Japan Appoints Millions of New Monster Hunters

[Tom Goldman]

Japan Appoints Millions of New Monster Hunters

Sales of the latest Monster Hunter release in Japan were absolutely spectacular.

Playing Monster Hunter in Japan is like wearing a leather jacket everywhere else: All the cool kids are doing it. The game's popularity shows the stark contrast between Japanese playing habits versus the rest of the world's, as the latest PSP entry in the series sold an amazing 2 million copies in five days and also caused a giant spike in PSP hardware sales.

According to Enterbrain sales figures published in Famitsu magazine, Monster Hunter Portable 3rd [http://www.amazon.com/Capcom-Monster-Hunter-Portable-PSP-Sony/dp/B0046N92BK/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1291738712&sr=8-8] sold 2,146,467 units through December 5, 2010 after being released to ravenous crowds on December 1. Capcom boasted that it shipped 2 million copies of the game, but sales have already gone beyond that number by nearly 150,000.

These sales numbers are a record for a PSP game, which is one of the most popular systems in Japan despite the handheld not lighting a fire under other regions. PSP sales also jumped by a considerable number, from an average of 30,000-40,000 per week, to 75,689 the week before Portable 3rd was released, to 326,639 units sold over Monster Hunter release week. This is also a record for the handheld.

These numbers don't quite match up to Monster Hunter Tri [http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Quest-IX-Sentinels-Nintendo-DS/dp/B002I0EH6I] came out, but not to this degree.

There's just no denying it: Japan loves hunting monsters. The region has a voracious appetite for Monster Hunter's unique multiplayer features that make it akin to an MMO you can play with the person sitting across from you on a train. Monster Hunter has done reasonably well in North America and Europe with products like Tri and previous PSP release Monster Hunter underwear [http://www.amazon.com/Monster-Hunter-Freedom-Unite-Sony-PSP/dp/B001HWF1OA] and we don't. Portable 3rd hasn't been announced for regions outside of Japan yet.

Source: Andriasang [http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/12/07/mhp3rd_psp_sales_spike/]

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[Quiet Stranger]

MHFU is by far my favorite PSP game, I can't wait for the next release!!! I just need to find more people in my area who play this game!

 

[The Rockerfly]

I wonder what sales would be like if Godzilla hadn't attack/destroyed Tokyo so many times?

 

[geldonyetich]

I bought Monster Hunter and Monster Hunter 2 for the PSP and Monster Under Tri for the Wii...

... to this day, I'm not entirely sure why I bought these games, as I barely got through the first part of the original Monster Hunter, let alone sampled the cutting edge online play.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

And people say the PSP is a failure...hah

 

[Syphous]

I really want to see a PS3/360 Monster Hunter.

 

[omicron1]

I'm guessing that, whenever they do announce the PSP2 publically, a new Monster Hunter is going to come with it.

What better way to show off/solidify your new platform as a must have, than to release a new, beautiful version of your best series? (And maybe, if they have two analog sticks this time, it'll have better camera controls!)

 

[D_987]

And people say the PSP is a failure...hah

In the West, and compared to the DS - yes, the PSP is a failure. I don't see how two or three high selling games in Japan change that.

 

[Mr. Grey]

Underwear? They don't just get underwear!

They get a Limited Edition Monster Hunter PSP! [http://codamon.com/2010/09/the-new-monster-hunter-3rd-limited-edition-psp/] With brand new features that any PSP owner would kill for, probably... well, maybe not that badly, but I would... consider it. And no it's not going to be released in the West according to the Monster Hunter Wiki. I'm hoping Capcom changes its mind or they misheard.

 

[Xangi]

Somehow, I feel scammed by the fact that a PSP GAME has more content than my goddam Wii game. It's not an issue of storage space or anything (clearly), just effort. That being said if a Monster Hunter Tri-G comes out I'll totally buy it, as long as it has the old guys in it.

 

[Mr. Fister]

You can tell that Sony's gonna do whatever it can to keep the portable Monster Hunter games exclusive to the PSP line. If Nintendo ever got the next big MH game (or Dragon Quest, for that matter) on 3DS, then that would effectively make the PSP2 dead on arrival in Japan, which has previously kept the PSP alive for so long.

 

[gigastar]

Underwear? They don't just get underwear!

They get a Limited Edition Monster Hunter PSP! [http://codamon.com/2010/09/the-new-monster-hunter-3rd-limited-edition-psp/] With brand new features that any PSP owner would kill for, probably... well, maybe not that badly, but I would... consider it. And no it's not going to be released in the West according to the Monster Hunter Wiki. I'm hoping Capcom changes its mind or they misheard.

Im afraid it goes even further than that. Japan gets the follwing that we dont:
-Monster Hunter plushies, want a (fake) pet antropomorphic cat?
-Monster Hunter kids toys.
-Monster Hunter Orage. Manga adaptation and damn near impossible to find on TL'ed sites.
-Monster Hunter museums. Done as a promotion for Tri
-Monster Hunter Frontier. MMO adaptation of the series on PC, HUGE updates every 3 months or so, pretty much Japans WoW. Also ported to 360 in Japan, where it bombed harder than a fresh turd becuase everyone already had the PC version and Japan hates Microsoft. Strangely its also out in Korea.
-Monster Hunter figurine collections from all games. As of Portable 3, thats about 90 monsters, 30 minions and give or take about 20 notable characters.
-Monster Hunter cosplay armor sets. And some weapons too.

Rumors that the manga may be turned into an anime after it completes.

I could wait for MHF3 forever, however i really dont want to.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

And people say the PSP is a failure...hah

In the West, and compared to the DS - yes, the PSP is a failure. I don't see how two or three high selling games in Japan change that.

I don't think being the only competitor to survive going up against the DS as long as it has constitutes use of the word failure. The Virtual Boy was a failure, The N-Gage was a failure. Being in the market for 6 years is not a failure. Look the definition of the word.

 

[Quartermaine]

I really want to see a PS3/360 Monster Hunter.

I second that motion.

And people say the PSP is a failure...hah

In the West, and compared to the DS - yes, the PSP is a failure. I don't see how two or three high selling games in Japan change that.

I don't think being the only competitor to survive going up against the DS as long as it has constitutes use of the word failure. The Virtual Boy was a failure, The N-Gage was a failure. Being in the market for 6 years is not a failure. Look the definition of the word.

Well it's certainly not a resounding success in Australia, UMD format was a massive failure, sorry but success is not defined by market persistence.

 

[VanityGirl]

I really want to see a PS3/360 Monster Hunter.

You and me both. :'(
Frontier's on the 360, but not available outside Japan.

OT: I was waiting for these sales numbers to come out. I heard that many stores in Japan sold otu within 3-4 hours.

Hey Capcom, hurry your butts up so I can play Monster Hunter as well!

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

I really want to see a PS3/360 Monster Hunter.

I second that motion.

And people say the PSP is a failure...hah

In the West, and compared to the DS - yes, the PSP is a failure. I don't see how two or three high selling games in Japan change that.

I don't think being the only competitor to survive going up against the DS as long as it has constitutes use of the word failure. The Virtual Boy was a failure, The N-Gage was a failure. Being in the market for 6 years is not a failure. Look the definition of the word.

Well it's certainly not a resounding success in Australia, UMD format was a massive failure, sorry but success is not defined by market persistence.

I'd say so condiering worldwide selling 62 million, and being around for 6 years. You can't tell me that 62 million is a small number. Especially when there are more PSPs here in N.America than there are in Japan. You also can't say that just because one regoin is doing poorly that a product isn't an overall success. That's like calling the Xbox 360 a failure because of it's abysmal sales in Japan. It just doesn't make sense. Taking specific regions of sales and trying to say that a product is doing badly overall is just nit picking for points. And if you have to do that then you really can't call thr PSP a failure. And UMDs can't be that massive failure if people chose them over the digital distrobution model of the PSPGo.

 

[Tom Phoenix]

I really want to see a PS3/360 Monster Hunter.

I second that motion.

And people say the PSP is a failure...hah

In the West, and compared to the DS - yes, the PSP is a failure. I don't see how two or three high selling games in Japan change that.

I don't think being the only competitor to survive going up against the DS as long as it has constitutes use of the word failure. The Virtual Boy was a failure, The N-Gage was a failure. Being in the market for 6 years is not a failure. Look the definition of the word.

Well it's certainly not a resounding success in Australia, UMD format was a massive failure, sorry but success is not defined by market persistence.

I'd say so condiering worldwide selling 62 million, and being around for 6 years. You can't tell me that 62 million is a small number. Especially when there are more PSPs here in N.America than there are in Japan. You also can't say that just because one regoin is doing poorly that a product isn't an overall success. That's like calling the Xbox 360 a failure because of it's abysmal sales in Japan. It just doesn't make sense. Taking specific regions of sales and trying to say that a product is doing badly overall is just nit picking for points. And if you have to do that then you really can't call thr PSP a failure. And UMDs can't be that massive failure if people chose them over the digital distrobution model of the PSPGo.

The thing is, Sony didn't create the PSP to merely "survive" against the DS. It was meant to soundly beat the DS and allow Sony to dominate the handheld market, just like how it dominated the console market with the PS/PS2. The PSP was supposed to be the dark knight that would slay the king of the handheld market and usurp his throne (and this was indeed something that most media outlets were predicting). As we all know, that wasn't the case. So while 62 million is an impressive number, you can be certain that Sony is not patting itself on the back and that it certainly is not happy with this result. So in terms of it's competition with the DS (the competition it was intended to win), yes, the PSP can be regarded as a failure. A silver medal is impressive...but for Sony, it's still just a silver medal.

The Xbox 360 can also be regarded as a failure. Sure, it's not a failure across the board, but it is a failure in terms of the Japanese market.

Now, don't get me wrong. From a purely numbers standpoint, the PSP can be regarded as a success. Infact, considering the amount of dumb decisions Sony has made this generation, I would argue that making the PSP was definitely one of the smarter ones (and as much as I love Nintendo handhelds, competition is never a bad thing) . But given that the PSP and DS are the only real competitors in the handheld console market (Apple products are not handheld consoles; they are portable computers, which is also how Apple describes them), it is inevitable that any of the PSP's achievements will be compared to those of the DS.

As for the PSP Go, it's complete commercial failure is more indicative of the shortcomings of the digital distribution model than it is of UMD's quality. If customers were given the choice of another, better, physical medium, you can be certain that the UMD would eventually die off.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

And people say the PSP is a failure...hah

As a threat to the DS existence? Yes, it is a failure.

Even with this turn of events, the DS is still saling stronger, and once again. This big boom in sales was only in Japan. Just like how XBox 360 failed in Japan.

 

[Quartermaine]

I really want to see a PS3/360 Monster Hunter.

I second that motion.

And people say the PSP is a failure...hah

In the West, and compared to the DS - yes, the PSP is a failure. I don't see how two or three high selling games in Japan change that.

I don't think being the only competitor to survive going up against the DS as long as it has constitutes use of the word failure. The Virtual Boy was a failure, The N-Gage was a failure. Being in the market for 6 years is not a failure. Look the definition of the word.

Well it's certainly not a resounding success in Australia, UMD format was a massive failure, sorry but success is not defined by market persistence.

I'd say so condiering worldwide selling 62 million, and being around for 6 years. You can't tell me that 62 million is a small number. Especially when there are more PSPs here in N.America than there are in Japan. You also can't say that just because one regoin is doing poorly that a product isn't an overall success. That's like calling the Xbox 360 a failure because of it's abysmal sales in Japan. It just doesn't make sense. Taking specific regions of sales and trying to say that a product is doing badly overall is just nit picking for points. And if you have to do that then you really can't call thr PSP a failure. And UMDs can't be that massive failure if people chose them over the digital distrobution model of the PSPGo.

Worldwide DS sales as of September 2010 = 135 million
Worldwide PSP sales as of June 2nd 2009 = 51 million

There is about 50 million DSes in America Alone. 62 million PSPs worldwide might be a success; but nowhere near the success of DS if we are talking about a pure sales figure.