This Week In Sales: Zangeki no Reginleiv Is In For A Dynamic Price Slash

Last week was interesting in Japan, although, not in a positive way. None of the week’s new releases debuted particularly well, Zangeki no Reginleiv barely debuting in the top ten at the #9 position. Zangeki no Reginleiv is Nintendo’s first CERO D game in Japan, and was a relatively low-profile release, considering a rather limited number of copies appear to have been shipped.

Reginleiv debuted with 21,956 units sold. For comparison, Sin & Punishment 2 sold around 10,000 in its opening week and dropped off the charts soon after. The online multiplayer mode and the promise of MotionPlus probably helped give Zangeki no Reginleiv a bit of a heavier push, although, perhaps the gushing blood and flying torsos weren’t for everyone. Still, the fact that the game sold in the same range as Sacred 2 is rather disturbing.

God Eater held firm at the #1 spot for the second week in a row. The top-ten for the week of Feb 8 – 14 is as follows. More tidbits following below it:

MadWorld also saw its Japanese debut last week. It, however, fared far worse than any other notable release and debuted at the #33 position selling somewhere in the range of 3,000 units — around the same as Love Plus, which was probably on more than a few Valentine’s Day shopping lists.

Love Plus’s situation is extremely interesting. For all the media hype and promotion the brand has received, the actual game itself has only sold somewhere in the range of 200,000 units to date. Konami have already announced an updated release, titled Love Plus +, indicating that they intend to take an iterative approach to expanding the franchise.

In my opinion, a development pattern similar to Pokémon — new release followed by updated release, followed by the next game — would make sense, given the effort that would be required for each new game. We’d also like to point out that "love" is about as universal a concept as one could come up with. The possibilities for different games targeted at different age groups and demographics are vast, and we’re confident Konami plan to demonstrate this in the years ahead.