Media Create Sales (11th-17th Dec)

Hardware

1.) Nintendo DS Lite - 319,708
2.) Nintendo Wii - 108,237
3.) PlayStation 3 - 70,942
4.) PlayStation Portable - 48,962
5.) PlayStation 2 - 37,730
6.) Xbox 360 - 17,168
7.) Game Boy Advance SP - 1,867
8.) Game Boy micro - 1,491
9.) GameCube - 1,152
10.) Nintendo DS - 158
11.) Game Boy Advance - 42
12.) Xbox - 3

Software

1. (DS, Pokemon) Pokemon Diamond - 123,573 / 2,119,848
2. (DS, Pokemon) Pokemon Pearl - 97,409 / 1,766,776
3. (DS, Nintendo) Kirby Squeek Squad - 92,173 / 557,634
4. (DS, Sega) Fushigi no Dungeon: Furai no Shiren - 88,242
5. (DS, Nintendo) New Super Mario Brothers - 77,761 / 3,617,021
6. (DS, Sega) Love and Berry DS Collection - 72,841 / 608,545
7. (DS, Nintendo) Jump Ultimate Stars - 71,339 / 349,979
8. (PS2, SCE) Wild Arms 5 - 70,476
9. (Wii, Nintendo) Wii Sports - 69,923 / 318,473
10. (Wii, Pokemon) Pokemon Battle Revolution - 67,607

Comments: Its coming to the end of the year and the charts just says it all really, DS dominates, Wii and PS3 doing steady while X-360 still trying to find its feet despite late optimism about it. PSP is doing ok but not brilliant. PS2 sales are still stunning.
Software wise, well, Pokemon did a decent first week but does it have the legs as the handheld versions (very unlikely), DS software dominated the charts in every way possible whether it was brain training games, or traditional platformers, to massive anime hit games or just a bundle of RPGs, DS stole every headline in every conceivable way.

In other news, tomorrow is Christmas Day. So Merry Christmas :)

SOS Brigade is captured by Bandai Ent.

Well, not a real surprise per say due to their nice little viral site, but Bandai is an interesting choice, i associate them with merchanide.. lots of merchandise (just look at Gundam and those many figurines).. nice addition to the US anime rooster though im not a big fan of Haruhi.. so why am i talking about it? uhh.. hmm... maybe because Haruhi has become such a smash hit with viewers this year, came out of the blue, became an instant cult classic and with an upcoming sequel on the way, things are looking up for the SOS-dan.

In other news, i can use my Wii to surf the net. Hooray!!

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya may be US licenced??!!

Title says it all really, AnimeOnDVD put it on their site and a teaser site is up as well.

December 22nd is to look out for.

http://asosbrigade.com/

Media Create sales (4th - 10th Dec)

Hardware

DSL 309,630
Wii 85,439
PS3 50,171
Xbox360 35,343
PS2 30,460
PSP 28,930
GBASP 1,896
GBM 1,555
GC 569
DS 167
GBA 17
Xbox 6

Software

1. (PS2, Bandai) Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED: Rengou vs. Z.A.F.T. II PLUS - 337,559 / NEW
2. (PS2, SEGA) Yakuza 2 - 274,822 / NEW
3. (NDS, Pokemon) Pocket Monsters Diamond - 98,859 / 1,996,275
4. (XB360, Mistwalker) BLUE DRAGON - 80,348 / NEW
5. (NDS, Pokemon) Pocket Monsters Pearl - 75,206 / 1,669,367
6. (WII, Nintendo) WiiSports - 72,382 / 248,549
7. (NDS, Nintendo) Hoshi no Kirby: Sanjou! Dorocche Dan - 66,421 / 465,462
8. (WII, Nintendo) WII PLAY - 62,863 / 237,160
9. (NDS, Nintendo) Jump! Ultimate Stars - 62,068 / 278,640
10. (NDS, Nintendo) Common Knowledge Training - 55,208 / 720,752

Comments: Wii takes a dive while X-360 sales rises. What a strange world we live in ;) One other mention goes to lack of Zelda in software charts.. oh dear.. has it really died off that fast in Japan already?

In any case, Nintendo still dominates charts, with very healthy DS sales indeed.

Dragon Quest IX coming for DS

http://www.famitsu.com/blog/express/2006/12/ixds.html
http://www.myspace.com/dragonquestix

Surprise announcement really,
1) For being on a handheld console
2) Downgraded graphics (overall)
3) Its an Action RPG (no turn based for us)
4) Wifi network (online?) capability to ensure co-op play

Overall, a very good announcement, DS has officially won Japan.

Me and my Wii!

Yeah, it was meant to be some kind of early christmas present for my bro and rest of the family but we got our Nintendo Wii and we enjoyed it a lot! For a not so bad £240, we got the console, Zelda and WiiPlay.

Wiisports that came with the conole is just fun, me, Faye and Tom played Tennis most of the time, while others like Baseball and Boxing were just fun. Bowling wasn't bad as well and Golf was surprisingly decent despite me hating the sport.

Zelda, im too early in the game to make a review of it, but basically the game is gorgeous! Wolf Link is good and plays surprisingly well, while the control system does take a while to get used to it, its still a great immersive experience.

Wiiplay, well, shooting targets is fun.. and thats about it.. it came with a 'free' Wiimote and that was the reason why i wanted it. Otherwise, not a good game.

Media Create (26th Nov - 3rd Dec) *Wii Special*

Hardware

Wii - 350,358
DS Lite - 176,901
PS3 - 31,436
PSP - 23,917
PS2 - 23,115
Xbox 360 - 4,053
GBA SP - 1,572
Gameboy Micro - 1,252
Gamecube - 821
Nintendo DS - 140
GBA - 22
Xbox - 11

Software

1. (PS2, Bandai-Namco) Tales of Destiny - 269756
2. (Wii, Nintendo) Wii Sports - 176167
3. (Wii, Nintendo) Wii Play - 174297
4. (Wii, Nintendo) Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 139011
5. (GBA, Square-Enix) Final Fantasy VI Advance - 137810
6. (PS2, Banpresto) Summon Night 4 - 115701
7. (DS, Nintendo) Pokemon Diamond - 70190
8. (DS, Nintendo) JUMP ULTIMATE STARS - 66269
9. (Wii, Nintendo) Wario Ware: Smooth Moves - 63954
10. (DS, Sega) Love and Berry DS Collection - 60041

Comments: From the disappointing PS3 launch which only had 2 low end top ten PS3 games, didn't even break a sweat on the DS triumph and shortages galore.. The Wii launched last week in Japan with quick success, lots of first party titles in the top ten with the hardware destroying the DS sales for the week. The most surprising thign to note is that Zelda only managed to get 3rd in total Wii software sales with Wiisports and Wii Play topping the epic game.

Been busy with work...

Argh! Got lab report to finish off!
Argh! Have to buy the Wii!
Argh! I Want to gout tonight!
Argh! Not watched that much anime lately

In any case.. I hear Blue Dragon (X-360) is coming along nicely, with lines and X-360 hardware flying off the shelves... should be a decent boost for Microsoft.

Japan Wii success

Not surprising really but early sales indicate that Wii has been successful with Media-Create and Famitsu data charts saying an almost 90% sellout rate (which is about 350,000 + sales) for the Wii console.
Maybe surprising is how well Zelda and the third party titles sold. WiiSports and Wiiplay sold a healthy ~150,000 each, while Zelda got 3rd place in Wii software sales selling under that number. The third party sales numbers on the other hand are pretty horrendous, with games liek Red Steel pulling in around 10,000 sold, elebits (almost must buy for me) having around 8,000 and shockingly Wing island acheiving only 800 sales. Really poor days for third party developers on the Wii.

Media Create Sales (20th-26th Nov)

Hardware

DSL 201,378
PS3 32,662
PSP 30,815
PS2 26,263
Xbox360 7,007
GBASP 1,264
GBM 1,235
GC 576
DS 212
GBA 27
Xbox 0

Software

1-(NDS/SEGA) Love and Berry DS 421,227
2 (NDS/Nintendo) Jump Ultimate Stars 150,303
3-(PS2/Konami) J-League Winning Eleven 10 + Europe League 06-07 103,365
4-(NDS/Nintendo) Common Knowledge Training 81813/611,642
5-(NDS/Nintendo) Pokemon Diamond 76183/ 1,827,226
6-(NDS/Nintendo) Pokemon Pearl 58158/ 1,539,775
7-(NDS/Nintendo) Hoshi no Kirby 55824/ 352,082
8-(Xbox360/Tecmo) Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 45536
9-(PSP/Sony) Jeanne D'Arc PSP 45387
10-(NDS/Nintendo) NSMB 35086 / 3,451,994

Comment: You know, its getting really (and i mean REALLY) hard to judge whether the PS3 is doing great or not, sure its selling out pretty 90+% of its shipments from these initial weeks but with the lower than expected shipments, shortages, high demand and stuff. Its hard to put my finger on whether PS3 has succeeded in capturing the gaming crowd. Of course, basing this off the Hardware chart, DSL dominates all and PS3 is selling 'heathily' despite the shortages, but then you look at the software charts and theres no PS3 software on it... hmm.. looking further back, the top 30 chart only housed 2 PS3 games at the bottom end of the top 30. Its too early to call it a flop or a success yet, but Wii sales 'should' come next week and it be very interesting then.

One more Wiik

Next week is the launch of the new Nintendo Wii console, mine is already pre-ordered and im 6th in the queue, so no need for a midnight overnight party. Though there is one at new Street Gamestation, where there will be a party of sorts to celebrate the launch, and also a special Nintendo event in London, Oxford Street which is gonna host stars like Ian Wright and uhh.. Ricky from that boxing sport thing.. yeah...

Anyways, im currently being occupied by Jump Ultimate Stars which is an awesome game at the moment, so maybe a review of that next week or something.

Peace y'all