A Closer Look At Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f Sales

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f for the PlayStation Vita made its debut in Japan last week, and sold 159,592 copies. That’s a good number by itself, but here’s how it compares to first-week sales of the previous games in the series (all of which were on PSP):

[2010] Hatsune Miku: Project Diva 2nd – 241,467

[2011] Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Extend – 184,673

[2012] Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f – 159,592

[2009] Hatsune Miku: Project Diva – 101,414

With the exception of the original Hatsune Miku: Project Diva, the new game has failed to outdo the opening week numbers of the other Project Diva games. Project Diva f is nowhere near the first-week sales numbers of Project Diva 2nd, and has also sold less at launch than Project Diva Extend, which was considered an updated “best hits” expansion of Project Diva 2nd.

Additionally, thanks to a member of the Project Diva development team who frequently discusses the series via a semi-official Twitter account, we also have some further information.

This Twitter user, Naka no Hito, revealed last night that download sales of Project Diva f on the PlayStation Network are about 10% of retail boxed sales. That would put Project Diva f’s download sales around 16,000 copies.

Naka no Hito also stated: “The sales numbers are out… At this rate, the chances of [Project Diva] f2 are looking tight, ’cause we spent too much on the development costs of f…”

He later added: “Mm, it seems like some people have gotten the wrong idea, but
we’re still doing our best to sell our product! Our target is to be the best-selling game on the Vita in 2012.”

This brings up an interesting question. While I doubt that there won’t be another Project Diva game, development costs for Project Diva f are clearly rather high, and the game is selling less than its PSP predecessors, no doubt due in part to low PlayStation Vita sales. It’s likely that the development team will re-use assets from Project Diva f for future titles, but it does give one some food for thought regarding this particular game’s performance.