It’s amazing what a sexy blonde with spread legs can make you do. For over 163,000 Japanese gamers this past week it made them each drop around 6,500 yen for a copy of Atlus’ first HD game, Catherine. It was the top selling game this week, with the PS3 version taking the top honors with 141,826 copies sold. The Xbox 360 version chipped in as best as it could with almost 22,000 copies sold. Catherine absolutely demolished the competition this past week, with only Marvel vs. Capcom 3 coming in a distant second.
I know what you’re thinking: this is a green light for localization. Not so fast, partner. Yes, sex sells, but there’s no way that Atlus USA is going to be able to market Catherine in the USA like they’ve done here. Another issue is that Atlus USA’s userbase is made up of JRPG fans. Catherine is very far removed from that territory. As an example, I’ve been playing Catherine. I don’t love it. Hopefully I can pull together a preview for you next week, but know that I’m much more into Valkyria Chronicles 3 on the PSP. I think I woke/scared my neighbors last night screaming at that game.
Hit the jump for the full list of top selling games in Japan, courtesy of Andriasang.
Catherine (Atlus, PS3, 2/17): 141,826
Marvel vs Capcom 3 (Capcom, PS3, 2/17): 67,187
Samurai Warriors 3Z (Tecmo Koei, PS3, 2/10): 58,089 (266,637)
Monster Hunter Freedom 3 (Capcom, PSP, 12/1/2010): 39,727 (4,289,349)
Tales of the World Radiant Mythology 3 (Namco Bandai, PSP, 2/10): 26,504 (248,572)
Two Worlds 2 (Ubisoft, PS3, 2/17): 24,324
Catherine (Atlus, X360, 2/17): 21,936
Marvel vs Capcom 3 (Capcom, X360, 2/17): 13,779
Haku Ouki Zuisouroku DS (Idea Factory, DS, 2/17): 13,373
Ace Attorney Investigations 2 (Capcom, DS, 2/3): 13,186
Donkey Kong Returns (Nintendo, Wii, 12/9/2010): 10,824 (817,181)
Samura Warriors 3 Xtreme Warriors (Tecmo Koei, Wii, 12/10): 9,638 (32,236)
Pokemon Black & White (Pokemon, DS, 9/18/2010): 9,502 (5,081,369)
DJ Max Portable 3 (CyberFront, PSP, 2/1): 8,990
Two Worlds 2 (Ubisoft, X360, 2/17): 8,225
Kenka Bancho 5 (Spike, PSP, 1/27): 8,193 (109,543)
Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare (Take-2, PS3, 2/10): 7,861 (29,580)
Wii Party (Nintendo, Wii, 7/8/2010): 7,472 (1,794,813)
Winning Eleven 2011 (Konami, PSP, 11/18/2010): 6,312 (176,788)
Ni no Kuni (Level-5, DS, 12/9/2010): 6,174 (481,003)
