A recent tweet that led to an article by Game Informer had me a bit baffled, as the numbers have come out and Modern Warfare 3 sold nearly triple the copies in Japan than the hotly anticipated Studio Ghibli and Level 5 title Ni No Kuni. The reason that this news shocked me so much is that, while I knew that the Modern Warfare series was highly successful in North America and Europe, I did not think that its global sales would be as significant. Now, I know that the sales numbers from Japan are nowhere near the multiple millions of copies sold in the US and Europe, but the fact that it can outsell a game like Ni No Kuni is a bit surprising.
While the US has not received a solid release date for the PS3 version of the game, the “Early 2012” window that has been thrown out may put it right in the release window of many other big titles such as Max Payne 3, Jak and Daxter HD Collection, and Mass Effect 3, but will it be able to separate itself from those titles and still sell well in the US, or will it fall by the wayside to the giants that will be right around the corner?