Price!) 12,105 196,243 3DS Capcom
06. 12. Inazuma Eleven Go 2: Chrono Stone – Neppuu/Raimei 8,942 400,331 3DS Level 5
08. 13. Paper Mario: Sticker Star 8,185 504,107 3DS Nintendo
12. 14. Taiko Drum Master: The Little Dragon and the Mysterious Orb 7,640 401,125 3DS Namco Bandai
09. 15. New Super Mario Bros. U 6,883 448,591 WiiU Nintendo
19. 16. Taiko Drum Master: Super Splendid Edition 6,852 367,165 Wii Namco Bandai
07. 17. Run for Money Tousouchuu 6,761 406,143 3DS Namco Bandai
15. 18. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (Dubbed Version) 6,111 112,964 PS3 Square Enix
10. 19. Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2 5,983 222,794 PS3 Tecmo Koei
11. 20. Nintendo Land 5,914 276,831 WiiU Nintendo

 

Sales data acquired from 4Gamer, Media Create and Geimin.net.

Ishaan Sahdev
About The Author
Ishaan specializes in game design/sales analysis. He's the former managing editor of Siliconera and wrote the book "The Legend of Zelda - A Complete Development History". He also used to moonlight as a professional manga editor. These days, his day job has nothing to do with games, but the two inform each other nonetheless.

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