Japanese Video Game Chart: Black Ops Tops the Chart

Japan has caught a serious case of Western fever, with Call of Duty: Black Ops topping the country’s Video Game Chart (via 4gamer, 15th - 21st November 2010). The unprecedented burst of interest in the war game - Japan has traditionally snubbed Western first person shooters - follows Square Enix’s success in marketing Activision’s hit series to the Asian audience.

1 Call of Duty: Black Ops (Subtitled Version) – Square Enix (PS3) – 128,922 / NEW
2 Super Fossil Fighters – Nintendo (DS) – 42,829 / NEW
3 Pokemon Black/Pokemon White – Pokemon Company (DS) – 39,883
4 Super Mario Collection Special Pack – Nintendo (Wii) – 38,219
5 Tactics Ogre – Square Enix (PSP) – 37,350
6 Winning Eleven 2011 – Konami (PSP) – 35,500 / NEW
8 Call of Duty: Black Ops (Subtitled Version) – Square Enix (360) – 30,279 / NEW
9 Winning Eleven 2011 – Konami (PS3) – 22,383
10 Record of Agarest War 2 – Compile Heart (PS3) – 20,889 / NEW

Last year, Square Enix localised its first Call of Duty game with Modern Warfare 2 - it was met with a good reception for Western games, if not a lukewarm one in general. Interest picked up as the publisher decided to launch two versions - one with English voice acting and Japanese subtitles, and another with Japanese dubbing throughout. There will no doubt be a Dubbed Version of Black Ops around the corner - it’s touted for a December release - so it will be interesting to see how sales fare in the next few months.

The PlayStation 3 was the leading platform for the game, having sold close to 130,000 units. The Xbox 360 version of Black Ops still managed to hit the Top 10, at #8 with over 30,000 units. Other new entries to the chart this week include Nintendo’s Super Fossil Fighters, the PSP version of Konami’s Winning Eleven series and the sequel to anime girl-loving RPG Record of Agarest War.

It’s worth noting that, despite having launched this week to large crowds, Kinect titles failed to make a dent in the Japanese Video Game Chart, unable to even crack the Top 20. Although the peripheral was released a day before the end of the week’s tracking period, none of the launch games sold over the 8,100 mark according to Andriasang.