Shin Megami Tensei IV Tops Japan's Sales Charts

StewShearerOld

Geekdad News Writer
Jan 5, 2013
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Shin Megami Tensei IV Tops Japan's Sales Charts



The latest entry in the role-playing franchise sold 188,562 copies in its first week of Japanese sales.

While the Persona games have enjoyed some success in North America, the mainline Shin Megami Tensei series that started it all has remained something of a cult property. In other parts of the world, however, that couldn't be less the case. The game enjoys considerable popularity in its native Japan, a fact well displayed by Shin Megami Tensei IV's recent debut at the number one spot on Japanese sales charts.

Released only last week on the 3DS, Shin Megami Tensei IV has sold more than 188,000 copies, beating out other popular titles like Resident Evil: Revelations which debuted at numbers three (PS3), ten (Wii U) and eleven (360), respectively. The game's release would also seem to have done wonders for the 3DS XL (LL in Japan) in the region. Sales of Nintendo's extra-large handheld almost doubled in the period following Shin Megami Tensei IV's debut.

There's a good chance we won't see quite the same performance when the game hits American shores <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123549-Ominous-Shin-Megami-Tensei-IV-Trailer-Reveals-Release-Date>on July 16th. That said, there's always hope that the game could defy its past performances. Despite the arguable niche status of JRPGs in North America, Fire Emblem: Awakening sold <a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/14/4106060/fire-emblem-awakening-3ds-sells-more-than-180k-in-first-month>a solid 180,000 copies in its first month at American retail, setting new records for the franchise. Shin Megami Tensei IV, for its part, looks like it's shaping up into a really interesting game, so we're hoping it finds similar success.

Source: <a href=http://gematsu.com/2013/05/media-create-sales-52013-52613>Gematsu

Note: It has been demonstrated that recent years have seen the Shin Megam Tensei's sales improve in North America. This means Shin Megami Tensei IV might do better when released in the United States than originally represented.

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Fappy

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Jan 4, 2010
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And those are much deserved sales for Fire Emblem!

Glad to hear SMT IV's doing well over there. We've still got nearly 2 months of waiting to do over here! :(

(And that's the US. I am sure Europe will get the game by at least 2015 :p)
 

Eric the Orange

Gone Gonzo
Apr 29, 2008
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Cool, Love the SMT games even if they were hard as hell. I beat all 3 of them... eventually. (for reference the Shin Megami Tensei part is not on games like persona outside of japan. So I'm referring to just the "core" SMT games.}
 

Fractral

Tentacle God
Feb 28, 2012
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Not surprising, given that SMT is pretty much one of the big game series over there, after Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.
MarsAtlas said:
Looking forward to it. Also, the sales numbers on Persona 4 and Devil Survivor referenced are out-of-date by four years. Here are updates.

Persona 4: 340,000 NA, 360,000 JP, 80,000 EU
http://www.vgchartz.com/game/24780/shin-megami-tensei-persona-4/

Devil Survivor: 120,000 NA, 120,000 JP
http://www.vgchartz.com/game/30981/shin-megami-tensei-devil-survivor/

And for posterity's sake, Persona 4: Golden: 130,000 NA, 260,000 JP
http://www.vgchartz.com/game/62901/persona-4-the-golden/

If you look at P4: Golden's numbers, North America is about keeping pace with Japan's sales over time, and Devil Survivor sold identically in both regions, with its sequels selling better in North America than in Japan, I think its inaccurate to say that the franchise is significantly more popular in Japan than in NA.

I'm not sure of the ratio of gamers in Japan as opposed to gamers in North America, so I can say whether or not SMT is actually more popular percentage-wise in one region or another, but its clear that it sees about equal sales in both regions.
I'm surprised how few copies Persona 4 sold over here in the EU. I hope it doesn't stop Atlus from localizing SMT 4, as that would stop me from playing it, what with the 3DS being region locked and all. And Persona 4 Golden only sold 30000 in the EU. And, Devil Survivor 1 and 2 were never actually released here in the first place. Why no love for the EU, Atlus?
 

StewShearerOld

Geekdad News Writer
Jan 5, 2013
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MarsAtlas said:
Looking forward to it. Also, the sales numbers on Persona 4 and Devil Survivor referenced are out-of-date by four years. Here are updates.

Persona 4: 340,000 NA, 360,000 JP, 80,000 EU
http://www.vgchartz.com/game/24780/shin-megami-tensei-persona-4/

Devil Survivor: 120,000 NA, 120,000 JP
http://www.vgchartz.com/game/30981/shin-megami-tensei-devil-survivor/

And for posterity's sake, Persona 4: Golden: 130,000 NA, 260,000 JP
http://www.vgchartz.com/game/62901/persona-4-the-golden/

If you look at P4: Golden's numbers, North America is about keeping pace with Japan's sales over time, and Devil Survivor sold identically in both regions, with its sequels selling better in North America than in Japan, I think its inaccurate to say that the franchise is significantly more popular in Japan than in NA.

I'm not sure of the ratio of gamers in Japan as opposed to gamers in North America, so I can say whether or not SMT is actually more popular percentage-wise in one region or another, but its clear that it sees about equal sales in both regions.
Thank you for the more recent numbers! I'm glad to see the series is doing better here than I'd believed it to be.
 

l3o2828

New member
Mar 24, 2011
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"Game franchise that is extremely popular does well in the country it's popular in. This is somehow News."

Notice my avatar and the fact i'm a massive SMT Fan. I have played every single game that got released outside japan, and even some that didn't thanks to emulation, and fan translations, like the 'Last Bible' games.
 

Tahmoh

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Sep 1, 2008
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I think im gonna import a 3ds from the states if atlus(or whoever they sublicence with for 3ds games in europe) dont bother bringing shin megaten out in europe, its bad enough they didnt release devil survivor here for some random reason but if they choose to skip the 4th game then i guess import is my only way to play.
 

Belzera

Prinny Puncher
Apr 14, 2009
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Please release in EU, Please release in EU, ETC.

Seriously though I live in the UK all I could wish for is SMT4 in some timely fashion, I had to wait for Devil Survivor 2 for ages and to be honest the only copy of Devil Survivor 1 I can find is Overclocked. Honestly I don't think we got brilliant Strange Journey over here.

If throwing money at my screen would help me get this one here quicker I would.

@broken-serenity

We got Overclocked and the sequel but yeah wish we got the first one when it was originally out in the US.
 

emeraldrafael

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Jul 17, 2010
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I hope no one is surprised. Im glad to hear the series is doing well, but this was expected. I'll be more surprised if it does so well in the US (which I hope it does as an atlus fan).
 

DrunkOnEstus

In the name of Harman...
May 11, 2012
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I'm sure it'll do very well here (relative to actual sane expectations for a niche handheld title). Persona 3 and 4 have only increased in awareness thanks to word of mouth over the years, so I can imagine people new to the "core" SMT wanting to pick this up for their 3DS. Actually, I'm glad that the core of some of these franchises are moving forward on handhelds (Dragon Quest, SMT, etc.). The budgets are lower, people don't care about not having hyper next-gen graphics on a lot of these titles, and it allows the devs to experiment and properly cater to the niche and still make money. I wonder if one day in the future we saw Atlus become what Square was back in the PS1 days.
 

Baresark

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Dec 19, 2010
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I don't think anyone is surprised by this news, TBH. I may be picking this up, though I really have to be in the mood for it's super Japanese offerings in order to really enjoy it. I'll be watching to see what happens.
 

Frostbyte666

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Nov 27, 2010
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Happy to see the series doing well but why only on the 3ds dammit (yes, yes, probably exclusive deal) but if you want increased sales there are other consoles and handhelds...yes I'm also miffed about the new fire emblem being on 3ds as well but I'm still not going to buy 1, I need my money for other things plus my current game bottleneck to get through.
 

Sleepy Sol

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Feb 15, 2011
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The only game I have ever preordered months in advance. Given the fact that it's Atlus, I probably won't be disappointed.
Frostbyte666 said:
Happy to see the series doing well but why only on the 3ds dammit (yes, yes, probably exclusive deal) but if you want increased sales there are other consoles and handhelds...yes I'm also miffed about the new fire emblem being on 3ds as well but I'm still not going to buy 1, I need my money for other things plus my current game bottleneck to get through.
More platforms to port to or develop the game for might mean higher costs that Atlus/Index Corp. just can't afford right now. I think the 3DS was the most cost effective option while also being the most profitable given the 3DS's surging popularity.

From what I've seen of the game, it's every bit as good as it probably would have been on another system anyways.
 

RaikuFA

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Jun 12, 2009
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Fappy said:
And those are much deserved sales for Fire Emblem!

Glad to hear SMT IV's doing well over there. We've still got nearly 2 months of waiting to do over here! :(

(And that's the US. I am sure Europe will get the game by at least 2015 :p)
NIS just announced that it will hit EU very soon. Most likely they're gonna do what XSEED and Ninty did for the rainfall games and just change the region lock, maybe change some words/terms, like what happened with Mario Party 8 and the word spaz.
 

Tanis

The Last Albino
Aug 30, 2010
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It's getting hard and hard not to get a 3DS.
>_>

SMT4
SMT:DS2
PKMN:X/Y
etc

>_<
 

Mr.Mattress

Level 2 Lumberjack
Jul 17, 2009
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Amazing... The WiiU Version of Resident Evil: Revelations actually charted in Japan. And I know that RE:R topped the charts in the UK (Though I don't know if it was the WiiU Version). I'm kind of expecting the WiiU RE:R to be in the charts this week.

OT: Great for SMTIV.
 

ninjapenguin1414

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Jun 16, 2011
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Fappy said:
And those are much deserved sales for Fire Emblem!

Glad to hear SMT IV's doing well over there. We've still got nearly 2 months of waiting to do over here! :(

(And that's the US. I am sure Europe will get the game by at least 2015 :p)
2 months for a game being localized is way better than say the 2 years it took for Tales of Xillia to get localized. At least Atlus seems to care about its fanbase unlike Namco Bandai and arguably Sqeenix.