GoW chainsaws its way into Japan's top ten
by Dustin Burg 
{ Jan 25th 2007 at 1:00AM }
Look what we have here, a Xbox 360 game making Japan's weekly top video game sales charts. Who would have thought? Want to know something even better? Gears of War is that game that came in at number seven in total sales this week. Remember, we reported earlier that Gears was selling out in Japan, but now we have proof that the game did indeed move units. The Japanese actually buying a western Xbox 360 game ... are we living in an alternate universe? We're going to have to sit down now, too much change in Japan makes our stomachs queasy. Also, the article that displays this week's Japanese sales numbers is in Japanese. But you can still read Gears of War placed neatly in the number seven column.
[Thanks, jharr]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Iced_Eagle @ Jan 25th 2007 1:18AM
I'm pretty sure Microsoft Japan is slapping their heads wondering what the heck that country is thinking... Do they want Western games? Eastern games? Both?
What a confusing country! :P I can see why Microsoft is having trouble there.
cerberus414 @ Jan 25th 2007 1:44AM
If you look closely (33212 累計販売本数:33212), My educational guess tells me that GoW sold 33212 units for the first (current) week. The second number is also 33212 which indicates the overall game sales. Since this was GoW's first week, both are the same.
atsui @ Jan 25th 2007 1:54AM
N no site of ps3 on th top 30
Christopher L. Williams @ Jan 25th 2007 4:07AM
It never surprised me that the Japanese have always favored Sony as, in my experience, the Japanese tend to favor all Japanese products over foriegn counterparts. Every Japanese orchestral or band musician I ever knew (quite a few I might add) always had Yamaha instruments, and every Japanese person I know (or ever knew) has a Japanese car. And most have told me (when it came up in conversation) that they never even considered a non-Japanese version.
MS will continue to have trouble despite the quality of their system simply because of the nationalistic loyalty on behalf of Japanese consumers. That GoW is doing well and moving Xboxen in the process says a hell of alot of good things about the quality of that game.
Now if GoW was a true franchise (only time will tell if a sequel/prequel/or otherwise tied-in game comes to pass), it may well surpass the love of Halo and take over the video game world.
DeadPlasmaCell @ Jan 25th 2007 4:21AM
"only time will tell if a sequel/prequel/or otherwise tied-in game comes to pass"
Not "if", but "when" Last I checked it was announced as a trilogy.
JrezIN @ Jan 25th 2007 5:07AM
Mark Rein said "Why stop on a trilogy"... or kind of... saying that they might make several games using this IP in the future... all if costumers want more.
jpxdude @ Jan 25th 2007 7:46AM
I think if theres something that breaks from the norm, the japanese will embrace it with open arms. A classic example of this is with the iPod. It's an american made product, but does very successfully out there. Also a lot of the Western recycled pop culture does a hell of a lot better in Japan than the west!