First week sales in Japan are shockingly low

Square Enix expressed disappointment a couple months ago with the performance of Dragon Quest X on Wii, despite the MMO outpacing the sales and subscription retention of Final Fantasy XI, the most profitable FF ever. With the release of the Wii U port around the corner, I was sure that those numbers would improve and turn Square Enix's frown around.

The game released last week, at its opening sales were... not good. Only 33,302 units sold, which puts it right under the Vita port of Muramasa: The Demon Blade. I wasn't expecting super huge numbers, considering it's a port and all, but a Dragon Quest game doing that poorly!? That is really disappointing.

Of course, the cynics will say it's because no one wanted a Dragon Quest MMO -- the hundreds of thousands of sales on Wii would say otherwise -- but I insist that it's because of the Wii U's continued software struggles. The only other Wii U release that week was Game & Wario, the first first-party title for the platform since Nintendo Land and New Super Mario Bros. U, and it only hit 22,491. Something needs to be done about this situation, but what?

「フェイト/エクストラ CCC」7万2000本。PS Vita版「朧村正」やWii U版「ドラクエX」なども登場の「週間販売ランキング＋」 [4Gamer via NeoGAF]