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[Game] Japan Watch: Hatsune Miku wows center stage in new Project Diva

Jonathan Toyad

Music rhythm title by Sega dominated software chart week of March 24; hardware saw upward sales spike

Wow. Much kawaii. So green pigtail. Image credit: Sega, Sg Cafe

Ten years ago, one would be crazy to suggest that a digital pop singer could draw up a crowd in a live holographic performance in Asia and star in music rhythm games with elaborate music videos exclusive to said game. Now, it doesn’t really shock anyone that Hatsune Miku, a vocaloid whose playlist and videos are made up by the music-making community in Japan, is considered an iconic music figure in the region.

The latest game to star the digital songstress and her tunes, Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F 2nd, made its top place debut on this week’s Media Create Sales chart update for the week of March 24 to March 30. The PlayStation Vita version sold 98,628 units, while the PlayStation 3 version sold 59,965 units. That’s a total of 158,593 units for the game’s debut week. While not as impressive as the past game’s sales (which amounted to a debut total of 269,821 units last year), it’s still alright and is likely going to get higher with each passing week.

For those who aren’t up to speed with the Project Diva games, think of it as a musical Simon Says game: you see prompts flying around the screen, you hit one of the PlayStation controller face buttons to the beat of the song. These tunes range from slow ballads to hyper BPM J-pop eclectics. Oh, and you get a music video of Hatsune Miku and her vocaloid friends doing things like party on a beach or doing choreographed dance sets.

Otherwise, the rest of the list seems unremarkable. As expected, first-party Nintendo title Mario Party: Island Tour was still in the top ten with 78,098 units sold, while the ghost-themed RPG Yo-kai Watch had 48,345 units sold. The PS3 versions of Samurai Warriors 4 and Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes were still mulling about the top ten, with 46,490 and 38,617 units sold respectively.

Portable hardware sales shot up significantly since the last sales update. The 3DS went from 40,276 to 64,662 units, while the PS Vita rose from 37,128 to 41,867 units. However, the new PlayStation 4 console’s sales number went down from 30,201 to 23,327. There had been more new 3DS and PS Vita software out and still garnering fanfare for the past few weeks, hence the sudden rise.

The top ten software list (Name, Console, Publisher, Sales Number)

1. Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F 2nd (PS Vita, Sega) – 98,628

2. Mario Party: Island Tour (3DS, Nintendo) – 78,098

3. Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F 2nd (PS3, Sega) – 59,965

4. Yo-kai Watch (3DS, Level-5) – 48,345

5. Samurai Warriors 4 (PS3, Koei Tecmo) – 46,490

6. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PS3, Konami) – 38,617

7. New Love Plus+ (3Ds, Konami) – 31,258

8. J-Stars Victory Vs (PS3, Bandai Namco) – 25,300

9. J-Stars Victory Vs (Ps Vita, Bandai Namco) – 24,825

10. Hakuoki SSL: Sweet School Life (PS Vita, Idea Factory) – 21,640

Hardware

3DS – 64,662

PS Vita – 41,867

PS4 – 23,327

PS3 – 17,154

Wii U – 13,026

PSP – 4,206

Xbox 360 – 304

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