Unleashed Wii a Sales Flop in Japan?

The World Adventure Screeches to a Halt

It is widely known and accepted that in terms of both popularity and sales, the Sonic brand doesn’t do so well in Japan compared to other territories.  But could even the most negative naysayers have predicted this?

Famitsu sales numbers obtained by TSSZ News show that, in its debut week, the Wii version of Sonic Unleashed, known as Sonic World Adventure in Japan, only sold approximately 5,800 copies.  You probably already knew that.  But follow-up figures indicate that the game has completely dropped off the sales radar.

At present, VGChartz.com, criticized for its practices in gathering sales data, has been the only reliable source to track the game’s progress in Japan since launch week.  That site attempts to hammer down a more exact launch week sales figure to the tune of 5,810.  But Unleashed then sees a precipitous dropoff; according to the site, only 3,098 copies were sold the next week, and just 2,426 were sold the following week.  In week four, according to VGChartz, just 802 copies of Unleashed were sold for the Wii.  To date, the website estimates just 13,679 copies of the game have been sold in seven weeks of sale.  Compare that to VGChartz’s estimate that 14,411 copies of the game were sold just in the week of January 18th in the United States.

VGChartz also estimates that Unleashed for the Wii only sold 464 copies in Japan for the last week of January.

There are many factors to consider when analyzing this data.  One of them is that the Wii in Japan is just as popular as it is in other countries.  That said, Nintendo has saturated the market with plenty of new games, and even rehashes of old Gamecube titles for the console.  Japan has also seen a surge of portable popularity of late, with games for the Nintendo DS and Playstation Portable often taking the lead in weekly software sales charts.

When Sonic World Adventure was first released in Japan, it went up–and was consequently emasculated–by the likes of a portable Final Fantasy title, Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, Animal Crossing: City Folk, a remake of Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, and even Mario Kart DS.  Those trends, for the most part, continue even in the latest Media Create figures, which show PSP and DS titles dominating the top 10, and various Wii titles and GameCube remakes scattered throughout.  And in some previous weeks, the Sonic Team was competing against itself, with Phantasy Star Zero hitting the middle of the charts on occasion.

The other factor to consider is that the next generation editions of Unleashed are due for release in Japan next week.  Both the XBOX360 and Playstation 3 have gained some traction in the country with big name titles exclusive to the resepective consoles, but for the most part both systems have had a tough time gaining traction with a user base.  If there is any hope for Unleashed to succeed in Japan, it may be on the Playstation 3, where some PS3 titles have taken over the top ranks of late.

Given the popularity of the Wii, however, juxtaposed with SWA‘s estimated sales, the chances of Sonic seeing success in Japan with this latest title appear very slim–even with positive press.  However, given the surprising success of the game in North America and Europe in the face of overwhelmingly mediocre reviews, do you think the climate in Japan matters?  Moreover, given Sega Sammy’s anticipation of a big fiscal year loss, do you think the bigwigs at corporate are taking a much closer look at these numbers?  Let us know in the comments below.