One Piece: Unlimited Series Moves Over 1 Million Copies In Japan

Namco Bandai have shared a trailer for One Piece Unlimited World: RED on the Nintendo 3DS, alongside an announcement that the Unlimited series of One Piece games has sold over 1 million copies in Japan.

The Unlimited games so far are: One Piece: Unlimited Adventure (2007), One Piece Unlimited Cruise: Episode 1 (2008) and One Piece Unlimited Cruise: Episode 2 (2009). Each of those games was released for the Wii. In 2011, Namco Bandai ported the two Unlimited Cruise games to the Nintendo 3DS as a single package.

1 million copies across a three games (and presumably the 3DS port as well) isn’t much of a feat, but considering that the Wii software market was stagnating rapidly by 2009, it is somewhat notable, and presumably entirely thanks to the popularity of One Piece as a brand.

One Piece Unlimited World: RED, however, should fare much better than the Unlimited games before it. It’s a Monster Hunter-esque title being released on a platform with an extremely broad audience, and—more importantly—a healthy software market. It also helps that the game is being released relatively close to the holiday season (November 21st), which is when popular titles tend to see an increase in sales.