Poor Debuts for Xbox One X and Sonic Forces in Japan

Normally a week of many new entries in the charts is enough motive for excitement, however, this week’s Japanese sales has a grim shadow all over, as none of the new releases managed to attract the attention from the public. We are talking primarly about Need for Speed Payback, Sonic Forces, and, of course, Microsoft’s Xbox One X.

Need for Speed Payback for PS4 is the highest entry of the week at number 4 with low numbers, although it is well known that the interest of the Japanese public on bluntly Western-looking games like this is limited. And it certainly doesn’t help that the comments around the title have been discouraging. In our own review we said that “Need for Speed Payback is another miss for the franchise.  The racing feels good, the presentation is great, but everything surrounding it is absolutely abhorrent.”

Up next is Sega’s Sonic Forces, the latest main entry of the iconic franchise, that in this case has been poorly received by critics and the public. Barely more than 10,000 copies combined for a franchise that has actually suffered these disappointing debuts for many years now. This way both Need for Speed and Sonic mirror their poor debut in the United Kingdom.

Finally, on the hardware list we have the debut of Microsoft’s newest console, the Xbox One X. Now, it is well known that the Xbox One has been largely ignored by the Japanese public, and sadly this also seems the case for this more powered revision. The console debuts with just 1,344 sales, which is way higher than what the console usually moves on a regular week, but it still far from representing any real competition to the rest of current platforms.

Software List

01. [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey – 73.315 / 652.284
02. [PS4] Call of Duty: World War II – 67.044 / 235.368
03. [NSW] Splatoon 2 – 23.130 / 1.318.138
04. [PS4] Need for Speed Payback – 20.964 / NEW
05. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 14.027 / 802.472
06. [PS4] Assassin’s Creed Origins – 11.051 / 82.742
07. [PS4] ARK: Survival Evolved – 10.253 / 103.800
08. [3DS] Girls Mode 4 – 9.650 / 41.826
09. [PS4] .hack//G.U. Last Recode – 6.659 / 68.475
10. [PS4] Sonic Forces – 5.938 / NEW
11. [PS4] Occultic;Nine – 5.846 / NEW
12. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 5.498 / 634.850
13. [PS4] Gran Turismo Sport – 5.439 / 182.440
14. [NSW] Sonic Forces – 4.686 / NEW
15. [PSV] Occultic;Nine – 4.595 / NEW
16. [PS4] DJMax Respect – 4.376 / NEW
17. [PS4] Taiko Drum Master: Drum Session – 4.002 / 39.925
18. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX – 3.862 / 115.691
19. [3DS] Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux – 3.533 / 74.180
20. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf Amiibo+ – 3.085 / 267.322

Hardware List

01. Nintendo Switch – 79.958
02. PlayStation 4 – 26.058
03. Nintendo 3DS– 19.369
04. PlayStation Vita – 3.210
05. Xbox One (+ Xbox One X) – 1.465
06. PlayStation 3 – 41
07. Wii U – 36