hologames

Nintendo mascot’s extraterrestrial exploits score big again; Ghost Trick, Xenoblade, PS3 Grand Theft Auto Episodes also crack top 5 as DSi XL easily tops hardware chart.

While the Japanese sales charts often highlight games and series that are cherished overseas but largely overlooked in the West, they can also underscore just how broad the appeal for other franchises can be. For example, the popularity of Nintendo’s Mario is international, and in the case of his latest adventure, intergalactic.

When Mario is really ticked off, he brings out the stardust.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 topped Media Create’s Japanese sales charts again for June 14-20, its fourth week of release. While the 52,978 copies it sold over that stretch were a far cry from the nearly 340,000 sold in its debut week, the game still topped the week’s charts handily. Super Mario Galaxy 2 more than doubled the sales total of the second-best-selling game, Capcom’s supernatural DS adventure game, Ghost Trick.

Mario wasn’t the only cross-cultural success of the week. At fifth place, Take-Two Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City was the week’s best-selling game for a non-Nintendo system. The compilation of formerly Xbox 360-exclusive add-ons for the open-world crime game sold 20,682 copies, just shy of the 20,810 sales posted by Nintendo’s Wii role-playing game Xenoblade.

Nintendo was also successful on the hardware front, with the DSi LL (known as the DSi XL internationally) handily besting all systems with 30,183 sold for the week. The PSP was a distant second with 20,929 sold, narrowly edging out a pack of contenders in the Wii, DSi, and PlayStation 3. Sony’s other handheld, the PSP Go, continued to flounder, finishing last among all hardware platforms with just 837 units sold.

JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF JUNE 14-20, 2010
Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1. Super Mario Galaxy 2 / Nintendo / Wii / 52,978
2. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective / Capcom / DS / 23,977
3. Eigokoro Kyoushitsu DS / Nintendo / DS / 20,949
4. Xenoblade / Nintendo / Wii / 20,810
5. Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City / Take-Two / PS3 / 20,682
6. Tamagotchi no Pichi Pichi Omisecchi / Namco Bandai / DS / 17,401
7. World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010: Aoki Samurai no Chousen / Konami / PS3 / 16,055
8. Tomodachi Collection / Nintendo / DS / 13,953
9. World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010: Aoki Samurai no Chousen / Konami / PSP / 13,250
10. Hakuouki: Junsouroku / Idea Factory / PS3 / 13,076

Hardware:
DSi LL – 30,183
PSP – 20,929
Wii – 19,045
DSi – 18,214
PS3 – 17,175
DS Lite – 5,126
Xbox 360 – 2,060
PS2 – 1,568

PSP Go – 837

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Take-Two exceeds second-quarter guidance as revenues grow 54% to $268 million, profit nearly $17 million; fiscal-year guidance raised; Max Payne 3 delayed.

Rockstar Games scored substantial critical success with its latest open-world epic, Red Dead Redemption, which launched for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 last month. Now, the game can make claim to commercial success as well, as Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive announced today as part of its strong second-quarter earnings report that the game has now sold more than 5 million units and is set to turn a profit in its first quarter on sale.

Red Dead Redemption made off with 5 million units sold.

However, the game’s quintuple-platinum milestone came outside the publisher’s February-April quarter; thus, its sales results weren’t factored into Take-Two’s earning report. Still, the publisher had a hot quarter. During the period, sales rose to $268 million, a 54 percent increase over the $174.3 million Take-Two brought in during the same period a year ago. Take-Two also reversed last year’s $10.4 million loss, posting a $16.9 million profit during the quarter.

Top new releases for the publisher during the period included BioShock 2, Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City on the PlayStation 3 and PC, and Major League Baseball 2K10. As part of a post-earnings conference call, president and CEO Ben Feder also noted that GTA: Episodes from Liberty City has been an “extremely profitable” foray into episodic content.

The publisher also saw continued strong sales from NBA 2K10, which launched in October 2009, and Rockstar’s mega blockbuster Grand Theft Auto IV. NBA 2K10 has now shipped 3 million units. As for GTAIV, Take-Two said the open-world gangster adventure has now sold more than 17 million units on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC since its record-setting April 2009 launch.

Having beaten expectations during its first, and now second, fiscal quarters, the publisher also said today that it would be raising its full-year guidance. Take-Two now expects to bring in $880 million to $980 million for its fiscal year ending October 31, 2010.

That upward revision comes despite a high-profile delay. The publisher said today that it would be once again delaying Rockstar Vancouver’s Max Payne 3, which had previously been expected to ship later this year. Take-Two now expects the game to launch outside of its in-progress fiscal year.

In January, online reports indicated that Max Payne 3 development had been plagued by direction changes and that Rockstar Vancouver was suffering through hostile working conditions. When pressed by an analyst for confirmation that the game would be released in Take-Two’s upcoming fiscal year (which runs November 1, 2010 to October 31, 2011), an executive only said a release date had not been announced for the title.

However, the publisher did reaffirm the releases of L.A. Noire, Mafia II, and Sid Meier’s Civilization V, all of which are due during the August-October quarter.

Feder also briefly addressed Take-Two’s plans for next week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo. Notably, the executive said that Rockstar will not be showing any titles at this year’s E3. However, numerous titles from its 2K Play label, including 2K Marin’s recently announced X-COM reimagining, will be on hand in some form.

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