In Japan, the first week of May is traditionally a huge shot in the arm for video game hardware and software sales. The jumble of holidays known as “Golden Week” gives millions of people some time off, travel plans, and all the reason in the world to shed some of their expendable income on electronic entertainment. This year, the majority of that money went to one company whose name rhymes with “Nintendo.” Wait, I messed that up.
First up, the hardware charts:
3DS – 91,868
PS3 – 23,478
PSP – 20,033
Wii – 15,789
PSV – 10,583
DS – 1,911
PS2 – 1,611
360 – 1,420
This is Vita’s first Golden Week on the market, and it only sold one-third of what the 3DS did in its first Golden Week (last year), which is most interesting because at that time, Japan was fresh off a devastating tsunami, the system had far fewer titles available, and the price drop had not yet happened.
The software top 20 looks like this:
1. (WII) Mario Party 9
2. (PS3) Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
3. (3DS) Fire Emblem: Awakening
4. (3DS) Super Mario Land 3D
5. (3DS) Mario Kart 7
6. (3DS) Kid Icarus: Uprising
7. (3DS) Monster Hunter 3 G
8. (3DS) Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
9. (PSP) Conception: Please Have My Children!
10. (WII) Wii Sports Resort
11. (PSP) Pro Baseball Spirits 2012
12. (3DS) Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
13. (NDS) Pokemon + Nobunaga no Yabou
14. (3DS) Shin Sangoku Musou VS
15. (WII) Wii Party
16. (PS3) Pro Baseball Spirits 2012
17. (WII) Mario Kart Wii
18. (PSP) Dai-2-Ji Super Robot Taisen Z Saisei-hen
19. (3DS) Harvest Moon: The Land of Origin
20. (WII) Go Vacation
You’ll notice there’s not a single PS Vita game on there, and there are only five games not for a Nintendo system. As a gamer, I’m glad to see Nintendo seemingly doing well, but by that same token, Sony’s gotta find a way to get the Vita hardware and software off the shelves and into peoples’ hands. But I’m not saying anything new, there.
[Source]
