Phantasy Star Portable Sweeps Over Japan in First Week

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Phantasy Star Portable Sweeps Over Japan in First Week

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Phantasy Star Portable Sweeps Over Japan in First Week

Phantasy Star Portable (Japan)

By S-T-H at 08/07/2008 - 22:07

Phantasy Star Portable saw incredible first day sales of 217,000 units, a sellthrough rate of over 90% of the game's initial shipment. It currently holds the top sellthrough of an initial shipment of any game this year in Japan. As a result of this amazing success, Sega quickly upped their shipments to a whopping 400,000 units.

Media Create has now released weekly sales data for Japan for Phantasy Star Portable's premiere week, revealing an impressive 342,000 units sold and launching PSP straight to the #1 spot on the chart. Courtesy of Kotaku, here is a sampling of the other top contenders (where you may recognize yet another Dreamcast favorite franchise):

01. Phantasy Star Portable (PSP) - 342,000 / NEW
02. Rhythm Heaven Gold (DS) - 213,000 / NEW
03. Dragon Quest V: Tenkuu No Hanayome (DS) 112,000 / 946,000
04. Soulcalibur IV (PS3) - 75,000 / NEW
05. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 15 (PS2) - 37,000 / 121,000
06. Soulcalibur IV (360) - 35,000 / NEW
07. Fatal Frame IV (Wii) - 33,000 / NEW
08. Wii Fit (Wii) - 32,000 / 2,442,000
09. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 23,000 / 1,633,000
10. Gundam Battle Universe (PSP) - 21,000 / 201,000

Let's also compare first week sales for many of the Phantasy Star titles that have come out in Japan in the past decade (care of VGChartz):

Phantasy Star Online (Dreamcast) - 84,689
Phantasy Star Online V2 (Dreamcast) - 119,159
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II (Gamecube) - 74,801
Phantasy Star Universe (Playstation 2) - 124,059
Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus (Playstation 2) - 23,665

It would appear that Phantasy Star Portable has sold over double what Phantasy Star Universe and Ambition of the Illuminus did in their first weeks on the Playstation 2... combined! Now lets compare Famitsu scores (care of the Famitsu Scores Archive, highest being 40 as a total of 4 scores):

Phantasy Star Online (Dreamcast) - 37
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II (Gamecube) - 35
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II (Xbox) - 35
Phantasy Star Universe (Playstation 2) - 35
Phantasy Star Portable (Playstation Portable) - 33

From the feedback of many importers, it is clear that this handheld version is an installment worthy of the high levels of interest that it's been garnering. I'm sure it will only become better as balance tweaks and further content updates are already in the works.

With all the developments that I've been seeing as far as this title is concerned, it is clearly only a matter of time before Sega announces an English release of the game. Let's all hope they don't keep us waiting too much longer.

Update: Phantasy Star Portable now has the fourth best launch of a Playstation Portable game in Japan. Here's the other three (numbers care of VGChartz):

Monster Hunter Freedom 2nd G - 857,429
Monster Hunter Freedom 2nd - 741,780
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - 489,085

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by Yusaku_Kudou on Thu, 08/07/2008 - 22:24

Wow, 35k SCIV units for 360 sold?

by Ken_Silver on Thu, 08/07/2008 - 23:42

The number of PS:P copies sold is OVER 9000!!! XD XD XD Great! Sega has to bring this stateside. I can only imagine the CEO's at Sega of Japan doing backflips and cartwheels. I hope this doesn't go to their head. They still have a Sonic the Hedgehog series to revive. And lol at Fanimitsu giving this game a lower score than the other Phantasy Star games. It has the best selling start of any PSU game. GO PSU!

by RadXXL on Fri, 08/08/2008 - 00:47

Also just a thought, the Dreamcast broke records with sales too, and look where that went.

by EtherForce on Fri, 08/08/2008 - 04:01

Hah! SC4 PS3 is pwning the 360 version in Japan!

by S-T-H on Fri, 08/08/2008 - 05:22

PSP might even be a record for Sega itself. I can't remember the last time first week sales have been that great for a Sega game in Japan. Yakuza 2 comes close with 285k units, but I can't think of any others at the moment. Hardware sales didn't change very much from the last few weeks, so it isn't much to mention outside of them being kept high. I can't say for sure as I don't have good numbers for the older games, but Phantasy Star may now be more popular than it has ever been.

by Rayokarna on Fri, 08/08/2008 - 07:48

Go go Alfa Systems. You have just revived the whole franchise with this game :D

by S-T-H on Fri, 08/08/2008 - 22:47

I've updated the post. PSPortable is now #4 as far as Japanese PSP launches go. I've listed the numbers of the top three. It's probable that this could be the first PS game to break a million in sales.

by DjDragoon on Sat, 08/09/2008 - 07:02

They should use all this profit to work on another expansion for PSU... Like one that'll last a lot longer and have double the content. They even should get the BioWare people who helped with Sonic Chronicles to do it.

by S-T-H on Mon, 08/11/2008 - 21:48

I put in another article update. It was recently noted that Sega has shipped over half a million copies of PSP as of last week. Within the next few days, we should have the sales numbers for PSP's second (and first full) week.

by Volta on Thu, 08/14/2008 - 16:02

And Phantasy Star Portable takes top honors for the second week in a row. 148,000 units sold. This has some legs.

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