Wii Fit misses top spot in Japanese market, settles for second

Nintendo’s game plan always has seemed to try and incorporate as many people as it could in its gaming family with the DS and especially with the Wii.

Wii Sports set the bar for casual gaming goodness as a pack-in with the Wii system, supplemented by Wii Play and its Wii remote bundle. Wii Fit sought to emulate this success with Nintendo’s new balance board released in Japan on December 1, 2007. It comes as no surprise that it was met with immediate success.

What does come as a surprise is the fact that it missed the top spot of the sales charts, losing to Professor Layton and the Devil’s Box, an adventure puzzle game developed by Level-5. According to the Japanese software charts listed on GameIndustry.biz, Wii Fit sold approximately 250,000 units during the week while Devil’s Box pulled by with 300,000 units, a significant 50,000 unit lead.

The list also shows that Assassin’s Creed also made its debut at the #8 spot for the Xbox 360, a very surprising feat considering the poor sales of the system in Japan. The Dragon Quest IV DS remake also remains high on the list during its second week, which is to be expected considering its immense popularity in Japan. Hopefully the success of the remake will encourage Square Enix to send it over to western shores. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker is good, but I think Pokémon Diamond & Pearl already gave my DS a big enough dose of “catching and battling” this year.

Read [ GameIndustryBiz ] Via [ 1UP ]