Final Fantasy XIII Tops Most Wanted List In Japan

[Sullla]

Ahh, the Famitsu Most Wanted list. Ever the rallying cry of the "hardcore" gamer. It's been proven time and time again that the list bears little resemblance to actual sales data. For example, here's the same list from May 2007:

1. Dragon Quest IX NDS Square Enix
2. Final Fantasy XIII PS3 Square Enix
3. Biohazard 5 PS3 Capcom
4. Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 Konami
5. Monster Hunter 3 PS3 Capcom
6. Zelda no Densetsu: Phantom Hourglass NDS Nintendo
7. Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors Wii Square Enix
8. Super Robot Taisen: Original Generations PS2 Banpresto
9. Everybody’s Golf 5 PS3 Sony
10. Devil May Cry 4 PS3 Capcom
11. Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii Nintendo
12. Lost Odyssey Xbox 360 Microsoft
13. Doubutsu no Mori [Animal Crossing] Wii Nintendo
14. Final Fantasy Versus XIII PS3 Square Enix
15. Super Mario Galaxy Wii Nintendo
16. Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII PSP Square Enix
17. Subarashiki Kono Sekai: It’s a Wonderful World NDS Square Enix
18. Gran Turismo 5 PS3 Sony
19. Trusty Bell: Chopin no Yume Xbox 360 Bandai Namco
20. Final Fantasy II PSP Square Enix
Source: http://www.gwn.com/news/story.php/id/12829/Famitsu_Top_20_Most_Wanted_Titles.html

Only one Wii game in the top 10, and six PS3 games! Surely Nintendo was doomed! Then the games came out, and I think we all saw the effect that Metal Gear Solid, Everybody Golfs, and Devil May Cry had on the Japanese market (short sales bursts that lasted 2-3 weeks). Monster Hunter 3 ended up being canceled for PS3 and switched to Wii. Furthermore, the list entirely missed the actual top-selling games of the past 12 months: Wii Fit, Monster Hunter Portable 2G, and so on.

It's useful to see what the obsessive gamers in Japan are interested in, and nothing more than that.