Japanese Retailers Share Top Holiday Picks

Japanese firm Enterbrain has compiled a list of the top ten retailer-ordered video games for this holiday season, according to a survey of major Japanese game stores, and it's Square Enix's PS2 sequel Kingdom Hearts II, which debuts on December 22, that has got the most retailer buy-in for this Christmas. Namco's PlayStation 2 RPG Tales of the Abyss is the second most-ordered title in Japan, according to the statistics, which were translated by game site Game-Science, closely followed by the latest Bandai Gundam title for PS2, and then the hotly awaited Wi-Fi compatible Mario Kart DS, which launches slightly later in Japan than the West, coming out on December 8. The rest of the charts are filled up with Capcom's PS2 conversion of top-rated Biohazard 4 (Resident Evil 4), the Chunsoft 'Mysterious Dungeon' re-imagining of the Pokemon franchise for DS, and Level 5's impressive-looking, Sony published Rogue Galaxy for PlayStation 2. Further down still, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII made it to eighth spot in the improptu chart, even though it dosn't launch until 2006, and DS titles Animal Crossing DS and Slime Mori Mori Dragon Quest 2 ended up bringing up the rear. Although retailer orders do not necessarily translate to sales, it's interesting to note that, of these top ten Japanese titles, six are for PlayStation 2, and the other four are for Nintendo DS, with no PSP titles of apparently sufficient demand to chart, and also no sign of GameCube, Xbox, or even Xbox 360 games near the top of retailer want lists.