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American Gamer in Japan 5: Black or White
By Heath | May 10, 2010 at 5:58 am
This column’s got updates on Pokemon Black & White and its hype wagon officially leaving the station, plus God Eater getting downlove, Heath hitting Kyoto, pro Metal Max 3 cosplayers, and some Japanese hardware/software sales figures. It’s a pretty good one, and not just because of the pictures of me and Janelle.
Golden Week is just now behind us here in Japan. Also not too long ago was the revelation of Pokemon Black and White, but that hasn’t stopped the rapid spread of the hype flames. My wife and I took a trip to Kyoto with our friends, and I spotted a kid wearing a t-shirt with the first of the revealed new monsters, Zozoark.
When the news was only a few days old, I could hardly find anyone else that had heard about it, but now that word has had time to spread, Nintendo is already cashing in on the new Pocket Monsters. (More Kyoto pictures at the end of the article.)
Metal Max 3 Being Promoted With Professional Cosplay
Popular Japanese “idol” Anri Sugihara and pro wrestler Tanahashi Hiroshi are among those getting sacks of money to dress up like character from the upcomgng DS RPG Metal Max 3.
Japanese hardware sales for April 26 to May 2 read like this:
PSP – 59,315
PS3 – 32,874
Wii – 30,757
DSi LL – 25,569
DSi – 15,628
Xbox 360 – 4,943
DS Lite – 4,068
PSP go – 1,890
PS2 – 1,577
Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 for DS was released on April 28, and despite heavy compeition from the system-selling PSP title Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, it debuted at number 1 on the sales charts. Though it should e noted that Metal Gear came out on April 29, and with games like this, that one extra day can make a big difference. DQMJ 2 sold 623,643 copies while Peace Walker moved 434,366 units. Both of these titles completely smoked the rest of the list, as #3, Super Street Fighter IV (PS3 version), sold 80,882. That’s a fantastic amount, but it couldn’t compete with the juggernauts in the top two spots.
God Eater Eats Free DLC
Namco Bandai’s smash hit God Eater for PSP recently got a taste of downloadable content in the form of 23 missions, which are now free on the Japanese PSN store. This game has not been announced for a North American release, despite having sold well beyond half a million copies in its first month alone in Japan.
There are also some swag items in the company’s “Fashion Net” shop, seen below. The t-shirts are selling for about $30 while the wristbands are like $11. I don’t excercise, so I don’t know what those are for or if anyone uses them.
And hey, what the hell, a few more Kyoto pictures:
That’s all for now from the Land of the Rising Sun. Thanks for reading 🙂
If you’ve got anything to say, give me a shout via email to nr@rpgland.com, or on RPG Land’s Facebook and Twitter things. We use them…because we seemingly have to.
Till next time~
-Heath Hindman
Topics: American Gamer in Japan, God Eater, Metal Max 3, Pokemon Black and White