There seems to be quite a bit of controversy over the sales of Mistwaker's first Wii RPG, The Last Story.  It bowed in to a solid 113k debut on opening week, but its second week numbers fell drastically, taking in only about 19k for a lifetime total (so far) of 133k.  The LTD (so far) is not a bad number by any means, but it IS unfortunate that the second week sales were disappointing.

However, there is an argument that I can make in TLS' favor.  Mistwaker's previous console RPGs, Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey both had second weeks around the 10k range, totalling in at about 18k and 12k, respectively.  Drastic as TLS' second week sales are, they're still a bit higher than that, so with any luck it still may go on to be Mistwaker's best selling IP in Japan.  Of course, that is assuming if it can provide enough staying power, but given how new IPs perform in Japan these days, particularly new ones for the Wii, it is an iffy prospect at best.  (OTOH, it IS ahead of Xenoblade's second week by far--while that title didn't drop so drastically, it only made about 105k for its LTD.  TLS is above that.)

But a lot of people are panicking and thinking that this guarantees that 1) this is the end of Sakaguchi's career, and 2) Nintendo will never bring this to the United States.  I personally think jumping to those two conclusions, at this point, are pointless.  Sakaguchi may take a break from videogame designing depending on how he feels about the game's performance, but it doesn't mean he won't ever do another game again.  Secondly, while we don't know if Nintendo's still planning on bringing TLS to the United States, it would arguably be a mistake to just leave it as a Japan-only title.  This is a game that many Western fans have been awaiting, and MW titles, from what I've seen, have had respectively higher numbers overseas than in Japan.  With any luck we could STILL see The Last Story come stateside; it's not like this is a bomb in the style of Disaster:  Day of Crisis, Another Code R, or other new IP titles that have sold even less than this or XB.

Then there's evidence that Nintendo may be bringing localized versions of games previously released in Japan as well as Iwata's own Q&A with Sakaguchi and Takahashi, respectively.  Although vague, he seemed to imply that both XB AND TLS will see the light of day stateside, based on the question he had by RPG's being less successful outside of Japan.

I know this may be a vain attempt to create damage control, but I really don't want to give up on this title.  Yes, I agree its second week sales are weaker than its opening week, but let's not write it off just yet.

I'm not going to sugar coat this. I think the sales suck and could have been much better. I'm shocked they weren't given how much Nintendo marketed it.

Sakaguchi, we need you back at Sony's fort.

Maybe TLS would end around 200K and while its possible that the performance on PS3 could have been better,  I think taht it wouldn't have sold amazing, maybe something like Resonance of Fate, and more expensive to make.

I personally think Sakaguchi should make a NGP to PS3 game, an RPG from Sakaguchi on NGP will sell a butloads in Japan, and PS3 game with marketing might do decent everywhere else in the world. The plus side is he only has to make one copy of the game.

Geez I forgot to actually comment on the sales... silly me.  They're "alright" I thought for sure it'd have better legs since they sold out of copies the first week, but I guess that's not the case.  As an aside;  I wonder where gaming would have been in Japan if the Wii or PS3 got proper support from third parties early in their life spans instead of half way through their life?

I hope it comes to usa

In the end I think Nintendo is really to blame here. For so long they saw that third parties had refused (this is what happen and they admit as much from the very start) to release traditional games  on the Wii. I don't mean casual vs hardcore I mean simple traditional games in traditional genres. Fighters, RPGs, third person shooters, etc. Instead of a fighting game Nacmo gives Soul Caliber Legends. Instead of a proper Resident Evil after releasing RE4 Capcom gives the Wii rail shooters. Etc. Only Nintendo addressed things and even then it wasn't in full force until last year. As a result I think people just tuned out non-Nintendo games and the Wii as a source of traditional games. There are good ones now but they certainly don't get the attention they deserve. I can't think of any other reason why they aren't getting bought other then that. People just don't care anymore because that there was nothing to care about before. Third parties refused and Nintendo wait to long to do anything to fill the void. Voids they knew that had to be filled after what happen with the GameCube when companies refused to release games on it.

I actually fear for the next Nintendo console if Nintendo doesn't come up with a solid release offering. The Nintendo 3DS has that now with Super Street Fighter 4, Ridge Racer, Madden (ugh), Splinter Cell, etc. Traditional games not off the wall "3DS games" the developers tried to make games that fit the "Wii experience". No weird spin offs no one was asking for. Do that and people walk and I think that's what happen with the Wii and why The Last Story's sales (same for Xenoblade's) are the way they are in Japan. The same will happen in the US I'm afraid. The damage is done and it can't be undone.

The conspiracy nut in me thinks at times this was done on purpose by 3rd parties. They knew what they were doing when it came to the Wii. They wanted software interest to die. Why else would they release crap after crap at the risk of going out of business of their HD game flopped in sales. There was a bigger battle to win.

they should have brought this game to 3ds as a launch title. Would have sold one to one with the console in japan.

I really want to se what mistwalker can do with the PS3. I hope Sony buys them

That's another thing to factor. Hand helds are king in Japan. Have been for some time now so any console release isn't going to sell as big as it would have years ago. I'm curious as to how well Dragon Quest X is going to do if it's on the Wii instead of the DS or even 3DS.