3DS Sales Surge In Japan With Mario Kart 7 Release

With the release of Mario Kart 7 last week and Monster Hunter Tri-G imminent, Nintendo 3DS hardware sales in Japan soared to almost 206,962 last week, more than four times that of its nearest competitor. Since the handheld's significant price cut in August, the 3DS has stayed at the top of Japan's hardware sales chart by a healthy margin, and last week it managed to easily outsell all other systems combined. Nintendo CEO and president Satoru Iwata said 3DS will soon exceed 3 million sales in the country (it stands at 2,883,978 as of Monday), and that the console has regained its vigor, according to a report by Japanese daily The Nikkei translated by Andriasang. He expects 3DS sales to hit 4 million sold in Japan before the system's one-year anniversary in February 2012. Nintendo previously announced that the portable's worldwide sales surpassed first-year sales of the original DS in just eight months. As for other consoles in Japan this week, Sony's PlayStation 3 sales grew from 34,000 to 40,700. PlayStation Portable also moved more units, as customers bout 39,500 systems compared to 33,100 last week. Wii, which had more games in the top 20 software chart (nine) than any other console, jumped to 31,100 from 20,100. DS sales saw a slight boost from 3,300 to 4,400. Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 were stagnant at 1,600 and 1,500, respectively.

On the software side, Mario Kart 7's Japanese debut is the biggest for any 3DS game ever, as consumers bought 423,619 copies last week -- around double what the original Mario Kart DS sold in its first week in November 2005. Nine other new titles came out this week, including Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs. for PS3 (#2, 349,756), Assassin's Creed: Revelations for PS3 (#4, 39,947), Itadaki Steet Wii (#6, 27,640), and Tekken Hybrid for PS3 (#20, 14,195). Though Super Mario 3D Land continued to sell well in its fifth week (#3, 73,907), The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword already slipped from #1 to #5 in its second week, selling 32,191 copies compared to 194,978 the week before. Other significant drops include Sega's PSP game 7th Dragon 2020, which went from #2 to #15; and Level-5 and Studio Ghibli's Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch for PS3, which fell from #13 to out of the top 20 in less than three weeks.

Looking at upcoming releases, this week Nintendo begins shipping a limited edition Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary 3DS (available as Ocarina of Time 3D bundles in North America and Europe) exclusively through its online site this week.. Capcom ships the latest iteration of its very popular Monster Hunter series, Monster Hunter Tri-G, for 3DS this week, alongside Nintendo's new 3DS Expansion Slide Pad/Circle Pad Pro add-on. Bethesda Softworks' Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which received a rare perfect 40/40 review score from Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu (a first for a Western title), also hits stores this week for both PS3 and Xbox 360. Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, published by Nintendo, will come to Wii this week, too. And while PSP won't see any significant releases, its successor, PS Vita, launches in Japan in two weeks.