Oh yeah, brand maths, the number one reason for high sales.

SEGA have struggled to make an impact on the HD market thus far, the games they've put out just haven't been good enough / had that widespread appeal that Capcom created with Lost Planet / Dead Rising or the other Japanese publishers already had - Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil etc.

They've seen their weakness and I think have a good strategy to try get a stronger base on those consoles, just they've not had the luck I guess. Bayonetta couldn't entice western gamers albeit it holds up decent figures - it's definitely the right direction for them to go in though. With AvP, Alpha Protocol, Vanquish etc set for this year I think SEGA are headed in the right direction in terms of support for that console.

They obviously need to keep up the Wii support too, albeit outside of Sonic they've not had anything sell incredibly well, and that's been hit or miss at times. I'm not sure what else SEGA can really do on the Wii though that seems logical, except maybe a New Super Mario bros Sonic type 2d platformer - would seem pretty derivative though and would kind of conflict with Sonic 4.

But yeah, seems like SEGA have reacted to the market change and are starting to turn a poor few years around, while Namco just.... keep making the same mistakes.

Sega's had smaller hits on Wii too, like Ghost Squad or Monkey Ball. At the least they've not had any huge flops like VF5 or Sega Rally Revo on HD...

I'd really like to know the state of their downloadables games sales though. They're no doubt banking on Virtual Console, and they've had a few notable hits on XBLA (Rez HD, VOOT). I wish we could get some hard (digital) numbers though...

That would be 1.1 million Japan-only, though. That just doesn't sound right.

It'd probably include the first western shipments too, even though the western street date came a few days after the quarter closed.

Still, it's massively overshipped.  Glad I waited, it'll probably be $20 in another month. <3

They've already sold over 700k units of bayonetta on both consoles. That leaves roughly 400k in the retail channel, divided by region thats arnd 100k per region(NA/EUR/JAP/OTHER). And the title continues to sell around 20-30k weekly on both the consoles.
So Its not bad at all. Its not a HUGE hit. But I'd call it a success.
And its defntly shd get a sequel!

It's not moving anything in Japan at this point, and hasn't been for a little while.  The ~400k on shelves is likely for the west alone, and likely concentrated in the major markets.  US probably accounts for 50% or more it to be honest.  It's not a bomb or anything, but it has been really overshipped for the period... I mean this 1.1 figure comes from before western streetdate even.  If it still has ~400k copies on shelves a month later, that's not really a GOOD thing...

Joystiq is reporting 1.1 mill SOLD for Bayonetta is Q3 ending 12/31, and thus would be Japan Only.  So, either SEGA is lying or VGChartz estimates of around 250,000 combined (PS3 & 360) sales for Japan are off.  Who is right here, well being in the financial sector as a career and knowing laws that govern reporting, I'm siding with SEGA and saying VGChartz is WAYYYYYY off on its Bayonetta sales estimates.  Good Day. 

Or just maybe you don't understand the concept of shipped vs. sold and the incompentant 'video game journalists' who also lack the knowledge.

EDIT: Sorry if that comes across mean, but there is an easy explanation and reasoning between the numbers publishers reveal, and the numbers tracking services reveal.

Joystiq is wrong then lol.