| Soundwave said:
Sonic, Rayman are non-factors. So are the Western titles that Nintendo does have. Mario 3D World is ok, but Japan tends to prefer 2D Mario pretty decidely, so I don't see that helping Wii U more than NSMBU did. Wii Fit U and Wii Party U need to still have a market there, but I'm somewhat doubtful on that. DKC is a decent seller, but again DKC generally sells less than 2D Mario, it's basically a "diet" version of 2D Mario as far as sales go there. The Japanese third party support is *horrible*. For people crapping on Western third parties, the Japanese support is far worse. Nothing major from Konami, Square-Enix, Capcom, Bandai-Namco, etc. |
Clearly the Japanese line-up hardly matters, because in about 9 months, with pretty much no noteworthy releases since launch, the console has already sold 1/4 the GameCube's lifetime sales in Japan.
You also aren't giving Mario 3D World enough credit. It's the follow-up to the massively popular 3D Land, so it has that going for it. Bear in mind that 3D Land will probably be Japan's best-selling 3D Mario game by the end of this year, even surpassing Mario 64, probably breaking 2 mil sales in the region. You may argue that 3D Land owes its success in Japan to being a handheld title, but that's only half of the picture, and no guarantee of superiority; New Super Mario Bros. 2, for instance, is tracking well below New Super Mario Bros. Wii sales in Japan, despite the 3DS already being on the verge of surpassing Wii hardware sales. Mario Kart 7 is also tracking below its Wii predecessor in Japan. Under these circumstances, you should not be surprised to learn that Super Mario 3D Land is not selling as quickly as Super Mario Galaxy sold -- but that's not the case. It has already surpassed both Galaxy titles in lifetime sales.
3D Land was more than just a 3D Mario game on a handheld. It represents a rebranding of 3D Mario to more closely resemble 2D Mario. It owes a significant amount of its relative success to this rebranding. 3D World is a continuation of this new 3D Mario style, and is poised to reap the benefits of its predecessor's popularity, especially in Japan.
You neglect to consider The Wind Waker -- unlike in America, in Japan this is the best-selling console Zelda title since Ocarina of Time. It is outsold in the past 15 years only by its direct sequel on DS, Phantom Hourglass.
As far as I'm aware, Konami, Square-Enix, and Capcom don't even have any major titles coming out for the rest of this year. Most of them are scheduled for next year -- or not at all.
Really, the Wii U may not have much in Japan, but it won't take much to beat the GameCube's pitiful performance there.
