San Andreas Tops the Chart... in Japan
Who said Japanese gamers don't like Western games?
Conventional wisdom goes that Japanese gamers know what they like and what they like usually looks more like an RPG than an urban gunfest. This week, at least, conventional wisdom couldn't be more wrong.
More than two years after it arrived to dominate the lives of PlayStation 2 (and eventually Xbox and PC) owners in the West, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has landed a No. 1 finish on the weekly Japanese sales chart.
Rockstar's controversial action game sold nearly 230,000 copies in its first week on sale, easily beating Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker and a slew of DS and Wii games in the Top 10. And it did this despite costing more than 50 per cent more than most of the other games on the list.
This is all very good news for Capcom, which has been dutifully taking care of publishing the series since it was resurrected with Grand Theft Auto III.
But don't think this breaks the divide between Japanese and Western tastes. During the week ending 28 January, the only other Western-developed game was THQ's WWE SmackDown Vs Raw 2007, which sidled onto the full chart at No. 50.
Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo
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