For those of you who haven't heard, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is...less satisfying than we all hoped, as you might notice from our review of the game. The most interesting part of the game had nothing to do with the game itself, rather, it was that the disc the game was on contained screenshots of a cancelled Star Wars: Battlefront game. Critics on both sides of the Atlantic pretty much agree with this point, attributing varying degrees of horribleness to Raccoon City itself, but it seems Japan has decided that they don’t care what we have to say.
After releasing in Japan just last week, Raccoon City topped the software sales charts with 252,525 copies sold on the PS3 alone. It also sold 16,285 copies on the Xbox 360, earning it a respectable eigth place on the chart representing sales between just April 23 and 29. Japan has always been emulated for marching to the beat of its own drum, and often emulated for that same against-the-grain creativity, but I suspect this latest move will only leave spectators scratching their heads.
Another oddity showed up in the numbers regarding hardware sales on the island nation. The PS Vita, whose sales numbers have been gradually slipping since its release earlier this year, saw a spike in sales. Sony’s latest offering to the mobile gaming world saw a slight resurgence in sales with 12,299 units sold. The Land Of The Rising Sun pitched another curve ball with that news, however, buying up 22,457 PSPs. It’s easy to call either side good news for Sony, but this also adds to the questions being raised on the future of the Vita, despite its promising release.
Top Japan game sales of April 23-29
Software Rank/Title/Publisher/Platform/Unit sales 1. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City/Capcom/PS3/252,525 2. Mario Party 9/Nintendo/Wii/152,883 3. Fire Emblem: Kakusei/Nintendo/3DS/60,313 4. Ciel Nosurge: Ushinawareta Hoshi e Sasagu Uta/Gust/PS Vita/33,324 5. Conception: Please Have My Children!/Spike Chunsoft/PSP/29,846 6. Steins;Gate: Hiyoku Renri no Darling/5pb/PSP/24,849 7. Idolmaster Anime & G4U! Pack Vol. 7/Namco Bandai/PS3/17,314 8. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City/Capcom/Xbox 360/16,285 9. Super Mario 3D Land/Nintendo/3DS/15,696 10. Dynasty Warriors VS/Tecmo Koei/3DS/15,578
